Low Water.--The Fleet in Danger.--We fall back upon Alexandria.
--Things look Gloomy.--Bailey builds a Dam in ten Days.--Saves
the Fleet.--A Skirmish.--Smith defeats Polignac.--Unpopularity
of Foreign Officers.--A Novel Bridge.--Leave of Absence.--A
Year in Virginia.--Am ordered again to New Orleans.
The Red River had now fallen very low. The gun-boats had great
difficulty in descending the stream. One chilly evening, as we stood
round the head-quarters camp-fire, word was brought us that one of
Porter's best iron-clads was fast aground in the stream, and that
they had tried in vain to get her off. I turned laughingly to Bailey,
and said, "Bailey, can't you build a dam and get her off?" alluding
to what he had done at Port Hudson. Bailey followed me to my tent
and said, "Seriously, major, I think I _could_ get that ship off,
and I should like to try." I went immediately to the general, and
got a letter from him to Porter, and sent Bailey to the grounded
ship. She was built in compartments. He found them breaking in the
partitions. He remonstrated, and said, "Pump out one compartment,
then shut it hermetically, and the confined air will help to buoy up
the ship." The navy men, naturally enough, resented the interference
of an outsider. Bailey gave Porter Franklin's letter. Porter said,
"Well, major, if you can dam better than I can, you must be a good
hand at it, for I have been d--g all night." Bailey had not met with
a very encouraging reception. He was one of those serious men, who,
as Sydney Smith said, require a surgical operation to get a joke into
their heads. He returned to camp, and reported to me that Porter had
insulted him. "What did he say, Bailey?" He told me; whereupon I
explained to him the joke, and he was perfectly satisfied. "Oh, if
that's what he meant, it's all right!" The ship was not got off. She
was blown up and abandoned.
From Grand Ecore we fell back upon Alexandria. Franklin was put in
command of the movement, and Bailey selected our line of march. We
started at dark, and marched all night. But the Confederates were
on the watch. They threatened our rear, and compelled us to halt,
and deploy, while they hurried a strong force to take position at
Kane's Ferry. Here we had a sharp skirmish. The position is a
very strong one, the stream not being fordable at the Ferry. We
crossed two brigades higher up. Moving slowly through the woods,
for there were no roads, they struck the rebels on the left flank,
and dislodged them. The fight was very sharp for a time. Colonel
Fessenden, afterward brigadier-general, commanding a Maine regiment,
and gallantly leading it, lost a leg in this affair.
But a severer trial awaited the fleet. About a mile above Alexandria
the river shoots over a rapid, the Falls of Alexandria. On this shoal
there was about five feet of water, and the river was falling. The
boats drew from seven to nine feet. The floods come down with great
rapidity in the Red River. One night's rain would have given the
ships plenty of water. Twenty-four hours' hard rain raises it twenty
feet. But the rain would not come. Things looked gloomy enough for
the fleet. Bailey came to me and said that he could build a dam in
ten days, and get those ships out. The river was six hundred and
sixty-six feet wide at the Falls. Franklin sent me to Porter with
the proposition. Porter said that it was not worth while--"It will
rain to-night or to-morrow." To-night and to-morrow came, and it
did not rain, and still the river fell. Again Franklin sent me to
Porter. I found him unwell and despondent. "Tell General Franklin,"
he said, "that if he will build a dam or any thing else, and get me
out of this scrape, I'll be eternally grateful to him." I returned to
Franklin. "Now go to Banks, and get his permission." I found Banks
closeted with General Hunter. It was reported that the Government had
become anxious about our command, and had sent Hunter down to examine
and report upon our condition. I stated what was proposed. Banks
turned to Hunter and said, "What do you think of it, general?" Hunter
replied that he thought it impracticable, "But if Franklin recommends
it, try it; for he is one of the best engineers in the army." Banks
said, "Tell the general to give the necessary orders." The orders
were given. Maine and Wisconsin regiments, principally lumbermen,
were detailed for the work. In ten days the dam was built, the water
rose, and the fleet came over in safety.
The rebels made a great mistake in not interfering with our work. Had
they done so, they might have embarrassed us seriously on the left
bank of the river, opposite Alexandria. But they never fired a shot.
We were told that they laughed at the idea of damming the Red River,
and said that we might as well try to dam the Mississippi. We would
have done this, had it been necessary.
Bailey handled water as a lumberman handles his axe. One of the
gun-boats was aground, hanging by the stern some little way above the
Falls. They tugged at her with all sorts of mechanical contrivances,
but in vain. In two hours Bailey built a little "wing-dam," he called
it, turned the current under the stern of the vessel where she hung,
washed out the sand, and the ship floated off.
Porter told me that if Bailey got his fleet out he would never
rest till he was made a brigadier-general. He kept his word. The
Government promoted him. The naval officers subscribed, and gave him
a sword of honor and a service of plate. He deserved it all.
The fleet saved, we renewed our march to the Mississippi. It was
made without incident, except that Smith defeated the rebels in a
skirmish on the Atchafalaya. He practiced a ruse upon them: concealed
a brigade in the deep dry ditches that intersect the sugar-fields
there, then sent his skirmishers out. The rebs drove them in and
pursued them; when up rose the men in the ditches, poured in a
deadly fire, and took two hundred prisoners. We were not again
troubled by the enemy.
Prince Polignac commanded the rebels upon this occasion. It was
reported that he had come to Louisiana expecting that the Confederacy
would become a monarchy; and it probably would have done so, had the
Rebellion succeeded. I afterward heard that his defeat was not very
disagreeable to his brother officers, for he was not popular with
them. Indeed, very few foreign officers were popular on either side.
Both Union and rebel officers were very much disposed to look upon it
as a family quarrel, and wanted no interference from outsiders.
We crossed the Atchafalaya by a novel bridge constructed of
steamboats. This, too, was Bailey's work. He anchored them side
by side, the bows level with each other, and placed planks across
them. The whole army, with its baggage-wagons and artillery, crossed
safely and rapidly. A steam-whistle sounded, and in ten minutes the
bridge had disappeared, and every boat was under full headway to its
destination.
The writer's connection with the Department of the Gulf now ceased
for a year. He obtained leave of absence, and went North. But he
had scarcely arrived there when Early made his daring march upon
Washington. My leave was revoked, and I was ordered to report to
Major-general Gillmore. For a year I remained in Virginia, most of
the time in Norfolk, for Gillmore had been thrown from his horse, and
was unable to take the field in command of the Nineteenth Army Corps,
as had been intended, and I had been assigned to a different duty.
Early in the spring of 1865, on application of Brigadier-general T.
W. Sherman, I was ordered again to New Orleans.