By J.
T. Headley
Comprising the early life and
public services of the prominent naval commanders who, with Grant and Sherman
and their generals, brought to a triumphant close the great rebellion of
1861-1865. (First edition 1867)
(Return to table of contents of this book)
CHAPTER
X
COLONEL
CHARLES ELLET
AMERICAN
INGENUITY—ELLET’S NATIVITY—EARLY EDUCATION—BECOMES SURVEYOR—FINISHES
HIS EDUCATION IN PARIS—BECOMES ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF ON THE JAMES RIVER AND
KANAWHA CANAL—PUBLISHES A WORK ON THE LAWS OF TRADE—PROPOSES TO BUILD A WIRE
BRIDGE ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI—BUILDS THE FIRST SUSPENSION BRIDGE IN
AMERICA—PLANS OTHERS—VISITS EUROPE—PLANS IMPROVEMENTS OF NAVIGATION IN THE
OHIO RIVER—SENT BY THE WAR DEPARTMENT TO SURVEY THE LOWER
MISSISSIPPI—PUBLISHES A WORK ON THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS—PLANS THERE
THE RAM—SUBMITS HIS INVENTION TO THE RUSSIAN EMPEROR—ALSO TO OUR NAVY
DEPARTMENT—PUBLISHES A PAMPHLET ON HIS PROJECTS—URGES HIS INVENTION ON
GOVERNMENT AT THE BREAKING OUT OF THE REBELLION—ATTACKS MCCLELLAN—SENT WEST
TO BUILD RAMS—HIS DIFFICULTIES—HIS FIRST EXPERIMENT AT MEMPHIS—IS
WOUNDED—HIS SICKNESS AND DEATH—CHARLES RIVERS ELLET—HIS BIRTH AND EARLY
EDUCATION—JOINS THE RAM FLEET—SUCCEEDS HIS FATHER—HIS
BRAVERY—COMPLIMENTED BY PORTER—ATTACKS THE CITY OF VICKSBURG—DESTROYS
REBEL TRANSPORTS—GETS AGROUND, AND LOSES HIS VESSEL—COMMANDS THE
SWITZERLAND—RUNS THE VICKSBURG BATTERIES—AFTER SERVICES—HIS SICKNESS AND
EARLY DEATH.
AMERICAN ingenuity is
proverbial; and, though it is often wasted on worthless objects and
impracticable schemes, yet, in great exigencies, it is sure to originate
something to meet them. And often what in ordinary times seems useless or
impracticable, then becomes of immense value. The inventor may find no
encouragement from his countrymen, and the Government decline to furnish means
to test his proposed experiments, so that he frequently dies with but seeing his
plans tried—comforted only by the belief that the time will arrive when they
will be adopted with gladness.
Of these inventors, Charles
Ellet was one who bid fair to die without seeing his favorite scheme carried
out. The war however into which we were precipitated, gave to his applications a
force that in times of peace they did not possess, and he saw the
"Ram" finally adopted as a war vessel by his Government.
Charles Ellet was born at
Perry Manor, on the Delaware, about twenty-five miles above Philadelphia. His
boyhood was passed on his father's farm, but at sixteen he was sent to Bristol
school, where he at once developed his love for mathematics, and indicated
clearly his future profession. At eighteen, he became assistant surveyor of
Maryland. Here he husbanded his earnings so that he might finish his education
in Europe, and at twenty-one he went to Paris, where he remained for two years.
Returning to Maryland he was appointed assistant engineer on the James River and
Kanawha Canal, which was then being built, and eventually became
engineer-in-chief. He proposed to
build a wire suspension bridge across the Potomac, but his proposition was
declined.
Being now fairly launched in
his profession, he married the daughter of Judge Daniel, of Lynchburg, Virginia.
In 1837, he published a book
on "The Laws of Trade in Reference to Works of Internal Improvement,"
which showed great study of the various methods of inland communication. In
1840, he made to the authorities of St. Louis the bold proposition to build a
wire bridge across the Mississippi, at that point, but it was rejected. The next
year, however, he constructed the wire suspension bridge across the Schuylkill,
at Fairmount, the first erected in America. He was now extensively employed and
consulted on the great public works going on throughout the country. In 1847, he
began the suspension bridge at Wheeling, for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
and also threw a temporary bridge over the Niagara River, just below the Falls.
