This booklet is a synthesis of two, more detailed and scholarly,
manuscripts about the history of Bailey’s Dam sponsored by the Vicksburg
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These two excellently prepared
documents are “Gunboats, Low Water, & Yankee Ingenuity: A History of
Bailey’s Dam” by Dr. Michael C. Robinson, Division Historian, Lower
Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and
“Archaeological Investigation and Preparation of Historic American
Engineering Record Documentation for Lower Bailey’s Dam (16RA90),
Rapides Parish, Louisiana” by David B. Kelley and George J. Castille,
archaeologists with Coastal Environments, Inc. Undoubtedly, we owe Dr.
Robinson and Mr. Kelley a great deal of thanks for allowing us to use
their research to complete this booklet. We also would like to thank
Corps archaeologists Kate Yarbrough, Thomas Birchett, and Sheila Lewis
for their help. Finally, this booklet would not have been possible
without the editing skills of archaeologist Nancy W. Hawkins of the
Louisiana Division of Archaeology.
[Illustration: Nathaniel Banks. Courtesy of the National Archives.]
[Illustration: David Porter. Courtesy of the National Archives.]
[Illustration: Joseph Bailey. Courtesy of the National Archives.]