Background
He was born on November 5, 1826 in London, England, United Kingdom, but was a United States citizen by birthright. His parents were William and Anne (Boorn) Serrell, and he was the tenth of their eleven children.
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He was born on November 5, 1826 in London, England, United Kingdom, but was a United States citizen by birthright. His parents were William and Anne (Boorn) Serrell, and he was the tenth of their eleven children.
Brought to the United States when he was four and a half years old, he received his early education in the schools of New York City, then took up civil engineering under the direction of his father and elder brother.
From 1845 up to the time of the Civil War, Serrell was engaged in railroad and bridge design and construction. He was successively assistant engineer to the commissioners of the Erie Railroad, and assistant to the chief of the topographical engineers, United States Army.
As assistant engineer of the Panama Survey (1848), he accompanied the expedition that located the route between Aspinwall and Panama. Later he had charge of the surveys for the Northern Railroad of New Hampshire, and for a time was engineer of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. He prepared plans and supervised the construction of the suspension bridge across the Niagara River at Lewiston (1850); superintended the construction of the bridge at St. John; and planned the bridge over the St. Lawrence at Quebec. Subsequently, he was concerned with the building of the Hoosac Tunnel, the Bristol Bridge over the Avon River in England, which had one of the largest spans of any bridge in that country at the time, and the Union Pacific Railroad.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized and commanded the 1th New York Engineers, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but was soon made its colonel. Later he became chief engineer of the X Corps, United States Army, and afterward, chief engineer and chief of staff of the Army of the James. During the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, he devised and, under fire from the Confederate forces, personally supervised the construction of a battery in a swamp where, it is said, an iron rod would bury itself by its own weight. This battery, dubbed the "Swamp Angel, " threw shells into the streets of Charleston, five miles away, and was hailed as a triumph of engineering skill. When he was mustered out, February 13, 1865, he had served in 126 actions, and on March 13, was brevetted brigadier-general.
In 1868 he reported on the location of a suspension bridge to cross the Hudson River from Anthony's Nose, just above Peekskill, on the east, to Fort Clinton, on the west side.
Serrell died in New York City.
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He was married on April 6, 1848, to Jane, daughter of the Rev. Jesse Pound. She died in September 1896 and on September 6, 1900, he married Marion Seaton, daughter of Orville A. Roorbach. He had four children, Edward William, Josephine Eva, Jesse Pound, and Harriette Marshall Serrell.