oment on the rocks
below, and then, sweeping into deep water with the current, rounded to
at the bank, safe. One great cheer rose from the throats of the
thousands looking on, who had before been hushed into painful silence,
awaiting the issue with beating hearts. The Neosho followed, but
stopping her engine as she drew near the opening, was carried
helplessly through; for a moment her low hull disappeared in the
water, but she escaped with a hole in her bottom, which was soon
repaired. The Hindman and Osage came through without touching.

The work on the dam had been done almost wholly by the soldiers, who
had worked both day and night, often up to their waists and even to
their necks in the water, showing throughout the utmost cheerfulness
and good humor. The partial success, that followed the first
disappointment of the break, was enough to make such men again go to
work with good will. Bailey decided not to try again, with his limited
time and materials, to sustain the whole weight of water with one dam;
and so, leaving the gap untouched, went on to build two wing-dams on
the upper falls. These, extending from either shore toward the middle
of the river and inclining slightly down stream, took part of the
weight, causing a rise of 1 foot 2 inches, and shed the water from
either side into the channel between them. Three days were needed to
build these, one a crib-and the other a tree-dam, and a bracket-dam a
little lower down to help guide the current. The rise due to the main
dam when breached was 5 feet 41/2 inches, so that the entire gain in
depth by this admirable engineering work was 6 feet 61/2 inches. On the
11th the Mound City, Carondelet, and Pittsburg came over the upper
falls, but with trouble, the channel being very crooked and scarcely
wide enough. The next day the remaining boats, Ozark, Louisville, and
Chillicothe, with the two tugs, also came down to the upper dam, and
during that and the following day they all passed through the gap,
with hatches closely nailed down and every precaution taken against
accident. No mishap befell them beyond the unshipping of rudders, and
the loss of one man swept from the deck of a tug. The two barges which
had been carried out at the first break of the dam stuck just below
and at right angles to it, and there staid throughout, affording an
excellent cushion on the left side of the shoot. What had been a
calamity proved thus a benefit. The boats having taken on board t