A Builder Of American

Union Colonel Charles Ellet Jr died June 21^st 1862 from a mortal wound he received at the Battle of Memphis 15 days earlier.

Charles Ellet Jr was born January 1^st 1810 in William Penn Manor, Buck, Pennsylvania.  He studied civil engineering in Paris, France at the Ecole Polytechnique.  He designed the first wire cable suspension bridge built in the United States in 1842.  It spanned the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, Pennsylvania, and was 358 feet long.  There were other bridges to follow including the 770 foot long footbridge at Niagara Falls.  Ellet also engineered canals and railroads in Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as building flood control dams on local rivers.  In 1850 he was directed by the United States Secretary of War Charles M. Conrad to survey the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and make plans to improve navigation.  Ellet wrote a pamphlet in 1855 called “Coast and Harbor Defenses, or the Substitution of Steam Battering Rams for Ships of War”.

Union Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton had Ellet appointed Colonel of Engineers in March 1861, and set him creating the Union Ram Fleet.  He had nine steam ships converted to vessels.  These ships were designated the Mississippi Ram Fleet.  While he was on board the USS Queen of the West, Ellet was mortally wounded, being shot in the knee during the Battle of Memphis on June 6^th 1862.  He died fifteen days later June 21^st 1862 at Cairo, Illinois.  He is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A Family Afair

Union Colonel Charles Rivers Ellet who commanded the USS Queen of the West, died October 29^th 1863.

Charles Rivers Ellet was born June 1^st 1843 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the son of Charles and Elvira Augusta (Daniel) Ellet.  He was studying medicine at Georgetown University when the war started.

Ellet first served the Union as an Assistant Army Surgeon.  After his father started the Union Ram Fleet he got a transfer in the spring of 1862 to serve with his father.  Ellet received a promotion to Colonel on November 5^th 1862 and the command of the USS Queen of the West.  He had her on the Mississippi below Vicksburg in February 1863, and captured several Confederate riverboats on the Red River.  Ellet and the Queen came under heavy fire at Fort DeRussy and the ship was run aground.  Ellet’s next command was the ram the USS Switzerland, which was steamed, passed Vicksburg in March 1863.  He became the second in command of the Mississippi Marine Brigade and was with them when they fought on March 22^nd 1863 in the Battle of Miliken’s Bend.

Ellet became ill with typhoid and died at Bunker Hill, Illinois October 29^th 1863.  He is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A Union Queen

The USS Queen of the West was run aground February 14^th 1863 in the Red River.

The USS Queen of the West, a ram was commanded by Colonel Charles River Ellet.  She was part of the Union flotilla that won control of the Mississippi River in 1862 as far south as Vicksburg, Mississippi.  She closed out 1862 clearing the Yazoo River of Confederate torpedoes.

While ramming the CSS City of Vicksburg on February 2^nd 1863, the USS Queen of the West was forced down stream while her fought fires in her bow and near her starboard wheel.  On the 12^th the Queen started down the Red River.  Near the Atchafalaya River she landed a party that destroyed some Confederate wagons.  They were fired on from the shore and the Queen’s senior officer was wounded.  The USS Queen of the West was about 15 miles from the mouth Black River when she came under heavy fire from batteries of Fort DeRussy.  The Queen was run aground and pounded by Confederate shells until Ellet had to order her abandoned.  Ellet didn’t have the Queen burnt, because the Captain; who had been wounded couldn’t be moved.  Ellet’s report of the grounding blamed a replacement pilot for purposely running the Queen aground.

The Queen was used by the Confederate navy until April 11^th 1863, when a shell set her afire.