Night and day the work was carried on without cessation, the men working willingly and cheerfully, although many were compelled to stand up to their waists in water during the damp and chilly nights, and under a burning sun by day, and notwithstanding very many had no faith in the success of the great undertaking.... Oak, elm, and pine trees ... were falling to the ground under the blows of the stalwart pioneers of Maine, bearing with them in their fall trees of lesser growth; mules and oxen were dragging the trees, denuded of their branches, to the river’s bank; wagons heavily loaded were moving in every direction; flat-boats carrying stone were floating with the current, while others were being drawn up the stream in the manner of canal boats. Meanwhile hundreds of men were at work at each end of the dam, moving heavy logs to the outer end of the tree-dam, ... wheeling brick out to the cribs, carrying bars of railway iron to the barges, ... while on each bank of the river were to be seen thousands of spectators, consisting of officers of both services, groups of sailors, soldiers, camp-followers, and citizens of Alexandria, all eagerly watching our progress and discussing the chances of success (Moore 1868:11-12). [Illustration: The tinclad _Signal_ towing material for Bailey’s Dam. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.] In the midst of this furious activity, Bailey was constantly on hand directing the construction. On site, the soldiers toiled through the day and night; the slightest disobedience was harshly corrected. Two officers were even arrested for allowing a barge, which was to be part of the dam, to sink in the wrong place. Meanwhile, on shore, the dam and Bailey were the main source of amusement. To most of the navy, half the army, and much of the townspeople, the dam was a great joke. Word of Bailey’s dam quickly spread to the rebels, who would taunt their enemy with “How’s your big dam progressing?” (Moore 1868:12). But Bailey ignored the wisecracks and concentrated on his plan. ENGINEERING AND ARCHAEOLOGY During the Civil War, the rapids at Alexandria were composed of rocky outcroppings of sandstone and siltstone forming shoals along a mile stretch of the Red River, even at times of high water. At low water, the upper and lower ends of the rapids were exposed. Long before the war, the rapids had been a problem to river traffic. When the water was low, goods being transported by steamboat up and down the river had to be unloaded, carried past the rapids by wagon, and reloaded on different boats. Numerous ideas had been proposed to improve the river passage; even the famous Henry Miller Shreve proposed a solution, but no action was taken. By 1864 the only navigational aid at the rapids was a small channel cut out of the rocky river bottom. While this was an improvement, the water was still too low to navigate the rapids during the campaign.