Joseph Bailey ( general ) Joseph Bailey ( May 6 , 1825 – March 21 , 1867 ) was a civil engineer who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Early life . Bailey was born near the town of Pennsville in Morgan County , Ohio . He earned a civil engineering degree at the University of Illinois , then moved to Wisconsin and became a civil engineer and lumberman . Politically , he was a Democrat . Civil War . Bailey entered the Union Army at the beginning of the war as captain of Company D of the 4th Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment . He served as part of Major General Benjamin F . Butler ' s Army of the Gulf , which occupied New Orleans after Admiral David Farragut captured the city in April 1862 . Bailey was named acting chief engineer for the city of New Orleans shortly after its occupation . Promoted to major in May 1863 , Bailey contributed to the Union Army ' s engineering activities in support of the Siege of Port Hudson . In August 1863 , he was promoted to lieutenant colonel when the regiment was redesignated as the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment . Red River Campaign . Bailey ' s engineering skills during Major General Nathaniel P . Banks ' ill - fated 1864 Red River Campaign are considered the reason the campaign did not result in the loss of the entire 30 , 000 - man Army of the Gulf . Having landed his forces at Simmesport , Louisiana in March with the intention of moving north along the Red River some 200 miles to capture Shreveport , the headquarters of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith , Banks was repulsed at the Battle of Mansfield on April 8 , 1864 , by Confederate General Richard Taylor and his force of just 12 , 000 men . Retreating down the Red River , Banks found the low river level at Alexandria prohibited the passage of Commander David Dixon Porter ' s fleet of ten Federal gunboats , part of the Union Army ' s Mississippi Squadron . Hounded by Taylor ' s forces in the rear , Banks faced the humiliating necessity of abandoning Porter ' s fleet . Without the fleet ' s supporting firepower , his entire Army would risk capture before it could return to safety in New Orleans . Resigned to his fate , Banks reluctantly listened to Porter ' s suggestion to give Bailey ' s idea a try . Bailey suggested building a winged dam , similar to those he had built as a Wisconsin lumberman . The dam , Bailey argued , would raise the level of the river . When it was high enough to carry Porter ' s fleet over the falls , Bailey would blow up the dam , and the fleet would be saved . Persuaded by Porter , Banks agreed to the plan . For ten days , 10 , 000 troops worked feverishly on both banks of the River to build the dam . Finally , on May 10 , 1864 , the river rose , the dam was broken , and the fleet floated past . Porter ' s fleet and Banks ' army were saved . The ruins of Bailey ' s Dam can be seen to this day in Alexandria . A grateful United States Congress voted Bailey the Thanks of Congress , making him only one of fifteen men to receive such an honor during the Civil War . He was the only person to receive the honor who did not command a corps or division at the time . Promotion to general . In June 1864 , Bailey became the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry ' s colonel . However , he was soon assigned to command the Engineer Brigade in the XIX Corps in the Department of the Gulf from June through August . He then commanded the District of West Florida from August until November , when he was sent back to Louisiana to take charge of the District of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson . He held other commands in the Western Theater , including command of a cavalry division and an engineer brigade for a corps in the Military Division of West Mississippi until the war ' s end . On November 10 , 1864 , President Abraham Lincoln appointed Bailey brigadier general of volunteers to rank from November 19 , 1864 and submitted this nomination to the Senate on December 12 , 1864 and again on March 7 , 1865 . The first nomination expired without U . S . Senate confirmation on March 4 , 1865 and Bailey resigned from the service on July 7 , 1865 before the Senate acted on the second nomination . After Bailey was out of the service , on January 13 , 1866 , President Andrew Johnson nominated Bailey again for appointment to the grade of brigadier general to rank from November 10 , 1864 and the U . S . Senate finally confirmed the appointment on February 23 , 1866 . On March 28 , 1867 , President Johnson nominated Bailey posthumously for the award of the brevet grade of major general of volunteers to rank from March 13 , 1865 and the U . S . Senate confirmed the award on March 30 , 1867 . Last years . Joseph Bailey survived the war by less than two years . In October 1865 , he moved with his wife and children to Vernon County , Missouri , where he was elected sheriff . He was shot and killed on March 21 , 1867 near Nevada , Missouri by two brothers he had arrested ( but failed to disarm ) for stealing a hog . Despite a $ 3 , 000 reward , the killers , former bushwhacker s Lewis and Perry Pixley , were never brought to justice . A third suspect was lynched . Later William McWaters also fell under suspicion for Bailey ' s murder , but managed to escape the posse sent to arrest him . General Bailey was buried with Masonic honors in the military cemetery at Fort Scott , Kansas . His remains were later moved to Evergreen Cemetery , where he rests next to his wife . A monument to his memory stands in Malta , Ohio , and he is the subject of a biography , " Hero of the Red River - The Life and Times of Joseph Bailey " .