Alfred Ellet was born on October 11, 1820, at Penn’s Manor, Pennsylvania; he worked on his father’s farm and studied civil engineering. Living in Bunker Hill, Illinois, at the start of the Civil War, he was commissioned a captain in the 59th Illinois Infantry. In the spring of 1862, his brother Charles Ellet was ordered by the War Department to purchase vessels and convert them to rams. Alfred was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and his brother’s aide-de-camp.

Completing their fleet in the spring of 1862, the Ellets steamed from Cincinnati to Memphis and defeated the Confederate fleet there, sinking or disabling eight of the nine Confederate vessels. His brother was mortally wounded, however, and Alfred assumed command of the fleet. He was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862, assigned to the Department of the Mississippi, and given command of the Mississippi Marine Brigade, a mixed army force of artillery, cavalry and infantry troops that traveled by boat and operated under the direction of the U.S. Navy.

Ellet resigned his commission on December 31, 1864, to return to civil engineering. Moving to El Dorado, Kansas, he became a prominent businessman and civic leader.

Ellet died on January 9, 1895, and is buried in El Dorado.

Carte-de-Visite by E. & H. T. Anthony, New York, N.Y.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31983