Charles Ellet , Jr . Charles Ellet , Jr . ( 1 January 1810 – 21 June 1862 ) was a civil engineer and a colonel during the American Civil War , mortally wounded at the Battle of Memphis . Biography . Ellet was born in Bucks County , Pennsylvania , brother of Alfred W . Ellet , also a civil engineer and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the war . Charles studied civil engineering at École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris , France , and in 1832 submitted proposals for a suspension bridge across the Potomac River . In 1842 , he designed and built the first major wire - cable suspension bridge in the United States , spanning 358 feet over the Schuylkill River at Fairmount , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . He designed the record - breaking Wheeling suspension bridge over the Ohio River at Wheeling , West Virginia in 1848 , and a 770 - foot suspension footbridge at Niagara Falls at the same time . His other civil engineering accomplishments include supervising both the James River and Kanawha Canal in Virginia and the Schuylkill Navigation improvements in Pennsylvania ( 1846 – 47 ) , and also constructing railroads in those states . Ellet developed theories for improving flood control and navigation of mid - western rivers . In 1849 he had advocated the use of reservoirs , built in the upper reaches of drainage basins , to retain water from the wet season that could be released during periods of low water to improve navigation ; to some degree this also would tend to lessen the level of flooding during high flow . In 1850 , the Secretary of War , conforming to an Act of Congress , directed Ellet to make surveys and reports on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers with a view to the preparation of adequate plans for flood prevention and navigation improvement . His report was very complete , and it exercised considerable influence on later engineering thought and navigation improvements . According to " A Naval History of the Civil War " , Ellet was inspired by the accidental ramming of the " SS Arctic " by the SS Vesta , in 1854 . In that disaster the " Arctic " was sunk by a vessel more than ten times smaller . He thought the accident demonstrated that steam power made it practical to re - introduce the naval ram as a weapon . When his proposal was rejected by the United States Navy he published a pamphlet " Coast and Harbor Defenses , or the Substitution of Steam Battering Rams for Ships of War " in late 1855 . In March 1861 , the Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton appointed him colonel of engineers and tasked him with developing the United States Ram Fleet . He was mortally wounded during the Battle of Memphis while on board " Queen of the West " , dying fifteen days later . Ellet published a " Report of the Overflows of the Delta of the Mississippi River " , which helped to reshape New Orlean ' s waterfront . George Perkins Marsh published " Man and Nature " fourteen years later , but it was Ellet who first noted in writing that the artificial embankments created an overflowing delta . It would be decades later that his assertions were taken seriously and used in flood control decisions . His son Charles Rivers Ellet was a colonel in the Union Army . Namesake . USS " Ellet " ( DD - 398 ) , which was in service in 1939 - 46 , was named in honor of Charles Ellet , Jr . and other members of his family .