In the intervals of his labors he visited Europe several times, to enlarge his
experience, and was received there as a distinguished man in his profession. In
1846 and 1847 he was president of the Schuylkill Navigation Company. In 1848 and
1849 he devoted himself a part of the time to making observations and
calculations on the Ohio River, for the purpose of devising some method of
improving its navigation. Though his plan was not adopted, the results of his
labors were published in the Transactions of the Smithsonian Institute.
Soon after, though not
belonging to the army, he was selected by the War Department to survey the Lower
Mississippi, in consequence of complaints being made to Congress, that the
spring floods of the river were injuring the State, and destroying a vast amount
of property. He performed the work assigned him with great ability, and
published his report, together with the observations he had made on the Ohio, in
a book form, entitled, "Ellet on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers."
This is not the place to go into the details of his plan, which was on a
gigantic scale, for the improvement of those rivers. By many it was thought
chimerical, though he fully believed it would eventually be carried out.
In 1854, Mr. Ellet was in
Lausanne, and there being much discussion at the time respecting the siege of
Sebastopol, and the blockade of the harbor by British vessels, his scheming mind
was directed to war vessels, and then and there was born in his brain the new
and famous ram, which hereafter is to bear such an important part in river and
harbor defence. He submitted his plan to the Russian Emperor, declaring that
with such vessels the Russians might sink the fleet of the allies. It was well
received, though never acted on. The next spring he submitted it to John T.
Mason, then our Minister at Paris. Ellet forwarded it to the Navy Department,
but he received no encouragement, and in 1855 published his plan, together with
the correspondence with the Government, in a pamphlet form.
The grand idea on which his
invention was based, is thus given in the preface of this book: "People are
accustomed to regard the art of naval warfare as the art of maneuvering cannon,
and throwing shot and shell. I wish them to reflect upon the power of a moving
steamboat driven against the enemy, who has no means of resistance but his
batteries, and to decide which is the more certain warfare." Again he says:
"My plan is simply to convert the steamer into a battering-ram, and enable
her to fight, not with her guns, but with her momentum." He proposed to
strengthen it, so that it "could run head into the enemy, or burst in his
ribs, or drive a hole into his hull below the water line."
"This," he said, "would make the combat a short one; for,"
he added, "a hole only two feet square, four feet under water, will sink an
ordinary frigate in sixteen minutes. The pamphlet goes into all the details of
his plan, shows how vessels could be converted into rams, and says: "I hold
myself ready to carry it out, whenever the day arrives that the United States is
about to become engaged in a naval contest."
To Ellet’s proposition, Mr.
Welch, then acting Secretary of the Navy, said, that " the suggestion to
convert steamers into battering-rams, and by the momentum make them a means of
sinking an enemy’s ships, was proposed as long ago as 1832, and has been
renewed many times since by various officers of the Navy." He added that no
practical test had been undertaken, but acknowledged that, "with the
necessary speed, strength, and weight, a large steamer on the plan proposed
would introduce an entire change in naval warfare." Ellet subsequently
urged his plan afresh, but Mr. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, said that the
Department had no power to build vessels for such experiments, except by special
vote of Congress. Mr. Ellet did not go on mere theory—he cited numerous cases
of accidental collision at sea-some where merely a sailing vessel had sunk large
ships, to show what deadly work might be done with a vessel built on purpose to
run down an antagonist. He cannot claim originality for his invention, for it
had been discussed both here and abroad for years; but it differed from all
others in that he did not believe as they did, that great weight was necessary
in order to make a ram efficient; he insisted that the momentum required could
be obtained by speed, and that river steamers, steam-tugs, and even ferryboats
might easily be converted into formidable engines of destruction, and
sufficiently strong to sink the heaviest vessels of war that England might send
against us.
He was living at Washington at
the time of the breaking out of the rebellion, devoting much time to the
perfecting of his plans, and urging their adoption. The commencement of war, of
course, increased his desire to have them tested, and he vehemently pressed on
the Government and Congress the importance of putting them into practical
operation. When he learned that the rebels along the coast and on the
Mississippi were turning steamers into iron-clad rams, his excitement over the
inaction of our Government made his friends almost dread his presence, for his
importunity knew no bounds. He printed a memorial to Congress, and laid it on
the tables of the members. In it he stated what the rebels were doing, while the
Navy Department had not taken the first step to meet this new and threatening
evil. In speaking of the Merrimac,
then in course of construction, he uses the following remarkable words: "If
the Merrimac is permitted to escape
from the Elizabeth River, she will be almost certain to commit great
depredations on our armed or unarmed vessels in Hampton Roads, and may be even
expected to pass out under the guns of Fortress Monroe and prey upon our
commerce in Chesapeake Bay. Indeed, if the alterations have been skillfully
made, and she succeeds in getting to sea, she will not only be a terrible
scourge to our commerce, but also may prove to be a most dangerous visitor to
our squadron off the harbors of our southern coast."
