Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Bailey’s Dam was the toil expended by the Union soldiers.... Through the hot days and chilly nights they labored diligently despite harassment from the enemy; the depression and fatigue of a long, failed campaign.... In many respects, their efforts offer some basis for Porter’s claim that Bailey’s Dam was “without doubt the greatest engineering feat ever performed” (Robinson 1985:66-67).
Today, “the dam still remains intact as we left it, and bids fair, if undisturbed, to stand a hundred years—an imperishable monument of American energy, ingenuity, and skill” (Moore 1868:13-14).
View west across the Red River at Bailey’s Dam during low water in 1984.
REFERENCES CITED
Beecher, Harris H.
1866 Record of the 114th Regiment N.Y.S.V. J. F. Hubbard, Jr., Norwich, New York.
Hoffman, Wickham
1877 Camp court and siege. Harper & Brothers, New York.
Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War