THE DAM.
Directly after the capture of Port Hudson, Bailey offered to float
the two Confederate transport steamers, _Starlight_ and _Red Chief_,
that were found lying on their sides high and almost dry in the
middle of Thompson's Creek. With smiles and a shrug or two permission
was given him to try; he tried; he succeeded; and this experience
it undoubtedly was that caused his words to be listened to so
readily when he now proposed to rescue the fleet in the same way.
But to build at leisure and unmolested a pair of little wing-dams
in the ooze of Thompson's creek and to close the opening by a
central boom against that sluggish current was one thing; it was
quite another to repeat the same operation against time, while
surrounded and even cut off by a strong and active enemy, this too
on the scale required to hold back the rushing waters of the Red
River, at a depth sufficient for the passage of the heaviest of
the gunboats and for a time long enough to let the whole fleet go
by. Yet, bold as the bare conception seems, and stupendous as the
work looks when regarded in detail, no sooner had it been suggested
by Bailey then every engineer in the army at once entered heartily
into the scheme. Palfrey, who had previously made a complete survey
of the rapids, examined the plan carefully, and approved it.
Franklin, to whose staff Bailey was attached, himself an engineer
of distinguished attainments and wide experience, approved it, and
Banks at once gave orders to carry it out.
In the month that had elapsed since the fleet ascended the rapids,
the river had fallen more than six feet; for more than a mile the
rocks now lay bare. In the worst places but forty inches of water
were found, while with seven feet the heavy gunboats could barely
float, and in some places the channel, shallow as it was, narrowed
to a thread. The current ran nine miles an hour. The whole fall
was thirteen feet, and at the point just above the lower chute,
where Bailey proposed to construct his dam, the river was 758 feet
wide, with a fall of six feet below the dam. The problem was how
to raise the water above the dam seven feet, backing it up so as
to float the gunboats over the upper rapids.
Heavy details were made from the troops, the working parties were
carefully selected, and on the 30th of April the work was begun.
From the north bank a wing-dam was constructed of large trees, the
butts tied by cross logs, the tops laid towards the current, covered
with brush, and weighted, to keep them in place, with stone and
brick obtained by tearing down the buildings in the neighborhood.
On the south bank, where large trees were scarce, a crib was made
of logs and timbers filled in with stone and with bricks and heavy
pieces of machinery taken from the neighboring sugar-houses and
cotton-gins. When this was done there remained an open space of
about one hundred and fifty feet between the wings, through which
the rising waters poured with great velocity. This gap was nearly
closed by sinking across it four of the large Mississippi coal-barges
belonging to the navy.
When on the 8th of May all was thus complete, the water was found
to have risen five feet four and a half inches at the upper fall,
giving a measured depth there of eight feet eight and one half
inches. Three of the light-draught gunboats, _Osage, Neosho_, and
_Fort Hindman_, which had steam up, took prompt advantage of the
rise to pass the upper fall, and soon lay in safety in the pool
formed by the dam; yet for some reason the other boats of the fleet
were not ready, and thus in the very hour when safety was apparently
within their reach, suddenly they were once more exposed to a danger
even greater than before. Early on the morning of the 9th the
tremendous pressure of pent-up waters surging against the dam drove
out two of the barges, making a gap sixty-six feet wide, and swung
them furiously against the rocks below. Through the gap the river
rushed in a roaring torrent. At sight and sound of this, the
Admiral at once mounted a horse, galloped to the upper fall, and
called out to the _Lexington_ to run the rapids. Instantly the
_Lexington_ was under way, and as, with a full head of steam she
made the plunge, every man in the army and the fleet held his breath
in the terrible silence of suspense. For a moment she seemed lost
as she reeled and almost disappeared in the foam and surge, but
only to be greeted with a mighty cheer, such as brave men give to
courage and good fortune, when she was seen to ride in safety below.
The _Osage_, the _Neosho_, and the _Fort Hindman_ promptly followed
her down the chute, but the other six gunboats and the two tugs
were still imprisoned above by the sudden sinking of the swift
rushing waters; the jaws of danger, for an instant relaxed, had
once more shut tightly on the prey. Doubt and gloom took the place
of exultation. As for the army, hard as had been the work demanded
of it, still greater exertions were before it, nor was their result
by any means certain, for the volume of the river was daily
diminishing, and there would be no more rise that year.
So far Bailey had substantially followed, though on a larger scale,
the same plan that had worked so successfully the year before at
Port Hudson. But against a weight, a volume, and a velocity of
water such as had to be encountered here, it was now plainly seen
that something else would have to be tried. No emergency, however
great or sudden, ever finds a man of his stamp unready. As soon
therefore as the collapse showed him the defect in his first plan,
he instantly set about remedying it by dividing the weight of water
to be contended with. At the upper fall three wing-dams were
constructed. Just above the rocks a stone crib was laid on the
south side, and directly opposite to this on the north side a
tree-dam, like those already described when speaking of the original
dam. Just below the rocks, projecting diagonally from the north
bank, a bracket-dam was built, made of logs having one end sunk to
meet the current, the other end raised on trestles, and the whole
then sheathed with plank. By this means the whole current was
turned into one very narrow channel, and a new rise of fourteen
inches was gained, giving in all six feet six and one half inches
of water. Every man bending himself to this task to his utmost,
by the most incredible exertions this new work was completed in
three days and three nights, and thus during the 12th and 13th the
remainder of the fleet passed free of the danger.
