JAMES BUCHANAN EADS (1820–1887)

The name of Eads has already been mentioned in the profile of Roebling. James Buchanan Eads, the future bridge-builder, was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on 23 May 1820, the son of Thomas Clark Eads, a businessman, and Ann Buchanan. He was named after his mother's cousin, James Buchanan, a Pennsylvania Congressman who later became the undistinguished 15th President of the United States. After leaving school at the age of 13, he tried his hand at a variety of jobs, until in 1838 he became purser on a Mississippi steamboat, the Knickerbocker, which before long hit a snag in the river and sank, like many other boats. Eads decided to become a salvage engineer, using his own design of diving bell and by the time he was 25 he had made enough money to invest some of it in establishing the first glassworks west of the Ohio river. When this proved unsuccessful he returned to salvage work on the Mississippi until 1857.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, Eads realized that control of the Mississippi would be an important strategic objective and advised President Lincoln to acquire a fleet of steam-propelled iron-clad gunboats to patrol the western rivers. Although he had no experience of shipbuilding he successfully contracted to build seven such boats without their guns in 65 days. After these gunboats provided the first Union victories of the war, he was awarded a second contract to build or convert another 18.