Definition of "levée"

At this place the levée ran along about one hundred and fifty yards back from the ordinary bank of the river, thus leaving when the water was low, a smooth green lawn, beautifully adapted for an encampment, with the levée or dike, eight feet high and fifteen feet wide, protecting from attack on the land side. Breastworks were thrown up from the levée to the river, above and below the encampment. Back of the levée there was a fine plantation.

1877, John Stevens Cabot Abbott, chapter XXIV, in The History of the Civil War in America‎, volume 2, Springfield: C. A. Nichols & Co., page 290