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 290 ALEXANDRIA Alexandria, Egypt Mehemet All Square. by the Union forces under Col. Ellsworth, who was shot while hauling down a confederate flag. It was subsequently the seat of govern- ment of the few counties of eastern Virginia which adhered to the Union, being occupied by the federal army, and recognized Francis II. Pierpont as governor of the state. ALEXANDRIA, a town, capital of the parish of Rapides, La., on the Red river, about 50 m. (direct) from its junction with the Mississippi ; pop. in 1870, 1,218, of whom 448 were colored ; in 1860, 1,461. It is the shipping point of a rich cotton country. When the Shreveport expedition of Gen. Banks and Admiral Porter was descending the river in April, 1864, the fleet, owing to low water, was unable to pass the falls at Alexandria, and the destruction or capture of all the vessels, valued at nearly $2,- 000,000, seemed inevitable. In this emergency Lieut. Col. Joseph Bailey, engineer of the 19th corps, proposed to construct a dam across the channel of the river here 758 feet wide, 4 to 6 feet deep, and running at the rate of 10 miles an hour a short distance below the falls. Eight days' work had nearly completed the dam, and the water had risen enough for all except the largest vessels to pass, when a por- tion of the work gave way. Admiral Porter immediately ordered the four smaller vessels of the fleet to pass through the breach, which, though attended with great danger, was suc- cessfully accomplished. Several wing dams directly at the head of tbe falls were now con- structed, raising the water on the rapids more than a foot additional, whn the rest of the fleet passed safely down. The town was near- ly destroyed by an accidental l?re on the day of its evacuation by the federal txoops, May 13 following. ALEXANDRIA (Turk. hkanderiyeJi), a city of Egypt, on the Mediterranean, 112 m. N. W. of Cairo, founded by Alexander the Great after the destruction of Tyre, 332 B. C. Dinocrates or Dinochares was the architect, and the site se- lected was at the Canopic mouth of the Nile, between Ishe sea and Lake Mareotis. The city was regularly laid out and intersected by two main streets, upward of 100 feet wide, run- ning from N. to S. and from E. to W. respec- tively. On the island of Pharos a lighthouse of vast height was erected, and this island itself was connected with the mainland by a dike which divided the inner from the outer harbor, and through which vessels could pass by means of movable bridges. The east end of the town was called the Bruchium, and here was the royal palace of the Ptolemies. Under them Alexandria was the great centre to which the trade of Europe and the Mediterranean with Persia and the far east converged. It num- bered about 300,000 free inhabitants, of vari- ous nationalities, and also became the centre of universal learning. Here the schools of Grecian philosophy, and especially the Plato- nists, flourished. Among its ornaments were its library and the museum, an establishment in which scholars were maintained at public cost. In Alexandria the Scriptures were first made known to the heathen by the Septuagint version, and here Christianity early took root, although the city soon became the scene of ran- corous and unchristian disputation and violence. In no place were religious conflicts more fre- quent or more sanguinary. It also witnessed much political strife, suffering especially dur- ing the struggle of Cleopatra with her broth- er Ptolemy (Caesar's Alexandrine war). In 30 B. C. it fell permanently under the power