Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-31


frightened Us he approached the abyss, and
stopped her engine, when particularly or
dered full head OF steam TO be Carried
The result was that for moment her hull
disappeared from sight, under the water.
Every one thought she was lost. She rose,
however, swept along over the rocks with
the current, and fortunately escaped with
only one hole in her bottom, which was
stopped in the course of an hour. The
Hindman and Usage both came through
beautifully without touching thing, and
thought If / was only fortunate enough to
get my large vessels as well over the falls,
my fleet once more would 10 goou service
on the Mississippi. .l0.
The accident to the dam, instead OF dis
heartening Col. Baily, only induced him to
lenew his exertions, after he had seen the
success of getting four vessels through
| The noble-hearted soldiers, seeing their Ia
Dor of the last eight days swept away in
moment, cheerfully went to work to repair
damages, being confident now that all the
gunboats would be finally brought over.
The men had been working for eight days
and nights, up to their necks in water. in
the broiling sun, cutting trees and wheeling
bricks and nothing but good humor pre-
vailed among them. On the whole, it was
fortunate the dam was carried away, as the
two barges that were swept away from the
centre swung around against some rocks
| on the left and made a fine cushion for the
vessels, and prevented them, as 1t afterward
appeared, from running on certain destruc-
ton. v,.-.y-tts :
The force of the water and the current
/ being too great to construct continuous
dam of six hundred feet across the river in
SO short time Col. Baily determined to
leave gap of fifty feet in the dam, and
| b,,;l1 n oa,ioc of xuinU dams on thp Inner
Falls. This was accomplished in three
days time, and on the 1lth inst. the Mound
/ CITY, the Carondolet and Pittsburg came
over the Upper Falls, good deal of labor
having been cxpendcd IN hauling them
through, the channel being very crooked
scarcely wide enough for them. Next day
the Ozark, Louisville, Chillicothe, and two
tugs also succeeded in crossing the Upper
Falls. H-iE4 a
Immediately afterward, the Mound City,
Carondolet and Pittsburg started in sue
cession to pass the dam, all their matches
battened down, and every precaution taken
to prevent accident.
The passage of these vessels was most
beautiful sight, only to be realized when
seen. They passed over without an acci-
dent, except the unshipping of one or two
rudders. This was witnessed by all the
troops, and the vessels were heartily cheer
ed when they passed over. Next morning
at 10 o'clock the Louisville, Chillicothe,
Ozark and two tugs passed over without
any accident except the loss of man, who
was swept off the deck of one of the tugs.
By o'clock that afternoon the vessels
were all coaled, ammunition replaced, and
all steamed down the river with the convoy
of transports in company. A good deal of
difficulty was anticipated in getting over
the bars i'm Lower Red river-depth of wa
ter reported only five feet, gunboats were
drawing six. Providentially we had rise
from the back-water of the Mississippi
that river being very high at that time--the
back-water extending TO Alexandra, loo
miles distant, enabling lis to pass all the
bars and distractions with safety. Words
are inadequate to express the admiration
feel for the ability of Lieutenant Col
onel Baily. This is, without doubt,
the best engineering feat ever per-
formed. Under the best circumstances, a
private company would not have completed
this work under one year, and to an ordi-
nary mind the whole thing would have ap-
peared an entire impossibility. Leaving
out his ability as an engineer-the credit he
has conferred upon the Countrywide has
saved the Union valuable fleet worth
nearly two millions of dollars; more, he
has deprived the enemy of a triumph which
would have emboldened them to carry on
this war year or two longer, for the in
tended departure of the army was fixed
fact, and there was nothing left for me to
do in case that event occurred but to de-
stroy every part of the vessels, so that the
rebels could make nothing of them. The
highest honors the Government can best0w
on Col. Bailey can never repay him tor the
service he has rendered the country.
have the honor to be, very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
DAVID d. PORTER,
.r Rear Admiral.
Hon. GIDEON WELLEs, Secretary of the
Navy, Washington, ID. G.