side, and the ground on which nearly all of the army was encamped. As the canal cut the peninsula at right angles, the troops were encamped west of it and behind this embankment. On the 8th of March, when the enter prise promised success within a short time, the dam across the mouth of the canal gave way, owing to a rapid rise of the river and the great pressure of the water. When it broke there was a difference of eight feet between the bottom of the canal and the surface of the water in the river. The violence of the torrent as it rushed through swept away all the implements of labor, and the canal was full in a few minutes. The embankment had not been completed, and the water soon began to pour over. A spectator thus describes the scene: "Some regiments that were in exposed positions had to gather up tents and camp equipage in hot haste and confusion and run for the levee. Several companies on the lower side of the peninsula were cut off and had to be ferried to the main body of the army. The embankment of the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad, which cut the peninsula longitudinally, prevented the water from flooding the northwest quarter. But that was considered insecure; the troops were all ordered to move their quarters to the levee." Some delay was caused by the efforts to repair the damages, but it soon became manifest that, with the existing high stage of the water, some other plan would have to be adopted to get below Vicksburg with the transports. At the commencement of the work on the canal, Gen. Grant, having more troops than could be employed at Young's Point to advantage, caused a channel to be cut from the Mississippi into Lake Providence on the west side of the Mississippi, and another into Coldwater river by the way of the Yazoo Pass, on the east side of the Mississippi. From the former of these routes no great expectations were entertained by Gen. Grant. He thought possible, however, that a route might be opened there through which transports might pass into the Mississippi, and enable him to cooperate with Gen. Banks below. By the Yazoo Pass he expected to get into the Yazoo by way of the Coldwater and Tallahatchie rivers, with some light gunboats and a few troops, and destroy some Confederate transports in that stream and some gunboats on the stocks. With such views the work on these channels was commenced. While these operations were pushed forward, other measures for the annoyance of the enemy were also taken. A steamer called the "City of Vicksburg was daily noticed lying under the batteries of the city, and it was known that farther down the river there was a number of transports rendering great service to the Confederate authorities by bringing supplies to their troops at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson, another strong position below. A movement was planned to destroy these means of transportation. Orders were therefore given to Col. Charles E. Ellet to prepare the ram steamer Queen of the West for running down below the batteries. This steamer was a wooden freight vessel, strengthened so as to carry a prow of iron. To protect her machinery from injury by the shot and shells of the batteries at Vicksburg, three hundred bales of cotton were placed about it, and her steering wheel was removed and placed behind the bulwarks of her bow. Her armament consisted of a large 30pounder rifled Parrott gun on her main deck as a bow gun, one 20-pounder, and three 12pounder brass howitzers on her gun deck. Besides these she had fifty or sixty rifles, carbines, cutlasses, pistols, &c. Her crew consisted of a first, second, and third master, two pilots, three engineers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and deck hands; also a squad of twentysix soldiers. It was planned that she should start before daybreak on the morning of the 24 of February. At the appointed time the steamer was under way, but her steering ap paratus in its new position controlled her movements so poorly that it was necessary to replace it in its original position. This was important, as the destruction of the City of Vicksburg would depend in part upon the accuracy of the blow of the Queen of the West. The detention which ensued prevented her from passing round the point of the peninsula into view from the Confederate batteries until sunrise, when she was instantly greeted by a shell that passed between her smoke chimneys and struck the water about three hundred yards behind her. After the sound of the first shot broke the stillness of the morning, the Confederate artillerists sprang to their pieces, and a hundred guns were fired with a wonderful celerity. Only three or four shots had struck her before she reached the front of the city. The first object now to be accomplished was the destruction of the steamer City of Vicksburg, which was made fast to the bank about the centre of the bend of the river, where the current ran very rapidly. To strike an unerring blow it was necessary for the Queen of the West to round to amid the storm of balls and shells, and move directly across the river against her victim. As she approached the steamboat and the city, the enemy, thinking that she had been disabled, and that her commander had concluded to surrender, raised enthusiastic cheers, which ceased as the ram struck the steamer. The wide guards of the Vicksburg, overlapping the deck of the Queen, even to the barricade of cotton bales, received the force of the blow and prevented the prow of the ram from reaching her hull. At the same time the current caught the stern of the Queen and swung her round side by side with the Vicksburg. This action of the current had been anticipated by Col. Ellet, and the starboard bow gun had been loaded with incendiary shells. It was now fired into the Vicksburg. At the same time the shells from the batteries had set on fire the cotton on the Queen, and it was evident that to repeat the blow would involve the loss of the steamer. The effort was then made to turn her head out toward the stream, which, owing to the action of the wind and current, was, after some delay, accomplished. She then proceeded down the stream with all hands at work to extinguish the fire. Meantime the discharge from the batteries became quick and incessant, and she now received most of the dozen shots which hit her from the artillery and the sharpshooters on the shore. No material injury, however, was done, and she anchored below the outlet of the canal until one o'clock P. M., when she proceeded down the river. On this expedition, down the river, her of ficers