The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Flad, Henry

Flad, Henry, American civil engineer: b. Bavaria, Germany, 1823; d. 1898. He was educated at the College of Spire, Rhenish Bavaria, and at the University of Munich. He became assistant engineer on various government public works, chiefly with improvement of the Rhine, but in 1849 became a captain of the Baden revolutionary army. The failure of the revolution rendered his position in Germany insecure and he fled to the United States, where he was engaged in the engineering departments of several railroads until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted and rose to the rank of colonel of engineers. From 1867 to 1874 he was chief assistant to James P. Eads on the great bridge over the Mississippi at Saint Louis. After 1877 he was president of the Board of Public Improvements of Saint Louis and for many years served as member of the Mississippi River Commission.