Mr. Ellet’s active mind, not
content with its legitimate work, also undertook to direct the war, and he
formed a plan -for cutting off the rebel army at Manassas, and submitted it to
McClellan for adoption. The latter treating it as he did numerous similar plans
which he received, Ellet was very indignant, and wrote two pamphlets against
him, in which he spoke in harsh and severe terms of the general-in-chief.
The sinking of the Cumberland
and Congress by the Merrimac,
finally woke up the Government to the importance of Mr. Ellet’s project and
propositions, respecting the building of iron-clad rams. Still, the Navy
Department had its hands full, and was spending the appropriation made by
Congress for the increase of the Navy, in the building and purchasing of vessels
of a different kind. But when Foote reported from Island No. 10 that the rebels
had several gunboats on the Mississippi that could be used as rams, the
Secretary of War took the responsibility of commissioning Ellet as Colonel of
Engineers, and sending him west to buy and convert into rams such vessels as he
could find there fit for his purpose. He set out in the latter part of March,
and at Pittsburg purchased five heavy tow-boats, and at Cincinnati four
side-wheel steamers. The bows of these he strengthened with heavy timbers, and
sheathed with iron bars, and built strong bulkheads of oak around the machinery
and boilers. The pilot-houses of each were also plated sufficiently thick to
protect the pilots from musketry. But though he was able to get his boats in a
proper condition, he found it very difficult to obtain crews and officers for
them. Neither engineers nor pilots liked to serve on such kind of craft,
destined for such new and hazardous work. He finally obtained permission to
recruit from the army, and, his brother Alfred being a captain of volunteers, he
sent for him. The latter came, bringing his own and another company with him.
Ellet’s energy and perseverance obtained also pilots and engineers, and he was
at last in a condition to test his theory practically.
In the mean time, before he
had brought down his rams to join the fleet, commanded by Davis before Fort
Pillow, the rebel flotilla attacked our gunboats, and seriously damaged the Cincinnati
and Mound City with their rams. What further mischief might be done no
one could foretell; and Ellet hastened forward some of his vessels, under the
charge of his brother Alfred, and a few days after followed himself with the
rest of them. The rebel fleet lay at this time below the fort, and under easy
range of its fire, so that Davis could not attack it without at the same time
encountering the batteries on shore. Ellet, on his arrival, asked Davis to give
him the aid of a couple of gunboats, and he would steam past the fort, and
attack the whole rebel flotilla of the enemy. This was a bold proposition, for
at this time he had nota single cannon on board of his rams. The fighting force
consisted of twenty-three sharpshooters, who were to fire through loopholes.
Soon after, the rebels
evacuated Fort Pillow and retired to Memphis, followed by their fleet. Davis now
advanced with his gunboats, and when near Memphis was attacked by the latter.
Ellet had been detained up the river, but at this time was coming down under a
full head of steam, with his ram fleet, each one of which was painted black, to
make it look as formidable as possible. The Queen of the West was his flagship, and, standing on her deck as the
heavy cannonading from below broke on his ear, he stretched out his arm towards
the Monarch, which his brother
commanded, and shouted out: "Follow me and attack the enemy." Crowding
on all steam that the boilers would bear, he swept like an arrow past the fleet,
and, steering for the nearest rebel boat, named the General
Lovell, struck her with such awful force, that her sides were crushed in
like an eggshell, and in five minutes she went to the bottom with most of her
crew. The Queen of the West staggered back like a drunken man from the
shock—her chimneys reeling almost to the water-while the splinters and
shivered timbers of her upper works made her deck appear like a wreck. Before
she could recover herself and once more get under headway, two rebel rams came
full upon her—determined to send her to the bottom after the General
Lovell. One struck her near the wheel-house, but inflicted only a glancing
blow, and in turn received from her own consort, which ran into her, one which
so disabled her that she was compelled to run ashore, when she sunk. The
sharpshooters, in the mean time, were busy, while the heavy broadsides of the
gunboats shook the shores of the stream. Alfred, in the Monarch, following his brother, struck the Beauregard, but inflicted no serious damage, though the latter soon
after blew up, the shot of the gunboats having pierced her boiler.
