The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1883-10-17
BANKS RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
HOW COL. BAILEY SAVED PORTER'S
FLEET.

In April Of the present year one voy
aging up the Red River would nov
and then meet with portions of the ia
nous dam erectsd to save Porters flee,
twenty years ago. Much of the tim
Der has been hauled away for use, but
logs and beams and cross ties have
t1oated into the marshes or lie stranded
on the bars, and at the falls at Alex
andria good share of the stone used
in the dam is still in sight. The erec-
ton and success of that dam was one
of the wonderful incidents of the war,
and the professional engineers who
discouraged the project never quite for
gave the man who dared take the res
possibility on his shoulders. Banks
Red River expedition was backed by
Porter with his Mississippi feet of gun
boats. The vessels had made their
way up on a rising rising, and were all
above the Alexandria falls when, early
in May, Banks received orders to evac-
uate the country. The expedition had
resulted in the capture of few river
vessels, two or three small forts and
posts, and the occupation of a long
stretch Of country, but no great advan-
tages had been secured. The expedi-
ton, as whole, had been ordered by
Halleck, interfered with Grant and
Sherman, broken up by unlocked for
accidents and circumstances, and taken
altogether was a blunder for which
some one higher in authority than
Banks should have been investigated.
Porter, in his official report, says he
requested General Banks to have the
dam built. Banks, in his official re-
port, claims to have first preached the
subject to Porter. 1t was an expedi-
ton in which no one had faith, and no
one seemed to have supreme command,
and about the only advantage gained
was the capture of large quantities of
cotton. Hau not Banks received Or
ders to evacuate the country he could
not have tarried longer. Provisions
and ammunition were running low, the
Confederates were gathering to fall
upon him, and that he succeeded in
getting his army out Of his trap when
he did was looked upon as a piece of
good luck.
When Porter was informed that the
army would soon take up the march in
rztreat his entire fleet was above the
falls. Some of the vessels had been
taken above after great trouble, and
now all were in trap. The river had
fallen until there was not sufficient
depth to float the lightest craft. The
current of the river was about eight
miles an hour and the greatest depth
of water on the repids only six feet
The bed Of the river seemed full of
rocks and the waters tumbled over
them until it seemed as if skiff could
not find safe channel. Porter must
either get his fleet below these rapids
or abandon it and march his men with
the army. 1t appears that the idea of
dam was first broachen by an engi-
neer named Bailey, ranking as a Lieu
tenant Colonel. The river was nearly
800 feet wide, the water falling every
day and thus adding to the velocity of
the current, and Bailey's plan was
hooted and ridiculed by engineers and
officers alike. Porter gushed over it
when his feet was safe, but before the
work was began he secuted the idea
and announced that he would blow up
every boat in his fleet if the water did
not rise in time. Banks agreed to
prolong his stay until a dam could be
and when the task had been
decided on at least $4,000 men went
to work. There were woodchoppers
and lumbermen and bridge builders in
that army, and had the question been
put to them in the first place it would
have been carried by a unanimous vote.
There was plenty of timber and stone
At hand, though chimneys and walls
we're torn down for bricks and some
square timber hauled several miles,.
The work was portioned off to gangs,
ind no task was ever prosecuted with
greater harmony. After the choppers
lad thrown down tree, another de-
all trimmed off the limbs, a third
cored and faced, and the timber was
hen picked up and carried to the
'ank. In some cases fifty men, each
eizing the end of a handspike thrust .
lnder the log, carried it along with ,
military step and with perfect ease
The dam was rude affair-intended ,
imply to back up the waters until the
leet could pass over the rapids. A
art Of the dam was composed of cribs
f timbers filled with stone, and the