tain if they were ready to follow the four boats that had already passed the rapids. I reached the fleet about 12 midnight. Scarcely a mand or a light was to be seen. It was perfectly apparent that the boats were not in condition to take advantage of the completion of the dam, and feeling that it could not stand another day, I wrote a note to Admiral Porter at 1 o'clock on the morning of the 9th, which was delivered in person in condition to move over the rapids at the earliest possible moment in the morning.

A little after 5 o'clock on the morning of the 9th, I saw a part of the dam swept away. The four boats that had passed the rapids the afternoon before were able to pass below through the opening which the waters had made. Only one of the vessels above the falls, the Lexington, was ready to move when the dam gave way, and that came down after the break and passed the dam safely, with all the vessels that were below the rapids. Had the others been ready to move all would have passed the rapids and the dam safely on Monday. Until after the dam had been carried away no effort had been made to lessen the draught of the imprisoned vessels, by lightening them of cargo, armament, or plating. Before the second series of dams was completed a portion of the armament and the plating, materially lessening their draught and the depth of water required to float them, was removed.

Lieutenant William S. Beebe, of the Ordnance Department, U. S. Army, superintended the removal of the heavy naval guns from above the rapids to a point below the dam by land, assisted by officers and soldiers of the army. The army immediately commenced the reconstruction of the dam. Finding it impossible to resist the current of the river entirely, the opening made by the flood was only partially closed, and eight or ten wing-dams were constructed on the right and left bank of the river, in accordance with the original plan, turning the current of water directly upon the channel and raising it at the different points sufficiently to allow the vessels to pass. This new work was completed on the 12th of May, and on the afternoon of that day all the boats passed below the rapids to the dam. At 6 o'clock in the evening the Mound City and Carondelet passed the 13th. The water upon the dam was steadily falling, but at 9 o'clock on the 13th all the boats had safely passed. Preparations had been made for the movement of the army the evening after the passage of the boats below the dam on the 12th, and after all were below on the 13th orders were given for the march.

The construction of the dam was exclusively the work of the army. but little aid or encouragement was rendered by officers of the navy, except by Lieutenant A. R. Langthorne, commanding the Mound City, who assisted in setting the cribs, and was always ready to answer the call of the officers charged with the construction of the work. The soldiers labored sedulously and zealously night and day, in and out of the water, from the 1st to the 13th of May, inclusive, when the passage of the passage of the boats was completed.

Upon my arrival at Alexandria, on the 25th of April, I found Major-General Hunter with dispatches from the lieutenant-general commanding the armies, reaffirming instructions which I had received at Grand Ecore relating to the operations of the army elsewhere, and to the necessity of bringing the Shreveport campaign to an end