But if an attempt should be made to get below the town, Vicksburg itself threatened the only line by which supplies could be obtained. Three means of obviating this difficulty suggested themselves: First, to turn the Mississippi river from its course, and, by cutting a canal across the peninsula in front of Vicksburg, create a new channel, through which the fleet might glide securely by the rebellious city, and in full view from its disappointed batteries, to the coveted position below. Second, by breaking levees, opening canals, and connecting and widening treams, a circuitous route, through bayous, and rivers, nd swamps, could be opened, from Lake Providence on the Louisiana side, seventy miles above Vicksburg, nd a passage found, through the Red river, into the ississippi again, four hundred miles below. This bute, however, would, at best, be long and difficult, nd, if opened, would only afford an opportunity of enforcing Banks, as the mouth of the Red river is ust above Port Hudson. The third, and apparently nly other possible plan, was to march the whole my along the western shore, to some point below he town, and then cross the river, and combine with Banks to operate against Port Hudson; and, after hat place should fall, begin a new campaign against Vicksburg, from Grand Gulf or Warrenton, depending on supplies from below. The roads in Louisiana were, however, entirely under water, so that this plan was not now feasible; and until Port Hudson was taken and the river opened to New Orleans, the difficulty of supplying the army, when thrown below the town, appeared absolutely insuperable.

As early as the 20th of January, Grant had instructed McClernand to begin the enlargement of the

canal. He had himself been ordered by Halleck to direct his attention particularly to this undertaking, as the President attaches much importance to this." It was a scheme of magnificent proportions, but more likely to attract an imagination like Mr. Lincoln's than to strike favorably a purely military mind. The country, North and South, watched its progress anxiously; and, even in Europe, the plan of turning a mighty river from its course attracted attention and comment. The rebels loudly predicted failure, and the gibes of those who opposed the war at the North, were incessant. Still Grant toiled on; four thousand soldiers were constantly employed on the work, besides negroes, who were comparatively of little use. On the 4th of February, however, he reported to Halleck that he had lost all faith in the practicability of the scheme. "The canal," he said, "is at right angles with the thread of the current at both ends, and both ends are in an eddy, the lower coming out under bluffs completely commanding it. Warrenton, a few miles below, is capable of as strong defences as Vicksburg; and the enemy, seeing us at work here, have turned their attention to that point."

The peninsula is about three and a half miles long, and where the canal was located, only a mile and a fifth in width. As constructed by General Williams, the canal was ten feet wide and six deep, but his excavation did not extend through the stratum of black alluvial soil to the sandy substratum, and in 1862, when the water rose so as to run through, there was no enlargement. Grant's engineers attempted to remedy this, by cutting a wing, from a point two or three hundred yards further up the river, where the current impinges more strongly against the

*

shore. It was hoped by the additional flow of water thus secured, and by the use of dredging-machines, to widen and deepen the main canal. The design was, to allow a passage for vessels with a breadth of beam of sixty feet, and a draught of eight or nine.

The troops who were engaged for two months on the canal, were encamped immediately on its west bank, and protected from possible inundation by a levee; but the continued rise in the river made a large expenditure of labor necessary to keep the water out of the camps and canal. The work was tedious and difficult, and seemed interminable; and towards the last it became also dangerous, for the enemy, well aware how important it was to thwart this operation, threw shells all over the peninsula, and, as Grant had predicted, erected batteries which commanded the lower end of the canal. But, at last, there seemed some prospect of success; the dredge-boats worked to a charm; the laborers reached a sufficient depth in the soil; the wing was ready to connect with the main artery, and the undertaking was apparently all but completed; when, on the 8th of March, an additional and rapid rise in the river, and the consequent increase of pressure, caused the dam near the upper end of the canal to give way, and every attempt to keep

* The following correspondence contains the only suggestion made by General Halleck to Grant during this portion of the Vicksburg campaign:

"February 13.

"Cannot dredge-boats be used with advantage in the canal? There are four lying idle at Louisville, belonging to Barton, Robinson & Co., contractors. "H. W. HALLECK, General-in-chief."

"February 17.

"We have one dredging-machine here, and another ordered. More than two could not be advantageously used.

"U. S. GRANT, Major-General.”

the rush of water out proved abortive. The torrent, thus admitted, struggled for a while with the obstacles that sought to stay its course; but finally, instead of coming out below, broke the levee of the canal itself, and spread rapidly across the peninsula, overwhelming every barrier, and separating the northern and southern shores as effectually as if the Mississippi itself flowed between them. It swept far and wide over the interior, submerging the camps, and spreading into the bayous, even to the Tensas and lower Red. The troops were obliged to flee for their lives, horses were drowned, implements were broken and borne away by the current, and all the labor of many weeks was lost.

Attempts were made to repair the damages, but on the 27th of March, Grant reported that all work except repairing the crevasses in the canal levee had been suspended for several days, the enemy having driven the dredges entirely out. "The canal may be useful in passing boats through, at night, but nothing further." As he had foretold, the batteries erected on the hills below Vicksburg completely enfiladed the canal. The rebels declared that the Yankees had been as impious as the Titans, in their audacity, and as impotent, and hoped that in future they would not attempt to disturb the natural features of the globe.

On the 30th of January, the day after he assumed command of the Vicksburg expedition,* Grant gave orders for cutting a way from the Mississippi to Lake Providence and went himself to that place on the 4th of February, remaining there several days.

*At this time Grant wrote to Halleck:

“January 31.

"I am pushing every thing to gain a passage, avoiding Vicksburg."

This sheet of water is a portion of the old bed of the river, and lies about a mile west of the present channel. It is six miles long, and connected by Bayou Baxter with Bayou Maçon, a navigable stream communicating in its turn with the Tensas, Washita, and Red rivers. Through these various channels it was thought possible to open a route by which transports of light draught might reach the Mississippi again, below, and thus enable Grant to reënforce Banks (then on either the Red river or the Atchafalaya), and to cooperate with him against Port Hudson.

The levee was cut, and a canal opened between the river and the lake, through which the water passed rapidly; but peculiar difficulties were countered in clearing Bayou Baxter of the overhanging forests and fallen timber with which it was ob structed. The land, from Lake Providence, and also from Bayou Maçon, recedes until the lowest interval between the two widens out into a cypress-swamp, where Bayou Baxter is lost. This flat was filled with water to the depth of several feet; and the work of removing the timber, that choked the bayou thickly for a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, was, in consequence, exceedingly difficult and slow; but if this could have been accomplished, the channel, in high water, would have been continuous, although intricate and circuitous in a remarkable degree. So McPherson's corps was engaged in the undertaking for many weeks. The impossibility of obtaining the requisite number of light-draught steamers, however, would have rendered this route useless, even had it been thoroughly opened. But no steamer ever passed through the tortuous channel, which served only to employ the superfluous troops, and to demonstrate