April 25, 21864. |
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| Bailey's Red River Dam. |
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vessels above, ran by the battery at Cane Creek, and escaped, with the exception of the pump-boat, Champion, which was disabled and burned.1 After that, the vessels were not impeded on their way to Alexandria.
The land and naval forces of the Red River expedition were now all at Alexandria.
What next?
Banks found General Hunter there,
with orders from General Grant to close up the campaign against Shreveport as speedily as possible, for Sherman's troops were wanted eastward of the Mississippi.
Hunter was sent back with a letter to Grant, telling him that the fleet was above the rapids, and would be in danger of capture or destruction if abandoned by the army, and informing him that it would require some time to get them below, if it could be effected at all. Any attempt to renew the Shreveport campaign of course was now out of the question, and all eyes were turned toward the Mississippi, as the next point of destination for the expedition.
To get the fleet below the rapids was the first work to be accomplished.
Porter did not believe in damming the river, except by words.
Banks did, and ordered Colonel Bailey to do it. He went to work on Sunday, the first of May, with liberty to employ as many men as he might desire.
Nearly the whole of the army were engaged in the business, in some way, at different times; and on Sunday
day, the 8th of May, a main dam of stone and timber, and sunken coal-boats, was finished.2 It stretched across the river, there nearly eight hundred feet in width, and then from four to six feet in depth, and running at the rate of ten miles an hour.
The work was successful.
The water was raised seven feet on the rapids, and that afternoon the gun-boats Osage, Fort Hindman, and Neosho, with
1 In this affair, the Cricket was hulled thirty-eight times, and lost half her crew of fifty men, killed and wounded. The Juliet was badly damaged, and lost fifteen men; and the gun-boat, Fort Hindman, was also badly maimed. As she ran by the battery, her wheel-ropes were cut by the shot, and she drifted helplessly down the stream.
2 Admiral Porter, in his dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, says: “The work was commenced by running out from the left bank of the river a tree-dam, made of the bodies of very large trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross-tied with other heavy timber, and strengthened in every way ingenuity could devise. This was run about three hundred feet into the river. Four large coal-barges were then filled with brick, and sunk at the, end of it. From the right bank of the river cribs filled with stone were built out to meet the barges.” Speaking of the break in the dam, he said it was a fortunate occurrence, for it was caused by the swinging around of two barges at the center, which formed a cushion for the vessels passing through, and prevented their striking the rocks.
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