Joseph Bailey's Less Successful River Dance

[JPK Huson 1863]

This was new to me. Found this while putting together a ' May ' Red River thread.

Union General Joseph Bailey, the engineer plucked from relative obscurity when his Wisconsin inspired engineering feet saved Porter's fleet from a stranding, hence destruction in the seasonably low Red River in 1864 had had a previous chance to prove his mettle- man against river. He lost that one. Pitting himself against the Mississippi, Bailey's 1862 failure is little known. Here's why.

Wisconsin Historical Society


" Wisconsin military engineer Joseph Bailey (1826-1867) became a legitimate hero in 1864. But two years earlier he supervised a wild-eyed failure when Union generals tried to redirect the Mississippi River.

In July 1862, Northern ships were halted at Vicksburg, Mississippi, by Confederate cannons on the bluffs. Union generals decided to divert the river beyond range by digging a mile-and-a-half long canal through a bend on the opposite shore. Bailey was put in charge of the project.

Northern troops dropped like flies in the Mississippi heat, so officers rounded up 1,200 African-American refugees at gunpoint, some of them slaves and some fugitives, to do the digging. They were promised freedom once the canal was finished, and working 12 hours a day they soon excavated a trench 5 feet deep.

But the Mississippi was falling faster than they could dig. As days passed, their ditch grew from 5 feet deep to 7 to 12.
( copy/ paste stopped working here, ' snipped the rest . It's pretty awful.)

Wisconsin History

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Huh! I hadn't realized that he was connected with that-- though I must note that there were two distinct incarnations of the 'Vicksburg Bypass Canal' project, one started by troops from Butler's army, and the later one from Grant's. The first one was poorly sited and would probably not have been a success in any event; the later one was partly frustrated by Mother Nature and partly by Confederate response (they simply sited batteries at the intended downstream exit of the canal, so anything transiting it wouldn't have escaped without being fired upon).

 

[ErnieMac]

Though commonly known as Grant's Canal, the initial attempt at a canal was done under the orders of Flag Officer David G. Farragut (promoted to Rear Admiral in July, 1862) and BG Thomas Williams (in command of army units under Benjamin Butler). At that time Grant was still in the doghouse as a result of Shiloh and serving as Halleck's second-in-command.

 

[Michael W.]

I never heard this account, either. Regardless of failure on the Mississippi, I still admire Bailey for saving Porter's fleet on the Red. Remnants of his dam can still be seen today, especially when the river is down.....

 

[DaveBrt]

I never heard this account, either. Regardless of failure on the Mississippi, I still admire Bailey for saving Porter's fleet on the Red. Remnants of his dam can still be seen today, especially when the river is down.....View attachment 101045

I've read that a railroad locomotive and some cars were thrown into the river as part of the dams. Can you shed any info on that possibility?

 

[USS ALASKA]

Found a reference to railroad iron...

http://www.crt.state.la.us/dataprojects/archaeology/virtualbooks/BAILEYS/dam.htm

A vague reference to rolling stock...

"The railroad operated for over twenty years. It was destroyed in 1864 during the Red River Campaign of the American Civil War when Union soldiers used rails, cross ties, bridge timbers, and rolling stock from the railroad as material to dump into the Red River in the construction of Bailey's Dam.[1][4] "

From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Railroad (Dang, a wiki reference...)

...but this was sourced from 1 - Capace, Nancy. Encyclopedia of Louisiana. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, 1999. ISBN 978-0-403-09817-0. p. 196. and 4 - Federal Writers' Project; Louisiana Writers' Project (1947). Louisiana: A guide to the state. US History Publishers. p. 242. ISBN978-1-60354-017-9. Retrieved 30 March 2011.

HTH,
USS ALASKA

 

[Patrick H]

This is pretty interesting. I've just been looking at the Vicksburg river front on Google satellite view. It is pretty easy to see the land contours around Centennial Lake and suppose that it was once part of the main river channel. I am curious whether any remnants of the canal works exist on the Louisiana side today. Was the canal taken by the present course of the river? Or do parts of it still exist on the landscape?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

It is my understanding that the 'Centennial Cut-off' did not follow the course of either canal attempt; in fact, there's a special sub-unit of the Vicksburg NMP at the canal site near Delta on the Louisiana side of the river.

ETA If you're on Google Earth, look for the Connecticut monument just southwest of Delta and just south of I-20, and you'll find the canal site.

 

[Patrick H]

Thank you, Mark. Yes, I do see quite a lot of ditch still visible and much of it still full of water, labeled "Grant's Canal" on the satellite view. I missed it previously because I didn't know where to look for it. In period maps of the siege, I see the 1860s course of the Mississippi (or of one of its channels) and that was the extremely sharp bend which I believe is now the Centennial cut off.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Actually, I didn't know where to look for it before today, either! But when I Googled, one of the images that came up was a National Parks sign, so then I knew it had to be somewhere.

 

[1stMS-Arty]

 

[Michael W.]

I've read that a railroad locomotive and some cars were thrown into the river as part of the dams. Can you shed any info on that possibility?

The railroad iron, yes. But of the accounts I have read, I have never heard of cars or a locomotive being thrown in. Not saying it was not possible, but never heard that story. Still, I can't imagine how they could have hauled objects of that size and weight down to the river.

 

[Michael W.]

View attachment 101067 View attachment 101068 View attachment 101069 View attachment 101070

Yes, this is the part of the canal I saw when I was at Vicksburg, across the river on the LA side.

 

[1stMS-Arty]

Maybe the whole thing should be called "Butler's Canal"....also have not been able to find any reference in the OR's to Bailey being involved with the canal in 1862 or 1863. At the time Gen. Williams started the canal Bailey was a captain in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry. He was involved in skirmishes in South Louisiana in 1862 and in 1863 he is reported to have been involved in some engineering during the siege of Port Hudson.

When the canal was begun in 1862 a Connecticut regiment was sent to do the work...in fact a state memorial to Connecticut troops was placed at the canal location in 2008.

 

[FortDeRussy]

I've read that a railroad locomotive and some cars were thrown into the river as part of the dams. Can you shed any info on that possibility?

That would have been Ralph Smith Smith's railroad, that ran from Lecompte to Alexandria, La. It was supposedly the oldest railroad west of the Mississippi, and was considered to be quite a joke by the Yankee soldiers who saw it. They said you could get off the train and walk faster than the train ran. It was ancient even back then. Not sure exactly where it ran, but it would have almost certainly dead-ended at the river in Alexandria, possibly somewhere near where the dam was built.

 

[DaveBrt]

That would have been Ralph Smith Smith's railroad, that ran from Lecompte to Alexandria, La. It was supposedly the oldest railroad west of the Mississippi, and was considered to be quite a joke by the Yankee soldiers who saw it. They said you could get off the train and walk faster than the train ran. It was ancient even back then. Not sure exactly where it ran, but it would have almost certainly dead-ended at the river in Alexandria, possibly somewhere near where the dam was built.

That would be the Red River Railroad and I agree that it is the most likely to have contributed a locomotive, but I am still looking for more information -- name of locomotive, manufacturer, etc.