The combined attack proving
too strong for the rebel fleet, it turned and fled. The Monarch and Lancaster gave
the Van Dorn a hot chase, but the
latter finally got off.
In this sharp encounter, not a
man on board the rams was injured but Colonel Ellet. After he struck the General
Lovell, he stepped forward to see the amount of injury he had done her, when
he was hit in the knee by a bullet, which lodged in the bone. The wound proved
to be a dangerous one, for inflammation set in, and the only chance of saving
his life was amputation of the limb. This he would not consent to, declaring
that he would rather die; at all events, he preferred to take his chances.
His experiment, as far as it
went, was successful, but he determined it should have a fuller, more complete
trial, and, though suffering intensely, prepared to move down with the fleet to
Vicksburg. But even his strong will could not resist the inroads the wound had
made on his delicate, nervous frame, and he was compelled to abandon his
project. Finding himself rapidly sinking, he sent for his family, by whom he was
nursed with the greatest care, but he continued to grow worse.
In the mean time, the fleet
moved down the river to win new laurels, leaving him behind, to mourn the fate
that had laid him aside just as he was on the threshold of his great enterprise.
The command of the ram-fleet
now devolved on his brother Alfred, and he told the latter, as he came to bid
him farewell before he started, to carry out his plans, saying, as they parted
forever: "Alfred, stand to your post." He was now placed on board the Switzerland,
and carried to Cairo, but just as the boat reached the -wharf he expired,
breathing out his gallant spirit in serene composure. Thus, on the 21st of June,
1862, at the age of fifty-two, this ardent, enthusiastic man passed away,
leaving to others what he had fondly hoped to do himself.
His broken-hearted wife soon
followed him to the grave, leaving a gallant son, only nineteen years of age, to
uphold his fame and carry out his project.
CHARLES
RIVERS ELLET.
The son followed in the daring
footsteps of his father, in command of one of the rams built by the latter, and
followed him too, alas! to the grave. Born in Georgetown, District of Columbia,
in 1843, he was but eighteen years old when the war broke out. He had formerly
accompanied his father to Europe, and remained two years in school at Paris. He
was studying medicine when the first battle of Bull Run took place, and
volunteered to act as assistant surgeon and nurse to the wounded that came
pouring in from that disastrous battle-field.
When his father had just
completed at the West the first of his rams, he joined him, and was given a
place on board as medical cadet. He was in the battle before Memphis, and
witnessed the first triumph of the rams. After it was over, he was sent by his
father to demand the surrender of that city.
When the fleet commenced its
movement down the river towards Vicksburg, Charles reluctantly left the side of
his wounded father, to accompany it. Selected by Davis to carry a dispatch to
Farragut, anchored below the place, he made his way through swamps and stagnant
pools in the darkness, and, after a night of incessant peril and labor, at
length in the morning stood on the shore opposite the Hartford. Firing his pistol to attract attention, he was taken on
board, where he delivered his message.
While on duty with his uncle
Alfred up the Yazoo, he received on the 10th of July the melancholy tidings of
the death of both father and mother, and the sickness of his only sister. He,
however, felt it his duty to remain with the fleet, and, on the 5th of
1November, was placed in command of the rams, his uncle Alfred being given the
command of the marine brigade.
When Admiral Porter determined
to force the Yazoo River at Haines Bluff, he directed young Ellet to destroy a
raft of timber that obstructed the stream. Fitting a torpedo-raft of his own
invention to the Lioness, the latter,
after getting everything ready, reported himself to Porter saying, that he had
two tons of powder in the bow of his boat and asked for directions. Porter
replied, that he must steam directly up to the raft, which lay right under the
enemy’s guns, and blow it up. "But," said young Ellet, "don’t
you expect that the enemy will be firing as I do so, into my two tons of
powder?" "Oh yes!" replied the Admiral, "but you mustn’t
mind bullets and shells, you know." Ellet, a little piqued at the answer,
replied that he was not afraid of them—he desired only to know how he wished
him to proceed. A more desperate undertaking could not well be imagined, yet
Ellet was ready for it and would doubtless have performed it or been blown up,
had not a dense fog set in as he was about to start, compelling the. expedition
to be abandoned. Porter was delighted with the pluck of the youth, for he saw in
him a spirit kindred to his own, and wrote to the Department: "I have great
confidence in the commander of the rams and those under him, and take this
opportunity to state to the Department how highly I appreciate the commander and
his associates." This was very extraordinary praise to bestow on a youth
only nineteen years old.
