80 



BAILEY, JOSEPH. 



BAILY, EDWARD H. 



tion agreed upon by the South German sov- 

 ereigns. The speech from the throne further 

 represents the customs parliament as the nor- 

 mal representative assembly of the whole of 

 Germany. The Diet approved the treaties 

 with Prussia and the bill for the election to the 

 Zollverein (customs) parliament almost without 

 a dissenting vote. (See GERMANY.) 



BAILEY, JOSEPH, Brigadier-General of Vol- 

 unteers in the late war, and, at the time of his 

 death, sheriff of Vernon County, Mo., was mur- 

 dered near Nevada, Vernon County, by two 

 brothers, Lewis and Perry Pixley, bushwhackers, 

 whom he was attempting to arrest, March 21, 

 1867. General Bailey achieved a high reputation 

 in the Red River expedition, in May, 1864, by 

 his daring and skilful feat of engineering by 

 which he brought the iron-clad gunboats of the 

 Mississippi squadron in safety over the danger- 

 ous falls and rapids of the Red River, above 

 Alexandria. He joined the army in Wisconsin, 

 where he had previously been a lumberman, and 

 his energy, skill, and tact having demonstrated 

 his fitness for the position, he was at this time 

 the acting chief engineer of the Nineteenth 

 army corps, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

 In that unfortunate expedition, the gunboats 

 of the Mississippi squadron, Rear Admiral D. D. 

 Porter, commanding, had ascended the Red 

 River at the high-water stage as far as Grand 

 Ecore, and when the defeat of the army neces- 

 sitated their retreat, and they attempted to de- 

 scend the river, they found that the water had 

 fallen so much that they could not pass the falls 

 or rapids above Alexandria. As the river was 

 constantly falling, and the army were expecting 

 to be driven from their position unless they 

 continued their retreat very soon, the peril 

 was very great ; the loss of the thirteen gun- 

 boats and their accompanying tugs would not 

 only cripple the Union strength on the Western 

 waters, but their abandonment would furnish 

 the enemy a fleet so formidable as to endanger 

 the recently-opened navigation of the Missis- 

 sippi. In this emergency, Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Bailey proposed to construct dams which should 

 raise the water over the rapids sufficiently to 

 permit the gunboats to descend safely. The 

 current was very swift, the river over a mile in 

 width, and the rapids and falls more than a 

 mile in extent. The most skilful engineers in 

 the army said the proposition was absurd, but 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey was calm and confi- 

 dent, and Admiral Porter gave orders for the 

 construction of the dams. The work pro- 

 gressed with wonderful celerity ; three thousand 

 men were employed, and in eight days' work- 

 ing-time the dams were so far complete as to 

 permit the passage of three or four of the boats. 

 An accident caused some delay, but in three 

 days more the whole of the gunboats were 

 safely over the falls. For this brilliant achieve- 

 ment, Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey was promoted 

 to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, 

 and received the thanks of Congress. After 

 the clos^ of the war he was mustered out, and 



settled in Newton County, Mo., near the Kan- 

 sas border, where the population was scattered 

 and composed in almost equal proportions of 

 bushwhackers and Union men. Here he dis- 

 played the same energy and perseverance which 

 had distinguished him in the army. He was 

 "elected in the autumn of 1866 sheriff of the 

 county, and performed the duties of his office 

 with a restless energy and a daring that bor- 

 dered on rashness. A short time before his death 

 he exchanged shots with a bushwhacker, whose 

 horse he finally captured ; and a few days pre- 

 viously he disarmed two men who threatened his 

 life if he attempted it. On the afternoon of 

 March 21st writs were placed in his hands for the 

 arrest of two men, named Lewis and Perry 

 Pixley (bushwhackers), who lived a few miles 

 from Nevada. Several gentlemen offered to 

 accompany him, but he declined assistance and 

 started alone, expecting to be gone about three 

 hours. He reached the place, found the men, 

 and they agreed to go with him if they could 

 borrow saddles for their horses, but refused to 

 give up their arms, stating that they never had 

 been disarmed, and would not be. Not fearing 

 any treachery, the general consented to the ar- 

 rangement. They went to a neighboring house, 

 borrowed the saddles, and started for town. 

 When last seen they were riding abreast and 

 apparently on the. best of terms. Not return- 

 ing as expected, some of his friends rode down 

 to the place where he was last seen, and then 

 returning, found the dead body of the general 

 lying in a ravine near the road, having been 

 killed by a shot in the back of the neck, the 

 ball ranging downward. His horse, a % rms, and 

 several hundred dollars in money were missing, 

 and the only trace of the murderers was found 

 at a ford about four miles distant, where a saddle- 

 cloth had slipped off the horse of the deceased. 

 BAILY, EDWARD HODGES, R. A., F. R. S., an 

 English sculptor, born in Bristol, England, 

 March 10, 1788; died in London, May 22, 

 1867. His father was a ship-carver, and dis- 

 played so much taste and ability in his produc- 

 tion of the figure-heads of ships as to attract 

 the notice and commendation of Flaxman. The 

 son, at the age of fourteen, was placed in a 

 merchant's office to acquire a knowledge of 

 business, but having become acquainted with an 

 artist in wax, he soon acquired such facility in 

 wax-modelling that he abandoned the counticg- 

 house and commenced taking portraits in that 

 material. A surgeon of Bristol, Mr. Leigh, 

 lent him some of Flaxman's designs, and gave 

 him a commission for two groups modelled af- 

 ter Flaxman's conceptions. These he executed 

 so admirably that the kind-hearted surgeon gave 

 him an introduction at once to Flaxman, whose 

 pupil he immediately became, and in whose 

 studio he remained seven years, receiving with 

 eagerness the instructions of the great artist, 

 who watched over him with more than a fa- 

 ther's solicitude. His progress was rapid : in 

 1807 he gained the silver medal of the Society 

 of Arts and Sciences ; in 1809 the first silver 



