Background
Bailey was born on April 12, 1805, at Chateaugay, New York in the far north-eastern corner of Franklin County, near the border with Quebec.
Bailey was born on April 12, 1805, at Chateaugay, New York in the far north-eastern corner of Franklin County, near the border with Quebec.
He received his early education at the academy in Plattsburg.
Thus he breathed the very air of Macdonough's operations on Lake Champlain in the War of 1812, resulting in the famous victory of September 1814. This had its influence, and three years later, January 1, 1818, the boy secured an appointment as midshipman. There were advantages in being the son of Judge William Bailey and Phoebe Platt and the nephew of General Theodorus Bailey (the latter holding at different times several offices of distinction in both the State and city of New York), but he did not find that family connections made naval life easy or promotion rapid. His first two years of service were spent off the coast of Africa in the frigate Cyane. Then he was transferred to the ship of the line Franklin, ordered to the Pacific.
His advancement to the lieutenant's grade came March 3, 1827; and, assigned to the Vincennes, he sailed about the Pacific, to China, and then home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the cruise lasting three years and two months.
In 1846, he was given his first independent command, the store-ship Lexington. In the Mexican War, Bailey rendered efficient service. Embarking company F, 3rd Artillery, with three officers later to become famous, Sherman, Halleck, and Ord, he sailed from New York, around the Horn, to Monterey, the voyage taking 198 days (for a detailed account of the voyage, see Sherman's Memoirs). During the latter part of the Mexican War he conducted troops to Lower California and blockaded San Blas, which he captured. He was promoted to commander March 6, 1849, and to captain, December 15, 1855.
From 1853 to 1856 he commanded the St. Mary's, visiting the Marquesas, Society, Samoan, and Fiji Islands, and improving the relations between the natives and American citizens in the last two places. On his return, arriving opportunely at Panama during an uprising in April 1856, Bailey was "of great assistance to our commerce and citizens, " affording "protection to the persons and property of the thousands of our countrymen crossing the Isthmus, from the violence of an ungoverned population". Shortly after the breaking out of the Civil War, Bailey was ordered to command the large steam frigate Colorado, engaged in the blockade of Pensacola. There he matured the plan and attended to the details of fitting out the expedition that destroyed the privateer Judah, September 14, 1861.
His greatest service was with Farragut in the attack on New Orleans, where he was second in command. Since the Colorado was too large to be taken over the bar into the Mississippi, he transferred his flag to the little gunboat Cayuga. Though a medical survey reported that his health was such that it would be dangerous for him to take part in the fight, he ignored this except to protest indignantly to Farragut, "I'll lead your fleet up the river, if I burst my boiler".
On April 24, 1862, he led the way past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, fought (for a while unsupported) the Confederate river defense fleet, captured the Chalmette Regiment, and attacked the Chalmette batteries. Bailey characterized the fight "as a contest between iron hearts in wooden vessels and ironclads with iron beaks - and the iron hearts won" (Report to Secretary of the Navy, May 7, 1862). When the fleet had arrived at New Orleans he was sent into the city, and attended only by Lieut. George H. Perkins as his aid, without a guard and without arms, he passed through an excited and hostile mob. "Through the gates of death those two men walked to the City Hall to demand the town's surrender. It was one of the bravest deeds I ever saw done".
Still suffering from ill health, Bailey was sent north and was honored by being the bearer of dispatches and reports of the victory to Washington. After a brief tour of duty at Sacketts Harbor he had sufficiently recovered to be ordered, Nov. 4, 1862, to relieve Rear Admiral Lardner in the command of the East Gulf blockading squadron. Here again he showed efficiency, and in eighteen months his force captured 150 blockade runners. In the spring of 1864, learning that Farragut was preparing an attack on Mobile, he volunteered to join forces, but yellow fever, breaking out at Key West, and spreading through the East Gulf blockading squadron, thwarted the plan. Shortly after, Bailey, showing evidence of wear from his long service in an enervating climate, was relieved and ordered to command the Portsmouth Navy Yard, September 30, 1864. He was promoted to the rank of rear admiral July 25, 1866, and was retired October 10 of the same year. His last years were spent in Washington, D. C.
On June 23, 1830, he married his cousin, Sarah Ann Platt.