The next February, young Ellet
was sent down with the ram Queen of the
West, to sink, if possible, the "City of Vicksburg,"
that lay under the guns of the batteries. One of his guns was loaded with
turpentine balls, designed to set the rebel vessel on fire. He boldly steamed
down into the enemy’s fire, and laid his vessel alongside of the City
of Vicksburg, and opened on it with his guns, while the batteries on shore
played furiously upon him. Although he set the rebel craft on fire, his own
vessel also caught fire, and it was with great difficulty that the flames were
extinguished.
He did not succeed in
destroying the ram, but the manner in which he handled and fought his vessel
astonished those who served under him.
Soon after, he was sent down
to the mouth of Red River, to destroy rebel transports there, and in three days
captured and destroyed three large steamers, valued at nearly half a million of
dollars.
On the 15th, he started again
for the Red River, accompanied by the De
Soto, and, learning that three steamers were lying under the guns of a
battery stationed where soon after Fort De Russy was erected, he determined to
capture them. But as he came within range of the guns, their fire was so
destructive that he ordered the pilot to back the Queen of the West out of it. But in doing so he ran her aground,
where she lay a helpless target. The rebels had the exact range, so that nearly
every shot struck the doomed vessel. A frightful scene now followed. Ellet was
unable to bring a gun to bear, and he could therefore only stand and see his
vessel torn into fragments. On every side shells were bursting—three
thirty-two-pound ones exploded one after another on the smoking deck, while one
crashed through the machinery below, and another carried away the lever of the
engine. The steam-pipe went next, and last, the steam chest was fractured,
letting out a cloud of steam, and prisoners, crew, and engineers, who had
crowded into the engine-room for safety, now rushed aft and began to tumble
overboard cotton bales, on which they leaped, hoping to float down to the De
Soto, a mile below. The Negroes with loud cries jumped overboard and were
drowned. Some ran for the yawl that was tied to the stern, but a man stood on
the bow with a loaded pistol, and threatened to shoot the first man that
attempted to enter it. The De Soto
steamed up as near as she dared and then sent her yawl to take off those who
remained—but the fire of the batteries was so terrific that she had to drop
down stream again, before the boat returned. Ellet escaped on a cotton bale, and
sorrowfully made his way back to the squadron, blamed by some for his rashness,
for the rebels captured the Queen of the
West, and soon had her repaired and at work in the Confederate service.
He was soon after put in
command of the Switzerland, which,
with the Lancaster, commanded by his
cousin John A. Ellet, was sent below Vicksburg to cooperate with Farragut. In
passing the batteries, the boiler of the Switzerland,
just as she got opposite the city, was pierced by two shots. In an instant the
vessel was enveloped in a cloud of steam. Ellet’s first care was for the crew
when they were safe in the boats he drew his pistol and fired into the cotton
bales, for the purpose of setting the vessel on fire, so that she might not,
like the Queen of the West, fall into
the enemy’s hands. He then stepped into the boat and rowed to the Lancaster.
The Switzerland however escaped, and, being repaired, acted afterwards
as a dispatch boat between Generals Grant and Banks.
The exposure and excitement,
together with the hot summer, at length proved too much for the constitution
of young Ellet, and, obtaining leave of absence to recruit his shattered
health, he retired to the residence of his uncle Dr. Ellet, at Bunker Hill,
Illinois. He suffered severely from neuralgia in the face, for which he was in
the habit of taking some opiate.
On the night of the 16th of
October, he complained of feeling very unwell, and said to his aunt as he
retired, that he thought he would take something to relieve the pain in his
face. In the morning he was found dead in his bed. He had probably taken an
overdose of morphine and fallen into a sleep from which he never awoke.
Thus at the early age of
twenty, this youth of so much promise closed his labors for his country. Gentle
and tender as a woman, he was nevertheless bold and fearless as a lion. His
countenance was full of poetic sentiment, to which his large brilliant eyes and
long black hair gave additional expression.