Charles Ellet was an American civil engineer who designed the first wire- cable suspension bridge in the USA, in 1842. He was born in 1810 at Pennsylvania and died in 1862. He also designed the world's first long-span wire-cable suspension bridge, crossing the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia. He began his career as a surveyor and assistant engineer on the Chesapeake and OhioCanal in 1828. In 1831 and 1832 he was in Europe, enrolled at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and studied the various engineering works taking place in France, Germany, and Britain. For his first wire-cable suspension bridge, over the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, Pennsylvania, Ellet introduced a technique he had learned in France of binding small wires together to make the cables. The central span of the suspension bridge over the Ohio River was at 308 meters the longest ever built when it was completed in 1849. The bridge failed under wind forces in 1854; however, Ellet's towers remained standing and the bridge was rebuilt.
Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Ellet produced a steam-powered ship for the Union forces to ram the Confederates on the Mississippi River and in June 1862, led a fleet of nine of these rams in the Battle of Memphis. The Union side was victorious, but in the course of the fighting Ellet was fatally wounded. Research Charles Ellet
Leonidas Polk was an American clergyman and soldier. He was born in 1806 and died in 1864. He was engaged in the service of the Episcopal Church after 1831, and was Bishop of Louisiana from 1841 to 1861. He strongly sympathized with the secession movement, and, being a West-Pointer, was appointed major-general, and superintended the construction of fortifications at New Madrid, Fort Pillow, Island No 10 and Memphis. He commanded at Belmont, and led a corps at Shiloh and Corinth. He commanded the right wing at Chickamauga, where it was asserted that his disobedience of orders saved the National army from annihilation. He served with General Johnston in opposing General Sherman at Atlanta, and was killed near Kenesaw Mountain in June, 1864. Research Leonidas Polk
The Apis was the sacredbull, symbolic of Osiris, in ancient Egyptian culture. The Apis was primarily worshipped at Memphis and was represented by a black bull bearing a white square on the brown and a figure of an eagle on the flank and a scarabaeus under the tongue. After twenty-five years the animal was solemnly drowned in the Nile and embalmed. A period of mourning then ensued until a properly marked successor was found. Research Apis
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