On the 12th of April a severe engagement occurred, owing to an attempt, by a rebel force of two thousand men, to capture the iron-clad Osage and the transport Black Hawk, which had grounded. Flushed with their recent victory over Banks’s army, the rebels displayed unwonted courage, and soon drove all the men from the transport to the safe casemates of the monitor; but a destructive cross-fire from the Osage and Lexington quickly put them to flight with severe loss.
Every day difficulties of this character occurred, as the vessels were constantly grounding, until they arrived at Grand Ecore, when greater and more serious obstacles presented themselves, which threatened the loss of the most valuable vessels of the fleet.
The rebels were industriously employed in cutting off the supply of water from various channels up the river, in the hope of preventing the passage of the vessels over the bar at Grand Ecore, and the result appeared to promise success to their plans. The heavy vessels were constantly grounding, and, on the 26th of April, the commander of the Eastport, after laboring night and day for a week to carry his vessel over the sand-bars and logs by which she was clogged, was compelled to blow her up, after removing all her stores and available equipments.
On the 4th of May the steamers Covington, Warner, and Signal were captured by about two thousand rebels, who attacked them from the banks of the river, killing or capturing forty of their crew.
The crowning act of heroism and of engineering skill in this unfortunate campaign, is described in the report of Admiral Porter, in detailing the passage of the Falls of Alexandria by the fleet:
“Mississippi Squadron, Flagship Black Hawk, }
“Mouth Red river, May 16th, 1864. }
“Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the vessels lately caught by low water above the Falls of Alexandria, have been released from their unpleasant position. The water had fallen so low that I had no hope or expectation of getting the vessels out this season, and, as the army had made arrangements to evacuate the country, I saw nothing before me but the destruction of the best part of the Mississippi squadron.
“There seems to have been an especial Providence in providing a man equal to the emergency. Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey, Acting Engineer of the Nineteenth army corps, proposed a plan of building a series of dams across the rocks at the falls, and raising the water high enough to let the vessels pass over. This proposition looked like madness, and the best engineers ridiculed it; but Colonel Bailey was so sanguine of success that I requested to have it done, and he entered heartily into the work. Provisions were short and forage was almost out, and the dam was promised to be finished in ten days or the army would have to leave us. I was doubtful about the time, but I had no doubt about the ultimate success, if time would only permit. General Banks placed at the disposal of Colonel Bailey all the forces he required, consisting of some three thousand men and two or three hundred wagons. All the neighboring steam-mills were torn down for material; two or three regiments of Maine men were set at work felling trees, and on the second day after my arrival in Alexandria, from Grand Ecore, the work had fairly begun.
“Trees were falling with great rapidity; teams were moving in all directions, bringing in brick and stone; quarries were opened; flatboats were built to bring stone down from above, and every man seemed to be working with a vigor I have seldom seen equalled, while perhaps not one in fifty believed in the undertaking. These fails are about a mile in length, filled with rugged rocks, over which, at the present stage of water, it seemed to be impossible to make a channel.