Charles Ellet Jr. (1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862) was an American civil engineer from Pennsylvania who designed and constructed major canals, suspension bridges and railroads. He built the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world from 1849 to 1851. He conducted the first Federal survey of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as part of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ellet published multiple books and essays on wide ranging topics including macroeconomic theory, suspension bridge construction, railroad construction, river flood control and steam powered battery rams. During the American Civil War, Ellet received a commission as colonel and created and commanded the United States Ram Fleet, a Union Army unit of ram ships converted from commercial steamers. His ram ships played a critical role in the Union naval victory at the First Battle of Memphis. He was wounded during the battle (the only casualty on the Union side) and died soon after. Early life and education Ellet was born on January 1, 1810, at Penn's Manor in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the sixth child of fourteen born to Charles Ellet Sr. and Mary Israel. He studied at the Bristol school and worked as a rodman, measuring for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and making drawings. Benjamin Wright promoted him to Assistant Engineer of the Fifth Residency, but in 1830, he resigned to continue his studies in Paris. He studied civil engineering at École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. Family Both Ellet's maternal and paternal grandfathers served in the American Revolutionary War. His father was a Quaker and a descendant of Samuel Carpenter who served as Deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania. Ellet's maternal grandfather, Israel Israel, descended from a family of Jewish diamond cutters from Holland and was a member of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety and a recognized active patriot. His maternal grandmother, Hannah Erwin, was from a Quaker family. Ellet married Elvira Augusta Stuart Daniel on November 7, 1837, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her father was Virginia lawyer and soon-to-be judge William Daniel and her mother was Margaret Baldwin. She could trace her descent among the First Families of Virginia and owned enslaved persons, although Ellet would not. Judge Daniel's father (also a lawyer and judge of the same name William Daniel Sr.) had served as an ensign during the Revolutionary war under Captain Arda Allen, and his wife's maternal grandfather Dr.