An old engraving of a Union naval vessel passing through Bailey's Dam, a timber dam on the Red River at Alexandria, Louisiana, USA, 1864, during the American Civil War. It is from an American history book of 1895. Built during the Red River Campaign, designed by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, it allowed Mississippi River Squadron boats passage downstream over the Alexandria rapids (as shown here). In the 150-foot centre gap of the rock/timber dam four coal barges were anchored into the riverbed. The dam was breached when one barge was towed out of the way allowing to pass downstream.
An old engraving of a Union naval vessel passing through Bailey's Dam, a timber dam on the Red River at Alexandria, Louisiana, USA, 1864, during the American Civil War. It is from an American history book of 1895. Built during the Red River Campaign, it was designed by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey to allow passage over the Alexandria rapids for part of Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter's Mississippi River Squadron. The dam raised the level of the river. It was then breached in order to allow the boats in its reservoir to pass downstream. Around 3,000 soldiers felled trees and brought rock, brick, stone and other materials to the construction site. As construction progressed, two wings of the dam developed from either shore of the 758-foot-wide (231 m) river. The rock-timber structure did not cross the entire river and four coal barges were sunk and anchored into the riverbed side by side, lengthways in the dam's 150-foot gap. One barge was only partially filled and could be towed out of the way to allow the reservoir to begin to empty and ships to pass downstream (as shown here).
Size: 3543px × 2673px
Location: Red River, Alexandria, Louisiana, USA
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1800s, 1860s, 1864, 19th, alexandria, america, american, bailey, baileys, battle, black, boat, boats, breach, breaching, campaign, century, civil, confederate, dam, early, engraving, equipment, historical, history, hundreds, illustration, joseph, louisiana, machinery, maritime, military, mississippi, naval, navy, nineteenth, rapids, red, river, ship, ships, squadron, timber, union, usa, victorian, war, warship, white
