The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-08-11
SAVED The FLEET.
Brilliant Exploit of a Brainy Wis
ConSin Lumberman.
I A BIT OF WAR TIME STRATEGY
The Red River Was Damned, and Ad-
miral Porter's Gunboats Shot the
Rapids, Though the Scheme Had
Been Ridiculed by Army Engineers.

Been RidicuIed by Army Engineers.
In the spring of 1864 a Wisconsin
lumberman by brilliant exploit saved
the Red river fleet of the Mississippi
squadron from destruction To thwart
the intrigues of Napoleon III. who had
sent a French army into Mexico. the
federal government desired to gain a
strong military foothold in Texas. To
army and fleet into interior Texas by
way of the Red river, which was
nayigable only in the spring.
The army under General Banks, sup
gunboats, began the ascent of the riv-
er But matters went badly almost
from the beginning. The leaders quar-
relied among themselves, the prepare
tons made were inadequate, and,
worst of all, the Red river suddenly
began to fall, when by all presidents
1t 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 retreating federals found them
selves face to face with a crisis. At
this point the Red river is broken by
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 Porter's larger gunboats drew
| at least seven feet Here was indeed
/ n desperate situation-the army far
/ from its source of supplies, the victori-
! Gus enemy pressing in hot pursuit,
and the 100000 feet 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 engineer
of the Nineteenth army corps, came
forward with a 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 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
and had often seen this scheme en-
ployed in the Wisconsin pineries to
- 80, ENkv
The project was at first received with
} ridicule by Colonel Bailey's superiors.
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
J lumberman was obviously granted per-
J mission to put his project to the proof.
His first step was to requisition de
tachments of 'pinery boys" from the
Twenty-third and Twenty ninth Wis
consin regiments, who understood what
! was to be done and how to so about it
} In all 5000 men were employed IN
! the enterprise. Hundreds of men were
set to telling trees. other hundreds toll
, ed in the quarries 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 necks
in the swift current, which swept ovel
the rapids ut the rate of nine miles az
hour, under the blistering 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 the
upper falls, where they had been held
and come down to a position immedi
ately above the dam, ready TO pass
the lower rapids. One more day an(
the dam would be high enough to per
nit all to come down in readiness fo
the final attempt
On the morning of the ninth day
however, the steadily increasing pres
, sure of the water caused two of thu
stone barges in the middle of tn
dam to swing aside. and through thu
opening thus created the accumulate,
torrent swirled The three lighter yes
sells that were in position to make tn
I passage, together with a fourth tina
had meanwhile come up, promptly tool
advantage of the break and, pasSin
the remaining rapids on the flood tide
: safely reached the deeper waters be
\ low.
! Somewhat encouraged by the escap
1 of at least four Of the vessels, the me-
y bravely set about repairing the dam
i age that had been done. Within tire
q days the break had been closed and 1
Il addition two wing dams constructe
I on the upper falls. The remainin
/ gunboats, somewhat lifted by the bach
water of the wing dams, were nov
! hauled over the upper falls, and o
i May Il, amid the tumultuous cheers {
i 30 900 soldiers lined up along the shor
4 made the perilous passage over til
i lower falls to the deep water below.
On June IL, 1864. congress adopte
i a resolution of thanks to Lieutenar