The cribs were washed away during the spring rise in 1865; but it
is said that the main tree-dam survives to this day, having driven
the channel towards the south shore, and washed away a large slice
of the bank at the upper end of the town of Alexandria.
For his part in the conception and execution of this great undertaking,
Bailey received the thanks of Congress on the 11th of June, 1864,
and was afterward made a brigadier-general by the President.
The troops engaged in constructing the dam were the 97th colored,
Colonel George D. Robinson; the 99th colored, Lieutenant-Colonel
Uri B. Pearsall; the 29th Maine, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles S.
Emerson; the 133d New York, a detail of 300 men, under Captain
Anthony J. Allaire; the 161st New York, Lieutenant-Colonel Wm. B.
Kinsey; the pioneers of the Thirteenth Army Corps, 125 in number,
commanded by Captain John B. Hutchens of the 24th Indiana, and
composed of men detailed from the 11th, 24th, 34th, 46th, 47th,
and 67th Indiana, the 48th, 56th, 83d, and 96th Ohio, the 24th and
28th Iowa, the 23d and 29th Wisconsin, 130th Illinois, and 19th
Kentucky; 460 men of the 27th Indiana, 29th Wisconsin, 19th Kentucky,
130th Illinois, 83d Ohio, 24th Iowa, 23d Wisconsin, 77th Illinois,
and 16th Ohio, commanded by Captain George W. Stein of the latter
regiment.
Bailey was also greatly assisted by a detail from the navy, under
Lieutenant Amos R. Langthorne, commanding the _Mound City_. Besides
these officers, all of whom rendered service the most laborious
and the most valuable, Bailey acknowledges his indebtedness to
Brigadier-General Dwight, Colonel James Grant Wilson, and Lieutenant
Charles S. Sargent of Banks's staff; to Major W. H. Sentell, 160th
New York, provost-marshal; Lieutenant John J. Williamson, ordnance
officer of the Nineteenth Corps; and Lieutenant Sydney Smith
Fairchild, 161st New York.
All this time the army lying about Alexandria, to secure the safety
of the navy, was itself virtually invested by the small but active
forces under Taylor, who now found himself, not only foot loose,
but once more able to use for his supplies the channel of the upper
Red River, whence he had caused the obstructions to be removed as
soon as the withdrawal of Banks relieved all fears of invasion,
and turned the thoughts of the Confederate chiefs to dreams of
conquest.
On the 31st of March Grant had peremptorily ordered the evacuation
of the coast of Texas save only the position held at the mouth of
the Rio Grande, and Banks, as soon as he received this order, had
ordered McClernand to join him with the bulk of his troops, consisting
of the First and Second divisions of the Thirteenth Corps.
McClernand, with Lawler's brigade of the former, arrived at Alexandria
on the 29th of April; Warren, with the rest of his division, was
on his way up the Red River, when he found himself cut off near
Marksville. Then he seized Fort De Russy and held it until the
campaign ended.
Brisk skirmishing went on from day to day between the outposts and
advanced guards, yet Banks, though he had five men to one of
Taylor's,(1) held fast by his earthworks without making any real
effort to crush or to drive off his adversary, while on their part
the Confederates refrained from any serious attempt to interrupt
the navigation of the lower Red River until the evening of the 3d
of May, when near David's Ferry Major attacked and, after a sharp
fight, took the transport _City Belle_, which he caught coming up
the river with 425 officers and men of the 120th Ohio. Many were
killed or wounded, and many others taken prisoner, a few escaping
through the forest. Major then sunk the steamboat across the
channel and thus closed it. Early on the morning of the 5th of
May Major, with Hardeman's and Lane's cavalry brigades and West's
battery, met just above Fort De Russy the gunboats _Signal_ and
_Covington_, and the transport steamer _Warner_, and after a short
and hard fight disabled all three of the boats. The _Covington_
was set on fire by her commander and destroyed, but the _Signal_
and _Warner_ fell into the hands of the Confederates with many of
the officers and men of the three boats, and of a detachment of
about 250 men of the 56th Ohio, on the _Warner_. These captured
steamers, also, were sunk across the channel.
On the 2d of May, Franklin's wound compelling him to go to New
Orleans and presently to the North, Banks assigned Emory to the
command of the Nineteenth Army Corps. This brought McMillan to
the head of the First division and gave his brigade to Beal.
Captain Frederic Speed was announced as Assistant Adjutant-General
of the Corps. A few days later, in consequence of McClernand's
illness, Lawler was given the command of the Thirteenth Corps.
(1) Banks's return for April 30th shows 33,502 officers and men for
duty. May 10th, Taylor says: "To keep this up with my little
force of scarce 6,000 men, I am compelled to 'eke out the lion's
skin with the fox's hide.'" ("Official Records," vol. xxxiv., part
I., p. 590.) He does not count his cavalry.