. The Civil War : the national view . leet toAlexandria, losing the Rastport, and finding that the waterin the river was rapidly falling, the channel in the shallow-est parts not exceeding four feet in depth. For the fleetto await, indefinitely, the rise of the river meant its probabledestruction, and yet there seemed no escape. At this criticalmoment the man equal to the emergency came forward—Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey of the Fourth Wisconsin,who was chief engineer on General Franklins staff. He pro-posed to build a dam to raise the water, and when sufficientwater had been stored, to b
. The Civil War : the national view . leet toAlexandria, losing the Rastport, and finding that the waterin the river was rapidly falling, the channel in the shallow-est parts not exceeding four feet in depth. For the fleetto await, indefinitely, the rise of the river meant its probabledestruction, and yet there seemed no escape. At this criticalmoment the man equal to the emergency came forward—Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey of the Fourth Wisconsin,who was chief engineer on General Franklins staff. He pro-posed to build a dam to raise the water, and when sufficientwater had been stored, to break the dam and thus enable thefleet to escape. Admiral Porter derided the project; Gen-eral Franklin approved it. Colonel Bailey began on April30th, the building of a dam 758 feet wide, at a point wherethe river had a fall of six feet, and it was necessary toraise the level of the river seven feet to save the fleet. Thewhole army turned in to help and the dam was completed innine days. All the vessels were saved. No like piece of. ■«v, 5 ^ t^
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcivilwarnati, bookyear1906
