Charles Ellet and His Naval Steam Ram

CHARLES ELLET AND HIS NAVAL STEAM RAM John D. MiUigan On March 9, 1862, the C.S.S. Virginia, formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack, met the Monitor in Hampton Roads, Virginia. The engagement marked the first naval action in which ironclad warship fought ironclad warship , and this fact has given technological significance to the event. At the time, however, Federal naval and military officers did not recognize the true importance of the encounter. They were far more impressed by another fact. On the day before the Monitor arrived in the Roads, the Virginia had sunk a wooden sloop-of-war, the Cumberland, by ramming that vessel with her iron beak. As a result, when the Monitor failed to destroy the Merrimack the Federals jumped to the conclusion Üiat ironclad vessels could only be stopped by the same maneuver that the Confederate craft had employed against the Cumberland . This revival of a naval tactic that had not been used for several centuries came as no surprise to at least one Yankee—civil engineer Charles Eilet, Jr. For seven years Eilet had insisted that the introduction of steam propulsion had again made ramming a feasible naval maneuver. He urged tíiis idea on the governments of Russia, the United States, and Mexico; yet not until the Virginia sank the Cumberland did his endeavors meet with success. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton became eager to listen to his counsels. The result was the creation of the first Federal steam rams. Under Ellet's command, two of these vessels played an important part in destroying the last Confederate fleet worthy of the name. In doing so, they lent support to the conclusion drawn at Hampton Roads tibat rams propelled by steam represented a revolution in naval warfare. When Stanton called on Eilet for advice, the engineer was fifty-two John D. Milligan, a specialist on the operations of the Federal navy in the Mississippi Valley, is an assistant professor of history at the University of Buffalo. 121 122JOHN D. MILLIGAN years old and one of the eminent men in his profession.1 He had designed early suspension bridges at Fairmount across the Schuylkill and at Wheeling across the Ohio. At the direction of the War Department , he had proposed means for controlling floods and improving navigation in the Mississippi Valley. In addition, he had published important studies on internal improvements. By the mid-1850's he was an aggressive exponent of that peculiar style of naval warfare in which a vessel itself becomes the missile that crushes the sides of its opponent. Rams, of course, were not new in naval engagements. As late as the sixteenth century, galleys propelled by oar had been used as rams in the Mediterranean area. Sailing ships, being more dependent on natural forces, were not sufficiently maneuverable to strike the enemy. During die time of the Crimean War, Eilet came to Üie conclusion that steam-driven craft, with their greater freedom of movement, could do so with devastating effect. A study of accounts of accidental ship collisions convinced him that a vessel specifically prepared as a ram and intentionally driven against an enemy would strike with an irresistible force. He knew that primitive sighting equipment made the cannon of his day inaccurate; a fast ram, he maintained, could close on an armed adversary before the enemy could get off more than one broadside from cumbersome muzzle-loaders.2 Finally, Eilet was certain that steam rams could be prepared and operated at a fraction of the cost required for ships-of-the-line. In short, the introduction of the steam engine, in Ellet's estimation, had made possible a new naval weapon, which in turn would make gunnery techniques obsolete. He insisted that if steam were used simply to move gun platforms, then the science of naval tactics would have made no advance over the traditions established by the outmoded sailing vessel. Having once seized upon an idea—whether it involved flood control in the Mississippi Valley, a novel theory of transportation tolls, or a new naval weapon—die man, though frail and sickly, was tireless in pressing it on all who might be interested. As he wrote...