Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1914-08-20


In the spring of 1864 a Wisconsin,
lumbernIan by brilliant exploit save.
i the Red river fleet of the Mississippi
squadron from destruction To thwar.
the intrigues Of Napoleon Ill, who had
sent a French army into Mrxico. the
+ federal government desired to gain
strong military foothoId in Texas To
this end it was planned to send ~!
army and feet into interior Texas b.
way of the Red river, which wa,
navigabe only in the spring.
The army under General Banks, SUI
ported by Admiral Porter's feet or
gunboatS began the ascent Of the riv-
er. But matters went badly almost
from the beginning. The leaders quar-,
relied among themselves, the prepare
4 tons made We're inadequate, and,
worst of all, the Red river suddenly
4 began to fall, when by all presidents
/ it should have risen Admiral Porter,
fearful that his fleet would be caught
in the shadows, hurriedly descended
/ the stream, and the army, already saw
agely handled by the opposing Confed-
crate force followed after
At Alexandria, in central Louisiana.
the retrcating federals found them
j selves face to face with crisis, NJ
/ this point the Red river is broken by
a mile of rapids; the stream had fallen
so quickly that the gunboats could
no longer navigate the channel. The
water was but three feet four inches
/ whereas Porters larger gunboats drew
4 at least seven feet. Here was indeed
a desperate situation-the army far
from its source of supplies. the victori.
Gus enemy pressing in hot pursuit,
and the 100000 fleet marooned by
falling water. 1t seemed to almost
every one that the only course open
was to blow up the vessels.
But Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey
of the Fourth Wisconsin, who was
serving at the time as acting engnecs
/ of the Nineteenth army corps. camt
forward with plan for bringing the
ironclads to safety. 1t was to raise
the level of the water above the rapids
by constructing a great dam across
the river When a sufficient depth Of
water had accumulated he proposed to
break the dam in the center, thus fore,
ing the vessels with the outruShing
flood through the shadows and into
the deep water below. Before the war
Colonel Bailey had been a lumberman
ana had often seen this. scheme en-
poyed in, the Wisconsin pineries to
lift stranded RATS of logs to safety
/ The project was ut first received with
ridicule by Colonel Bailcy's superior&
/ 1t was declared impossible of achieve
ment by the best engineers in the
| army.
But there was nothing else to be
/ done. and at length the Wisconsin
! lumberman was obviously granted per
mission to put his project to the proof
His first step was to requiSitIon de
tachmcnts of "pineIy boys from the
] Twenty-third and Twenty ninth Wis
consin regiments, who understood what
was to be done and how to go about il
/ In all 5000 men were employed in
i the enterprise Hundreds Of men Wcr"
/ set to telling trees. other hundreds tot.
ed in the qnanies that were opened
for the occasion. and two or three hun
dred wagons were engaged in the eS
sential work of transporting the ma
terials for the dam. Up to their nec&@
in the swift current, which swept over
the rapids AT the rate OF nine miles an
hour. under the blistcrng southern
sun the men toiled
At the end of eight days the river
was sufficiently high to permit three
of the lighter gunboats to pass IL"
upper fails. where they had been held
ana come down to a position unme"t
atcly above the dam. ready to pass
the lower rapids. one more day an@
the dam would be high enou2h t. per
nit all to come down in readiness for
the final attempt,
On the morning Of the ninth day,
however. the steadily increasing pres
sure Of the water caused two OF the
stone bar-eS In the middle or the
dam to swing aside, and through the
opening thus created the accumulated
torrent swired The three lighter YES
sells that were i'll position to make the
passage, together with a fourth that
had meanwhile come up, promptly took
advantage Of the break and. paS~in@
the remaining rapids on the Hood tiue
safely reached the deeper waters ne
low.
Somewhat eucourag cd by the escape
of Mt least four OF the vessels the men
+ braveiy set about repairing the dam
AGE that had been dol@a Within three
days tho break h3d been closed ana in
addition two wins dams constructed
on the upper falls, The remaining
guuboats. somewhat lifted by the hacn
water Of the wing dams, were now
hauled over tho upper falls. and on
M"- l. aW,d the tuuulmouS cheers ~
10000 soldiers lined up along the shore
made the perious passage over the
lower falls to the deep water below