ception and execution of this great undertaking,
Bailey received the thanks of Congress on the 11th of June, 1864,
and was afterward made a brigadier-general by the President.

The troops engaged in constructing the dam were the 97th colored,
Colonel George D. Robinson; the 99th colored, Lieutenant-Colonel
Uri B. Pearsall; the 29th Maine, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles S.
Emerson; the 133d New York, a detail of 300 men, under Captain
Anthony J. Allaire; the 161st New York, Lieutenant-Colonel Wm. B.
Kinsey; the pioneers of the Thirteenth Army Corps, 125 in number,
commanded by Captain John B. Hutchens of the 24th Indiana, and
composed of men detailed from the 11th, 24th, 34th, 46th, 47th,
and 67th Indiana, the 48th, 56th, 83d, and 96th Ohio, the 24th and
28th Iowa, the 23d and 29th Wisconsin, 130th Illinois, and 19th
Kentucky; 460 men of the 27th Indiana, 29th Wisconsin, 19th Kentucky,
130th Illinois, 83d Ohio, 24th Iowa, 23d Wisconsin, 77th Illinois,
and 16th Ohio, commanded by Captain George W. Stein of the latter
regiment.

Bailey was also greatly assisted by a detail from the navy, under
Lieutenant Amos R. Langthorne, commanding the _Mound City_. Besides
these officers, all of whom rendered service the most laborious
and the most valuable, Bailey acknowledges his indebtedness to
Brigadier-General Dwight, Colonel James Grant Wilson, and Lieutenant
Charles S. Sargent of Banks's staff; to Major W. H. Sentell, 160th
New York, provost-marshal; Lieutenant John J. Williamson, ordnance
officer of the Nineteenth Corps; and Lieutenant Sydney Smith
Fairchild, 161st New York.

All this time the army lying about Alexandria, to secure the safety
of the navy, was itself virtually invested by the small but active
forces under Taylor, who now found himself, not only foot loose,
but once more able to use for his supplies the channel of the upper
Red River, whence he had caused the obstructions to be removed as
soon as the withdrawal of Banks relieved all fears of invasion,
and turned the thoughts of the Confederate chiefs to dreams of
conquest.

On the 31st of March Grant had peremptorily ordered the evacuation
of the coast of Texas save only the position held at the mouth of
the Rio Grande, and Banks, as soon as he received this order, had
ordered McClernand to join him with the bulk of his troops, consisting
of the First and Second divisions of the Thirteenth Corps.
McClernand, with Lawler's brigade of the former, arrived at Alex