train near the field of battle. All the ammunition wagons were saved. The army had captured up to this time from the enemy 23 guns and 1,500 prisoners. His losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners, officers and men, were much greater than ours. Among the former werre some of the most efficient rebel commanders, whose loss can never be made good. Up to this time no other loss of men or material had been sustained by our army. As soon as the lines of defense were completed preparations were made for the release of the fleet, which was then unable to pass below the falls. From the difficulty which the supply transports had encountered in passing the falls, it was known at Grand Ecore as early as the 15th of April that the navy could not go below, and the means for its release were freely discussed among officers of the army.

During the campaign at Port Hudson the steamers Starlight and Red Chief were captured by Grierson's (Illinois) cavalry, under command of Colonel Prince, in Thompson's Creek. The bed of the creek was nearly dry and the steamers were sunk several feet in the sand. After the capture of Port Hudson, Colonel Bailey constructed wing-dams, which by raising the water lifted the steamers from the sand and floated them out of the creek into the Mississippi. this incident naturally suggested the same works at Alexandria for the relief of the fleet. A survey was ordered for the purpose of determining what measures could be best undertaken. The engineers of the army had complete surveys of the falls, captured from the enemy during our occupation of Alexandria in 1863, at the commencement of the Port Hudson campaign. It was found, upon examining these charts and upon a survey of the river, that the channel was narrow and crooked, formed in solid rock, and that it would be wholly immense the construction of a dam to raise the river to such a height as to enable the vessels to float over the falls. This project was freely discussed by the engineers and officers of the army, and was generally believed to be practicable. Captain J. C. Palfrey, who had made the survey, reported that in his judgment it was entirely feasible, and the only question made related to the time that might be required for so great a work.

The management of this enterprise was naturally intrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers, who was by profession a civil engineer, familiar with works of that kind common to slackwater navigation upon all the Western rivers, and had successfully released the steamers from Thompson's Creek on the Mississippi. Colonel Bailey had suggested the practicability of the dam while we were at Grand Ecore, and had offered to release the Eastport when aground below Grand Ecore by the same means, which offer was declined. Material was collected during these preparations, and work commenced upon the dam on Sunday, May 1. Nearly the whole army was engaged at different times upon this work. The dam was completed on Sunday, May 8, and the gun-boats Osage, Hindman, and two others came over the rapids about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The water had been raised upon the dam for 1 1/4 miles about 7 feet, with a fall below the dam of about 6 feet, making in all a fall of about 13 feet above and below the falls. The pressure of the water at its completion was terrific. I went over the work at 11 o'clock on the evening of the 8th, within of my staff officers, and felt that the pressure of the water was so great that it could not stand. I rode immediately to the point above where the fleet was anchored to ascer-

14 R R-VOL XXXIV, PT I