vance suffered a defeat at Sabine Cross Roads on 8 April, and retreated to Alexandria, where it was found that the water had fallen so much that it was impossible for the fleet to pass below the falls. Kear-Admiral Porter, commanding the squadron, was reluctantly making preparations to save what stores he could and to destroy his gun-boats, preparatory to retreating with the army, as he was advised that the land position was not tenable, when Lieut.-Col. Bailey proposed to build a dam and deepen the water in mid-channel so that the gun-boats could pass. The regular engineers condemned the project as impracticable; but Lieut.-Col. Bailey persevered, and, in the face of discouraging opposition and indifference on the part of the navy, finally, on 30 April, procured the necessary authority from Gen. Banks. When the work was actually begun, there was no lack of men or of zeal. Gen. Jas. Grant Wilson, then a member of Gen. Banks's staff, strongly advocated the scheme, and aided in the construction of the dam. Details of 3,000 soldiers wei-e kept at work night and day, and several hundred lumbermen from Maine regiments did good service in felling and moving trees. The fatigue parties relieved one another at regular intervals, all working with remarkable endurance, often up to their necks in water, and under a semi-tropical sun. The rapids to be deepened were about a mile long and from 700 to more than 1,000 feet wide, with a current of ten miles an hour. On the north bank a tree dam was built, while on the south side, there being no timber, a series of heavy cribs were constructed from material obtained by demolishing several old mills, while the brick, iron, and stone required to sink and hold them in place were procured by tearing down two sugar-houses and taking up a quantity of railroad iron buried in the vicinity. The dams, thus built on both sides of the river, left an opening of sixty-six feet. So energetically and systematically was the work pushed that on the morning of 12 May the whole fleet passed safely down the falls without loss. The Mississippi squadron was saved through the native engineering skill of a Wisconsin farmer. His services received prompt recognition, and on 7 June he was brevetted brigadier-general, and on 30 June was promoted to the full grade of colonel, and subsequently received the formal thanks of congress. The officers of the fleet presented him with a sword and a purse of $3,000. After this feat Gen. Bailey's military record was highly creditable. In November, 1864, he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, and had command of the engineer brigade of the military division of the west Mississippi and of different cavalry brigades until he resigned, 7 July. 18(55. After leaving the army he settled as a farmer in Newton co., Mo., and was elected sheriff, an office which he filled with his accustomed firmness and daring. He met his death at the hands of two desperadoes, upon whom he had personally served warrants, and whom, with characteristic fearlessness, he was escorting to the county-seat without assistance. It is interesting to know that the main portion of the dam, constructed under such haste, was in place twenty-two years afterward, and bade fair to last indefinitely. It is still known as "Bailey's Dam."
BAILEY, Joseph Mead, jurist, b. in Middlebury, Vt., 23 June, 1833; d. in Preeport, 111., 15
Dec, 1895. He was graduated in 1854, and in
1856 began the practice of law at Freeport, 111.
He was a member of the Illinois legislature in
1866-70 and presidential elector of the same state
in 1876. He was chosen a judge in the 13th judicial circuit, Illinois, in 1877. judge of the first
division appellate court in 1878. and chief justice
of that court in 1879. He became a trustee of the
university of Chicago in 1878.
BAILEY, Rufus William, educator, b. in North Yarmouth, Me., 13 April, 1793 ; d. in Huntsville, Tex., 25 April, 1863. He was graduated at
Dartmouth college in 1813, and taught in the
academies at Salisbury, N. H., and Blue Hill, Me.,
then studied law with Daniel Webster, but at the
end of a year entered Andover theological seminary, and on the completion of his studies was licensed, and began preaching at Norwich Plain, at
the same time filling the place of teacher of moral
philosophy in the military school. In 1824 he was
installed pastor of the church in Pittsfield, Mass.,
where he remained four years. He was then
obliged to remove to the south for the sake of his
health, and subsequently taught for more than
twenty years in North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Virginia, in the latter state travelling at one
time extensively as agent of the colonization society. In 1854 he was elected professor of languages
in Austin college, at Huntsville, Texas, and in
1858 became its president. He was the author of
a series of newspaper letters on slavery, subsequently published in a volume under the title of "The Issue"; also of a volume of sermons entitled "The Family Preacher"; of letters to daughters, entitled "The Mother's Request"; of a "Primary Grammar," and of a "Manual of English Grammar," used extensively in southern schools.
BAILEY, Silas, clergyman, b. in Massachusetts about 1812; d. in Paris, France, 11 June, 1874. He was graduated at Brown in 1834, studied at
Newton theological seminary, and was for a time a.
pastor in Massachusetts. He became principal of
Worcester academy about 1840, and, after several
years, was elected president of Granville college,
afterward Dennison university, Granville, Ohio,
where he remained for ten years. He then became
president of the newly established college at Franklin, Ind., where he remained until his health failed.
After filling a pastorate at Lafayette for three
years he accepted the professorship of theology
at Kalamazoo college. Mich. He bequeathed his
library to Franklin college. Dr. Bailey published
sermons, addresses, and reviews.
BAILEY, Theodorus, senator, b. in Dutchess co., N. Y., 12 Oct., 1758; d. in New York city, 6 Sept., 1828. He was a representative in congress
from New York from 1793 to 1797, and from 1799
to 1803. In 1803 he was chosen a senator from
New York, but resigned in the following year and
accepted the postmastership of New York city,
whicii office he held until his death.—His nephew,
Theodorus, naval officer (b. in Chateaugay, N. Y.,
12 April, 1805; d. in Washington, D. C, 10 Feb.,
1877), was appointed a midshipman from New York, 1 Jan., 1818, and received his commission as lieutenant 3 March, 1827. His first cruise was on board the " Cyane," Capt. Trenchard, which captured several slavers on the coast of Africa in 1820-'1. He then made a three years' cruise in the Pacific on the "Franklin." In 1833-'6 he sailed on a cruise round the world on board the "Vincennes." After serving on the frigate "Constellation," in which he again sailed round the -world, he was placed in command of the storeship "Lexington" in 1846, in which, on the breaking out of the Mexican war, he conveyed to California, by way of Cape Horn, an artillery company and several officers who afterward became famous, including Henry W. Halleck, William T. Sherman, and E. O. C. Orel. Lieut. Bailey rendered efficient
