disappeared in the foam and surge, but
only to be greeted with a mighty cheer, such as brave men give to
courage and good fortune, when she was seen to ride in safety below.
The _Osage_, the _Neosho_, and the _Fort Hindman_ promptly followed
her down the chute, but the other six gunboats and the two tugs
were still imprisoned above by the sudden sinking of the swift
rushing waters; the jaws of danger, for an instant relaxed, had
once more shut tightly on the prey. Doubt and gloom took the place
of exultation. As for the army, hard as had been the work demanded
of it, still greater exertions were before it, nor was their result
by any means certain, for the volume of the river was daily
diminishing, and there would be no more rise that year.

So far Bailey had substantially followed, though on a larger scale,
the same plan that had worked so successfully the year before at
Port Hudson. But against a weight, a volume, and a velocity of
water such as had to be encountered here, it was now plainly seen
that something else would have to be tried. No emergency, however
great or sudden, ever finds a man of his stamp unready. As soon
therefore as the collapse showed him the defect in his first plan,
he instantly set about remedying it by dividing the weight of water
to be contended with. At the upper fall three wing-dams were
constructed. Just above the rocks a stone crib was laid on the
south side, and directly opposite to this on the north side a
tree-dam, like those already described when speaking of the original
dam. Just below the rocks, projecting diagonally from the north
bank, a bracket-dam was built, made of logs having one end sunk to
meet the current, the other end raised on trestles, and the whole
then sheathed with plank. By this means the whole current was
turned into one very narrow channel, and a new rise of fourteen
inches was gained, giving in all six feet six and one half inches
of water. Every man bending himself to this task to his utmost,
by the most incredible exertions this new work was completed in
three days and three nights, and thus during the 12th and 13th the
remainder of the fleet passed free of the danger.

The cribs were washed away during the spring rise in 1865; but it
is said that the main tree-dam survives to this day, having driven
the channel towards the south shore, and washed away a large slice
of the bank at the upper end of the town of Alexandria.

For his part in the con