Bailey's Dam :: JOSEPH BAILEY AND HIS DAM

JOSEPH BAILEY AND HIS DAM

Military engineer Joseph Bailey’s presence with the Red River expedition was, in a sense, one of those coincidences of history that sometimes result in turning the course of events. His knowledge of engineering was not acquired through formal study at West Point. Instead, he had learned practical engineering on the Wisconsin frontier, where damming was a skill perfected by lumbermen to float logs to their sawmills.

Born in Ashtabula County, Ohio on May 6, 1827, Bailey grew up in Illinois. In 1850 he moved to Wisconsin, where for the next 20 years he was involved in the construction of dams, mills, and bridges. At the beginning of the war, Bailey formed a company of lumbermen and became a captain. Soon, though, his construction genius was recognized and he was supervising various engineering projects for the North, including construction at Fort Dix in Washington D.C. and the attempts to build canals during the Vicksburg campaign.

In 1863 Bailey won distinction at the battle of Port Hudson. There, despite the scoffs of formally trained military engineers, he constructed a gun emplacement in full sight of rebel fortifications and proceeded to silence the Confederate guns. He also built a dam during the siege to refloat two grounded steamboats.

All this had been accomplished while he was, officially, an officer in the Wisconsin 4th Cavalry. Recognizing Bailey’s talent, General Banks, without authority, promoted him to colonel. But this promotion was the right of the Governor of Wisconsin, and it was retracted. Instead, Bailey was made a Lieutenant Colonel of Volunteers. Bailey was infuriated at this seeming injustice, and fortunately for Porter’s stranded fleet, he had applied for and received a staff position as engineer for Major General William B. Franklin, one of Banks’s officers.

To Bailey, constructing a dam to float the gunboats over the rapids was a challenging but not impossible task. After all, he had undertaken similar work in Wisconsin and at Port Hudson. In fact, he had foreseen the problem as early as April 9 and offered to construct a dam at that time. But while Franklin liked the idea, the matter was not yet critical, and other more important problems needed tending.

Most of the staff officers thought Bailey’s idea was outrageous. Porter had joked about an earlier proposition by Bailey to build a dam to refloat the stranded gunboat Eastport saying: “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” (Hoffman 1877:99). Now, though, a major part of the fleet was about to be lost and Porter instructed a messenger, “Tell General Franklin that if he [Bailey] will build a dam or any thing else, and get me out of this scrape, I’ll be eternally grateful to him” (Hoffman 1877:101). Later, Porter would record that “the proposition looked like madness, and the best engineers ridiculed it, but Colonel Bailey was so sanguine of success that I requested General Banks to have it done, and he entered heartily in the work” (Beecher 1866:342).

Fortunately, once Franklin and Banks decided to accept Bailey’s idea, they ordered everyone’s cooperation. Some 3,000 troops were put to work chopping down trees, gathering stones and bricks, and dragging the raw materials down to where the dam would be constructed. On the Pineville side of the river, Maine, New York, and Wisconsin soldiers cut down trees, while on the Alexandria side, black troops were put to work gathering wood from buildings. One historical account describes the scene:

Map showing location of Bailey’s Dam in relation to Alexandria during the Civil War.

RED RIVER
UPPER DAM
Rapids
Rapids
MAIN DAM
Rapids
PINEVILLE
ALEXANDRIA

Night and day the work was carried on without cessation, the men working willingly and cheerfully, although many were compelled to stand up to their waists in water during the damp and chilly nights, and under a burning sun by day, and notwithstanding very many had no faith in the success of the great undertaking.... Oak, elm, and pine trees ... were falling to the ground under the blows of the stalwart pioneers of Maine, bearing with them in their fall trees of lesser growth; mules and oxen were dragging the trees, denuded of their branches, to the river’s bank; wagons heavily loaded were moving in every direction; flat-boats carrying stone were floating with the current, while others were being drawn up the stream in the manner of canal boats. Meanwhile hundreds of men were at work at each end of the dam, moving heavy logs to the outer end of the tree-dam, ... wheeling brick out to the cribs, carrying bars of railway iron to the barges, ... while on each bank of the river were to be seen thousands of spectators, consisting of officers of both services, groups of sailors, soldiers, camp-followers, and citizens of Alexandria, all eagerly watching our progress and discussing the chances of success (Moore 1868:11-12).

The tinclad Signal towing material for Bailey’s Dam. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

In the midst of this furious activity, Bailey was constantly on hand directing the construction. On site, the soldiers toiled through the day and night; the slightest disobedience was harshly corrected. Two officers were even arrested for allowing a barge, which was to be part of the dam, to sink in the wrong place. Meanwhile, on shore, the dam and Bailey were the main source of amusement. To most of the navy, half the army, and much of the townspeople, the dam was a great joke. Word of Bailey’s dam quickly spread to the rebels, who would taunt their enemy with “How’s your big dam progressing?” (Moore 1868:12). But Bailey ignored the wisecracks and concentrated on his plan.

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