General Orders 211 by Townsend E D (1 results)

Washington, DC: War Department, 1864 June 15. 12mo. Handbill. Near fine. Lightly soiled and a tad edgeworn, with two file holes at left, not affecting text. Townsend announces a "Public Resolution -- No. 34," being "A Resolution tendering the thanks of Congress to Lieutenant Joseph Bailey, of the 4th Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers. for distinguished services in the recent campaign on the Red river, by which the gunboat flotilla under Rear Admiral David D. Porter was rescued from imminent peril." Bailey (1825-67) was one of only 15 men voted the "Thanks of Congress" -- and the only one who wasn't a corps or division commander. General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign was saved from a disastrous loss of life by this Wisconsin engineer, who devised a plan to raise the level of a river at Alexandria by constructing a winged dam. For ten days about 10,000 soldiers slaved away to build it. The river did indeed raise, and Admiral Porter's stranded fleet of ten gunboats floated safely past. Remnants of "Bailey's Dam" can still be seen today. An intriguing relic of this famed event.