captured, below Natchez, and burned three small steamers, the Moro, Berwick Bay, and A. W. Baker; one of them was laden with pork, and another with molasses and sugar. She ran fifteen miles up the Red river, and returned on the fifth for a supply of coal. During the night a flatboat loaded with coal was cast loose in the stream, and passing the batteries safely, floated down to the steamer. place had escaped. Returning down the river near dark, the steamer was fired on at the point where the wagons had been captured, and the first master mortally wounded. À landing was not made, but the steamer returned to the anchorage of the previous night. On the next morning Col. Ellet, having been informed of the parties who fired on the boat, returned and destroyed the dwellings, mills, and negro quarters on six sugar plantations above the mouth of the Atchafalaya. During the afternoon the steamers entered the Red river, and moved up as far as the mouth of Black river, at dark, where they anchored for the night. The Black river, formed by the junction of the Washita and Tensas rivers, flows south and empties into the Red river, a short distance above the mouth of the Atchafalaya. At daylight on the next morning they were under way up the river. About ten o'clock, the Era, No. 5, a steamer of one hundred tons, was discovered approaching. At the same time she discovered the Queen, and attempted to turn for the purpose of escaping, when a shot from the former demolished her wheelhouse, On the night of the 10th of February, this and her officers surrendered. Fourteen Texan steamer started on another expedition down soldiers and a number of citizens were found the Mississippi. The first object of the ex- on board. The former were paroled and the pedition was to capture Confederate steamers, latter dismissed, except a quartermaster, havIt was also proposed to run up the Big Black ing $28,000 in Confederate funds, and two river, which empties into the Mississippi at lieutenants. The boat was loaded with 4,500 Grand Gulf, to visit the Atchafalaya, and per- bushels of corn in the ear, destined for the haps the Red river, and, if practicable, to pass Confederate forces at Little Rock. Nothing the batteries at Port Hudson, and effect a junc- further of importance was discovered during tion with the fleet below under Com. Farragut, the passage of the next twenty miles up the A tender was provided for the Queen of the river. In fact the stream is so crooked in West in the steamer De Soto, a small ferry some parts, that a distance of two miles across boat once running between De Soto, the ter- the land would strike a point to reach which a mination of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and steamer would be obliged to go twenty miles. Texas railroad, across to Vicksburg. The bat- Thus information was easily sent of the apteries at Warrenton, eight miles below, were proach of hostile vessels. Some twenty miles passed without molestation. At Taylor's Point, farther up was located Fort Taylor, a post above Natchez, at the plantation once owned which was supposed to be manned by about one the late President Taylor, a short stop was hundred and fifty men, with two or three guns. made. It was found to be occupied by friendly It was situated on the south bank of the river, owners. Natchez was next passed, and on Wed- just above a bend which its guns commanded, nesday evening the steamer reached the mouth that was made by an abrupt turn of the river of Old river, into which Red river runs. This to the north. From the point opposite this was the channel of the Mississippi before the bend a long bar projected, on which the water cut-off was formed. The Red river extends is shallow, and it is necessary to "hug" the from the northern side of Old river, first north-south shore to avoid being driven on the bar by westerly, and then nearly west, across the State of Louisiana, into Texas. At high water it is navigable to Paris, nine hundred and sixty miles from New Orleans. Passing the night at anchor at the mouth of Old river, on the next morning, the 12th, leaving the De Soto as a guard near the mouth of Old river, the Queen of the West entered the Atchafalaya, which flows north and empties into Red river just above its junction with Old river. A train of eleven army wagons was captured about five miles up the river, and at Semmes's port, ten miles farther up, seventy five barrels of beef and a mail with despatches was taken, but a Confederate steamer at that a strong eddy. The Era had been left with the three prisoners under a guard about twenty miles below. It was about nightfall as the Queen approached the bend of the river, with the De Soto a considerable distance astern. The pilot of the captured Era had been forced to assist at the wheel, owing to the intricacies of the channel. Upon turning the point, the Queen struck upon the bar and became fast aground in a position in which none of her guns were effective. The guns of the fort immediately opened upon her with fearful accuracy and rapidity. The shot and shell struck all about her. The lever of the engine was shot away, the escape pipe broken, and the immediate roar of steam that enveloped the vessel showed that her steam chest had been penetrated. Every thought of saving the steamer was given up, and the exertions of all were made to save themselves. Many threw bales of cotton overboard and floated on them down to the De Soto a mile below, among whom was Col. Ellet. The fort seeing there was no reply to their guns, and conceiving from the rush of steam that something had happened, slackened their fire and sent boats to reconnoitre. By this force the remainder of the crew were captured, and the boat made a prize. Meanwhile the De Soto approached as near the point as was safe, and picked up those who were floating, and sent a boat for the crew, which was almost captured by the enemy, who had already reached the Queen. Finding that soldiers were collecting on the shore, the De Soto was turned and slowly floated down the stream. Three miles below she ran aground and unshipped her rudder, and for the next fifteen miles and during three hours she was unmanageable, and moved with the current. As she reached the Era at eleven o'clock, a second rudder was unshipped, and she became unmanageable again, when Col. Ellet ordered her to be blown up. It was about twelve o'clock at night before the Era was under way. It was known to Col. Ellet that the swift gunboat Webb was at Alexandria, about sixty miles up the river, and he was confident that pursuit would be made after him by her. All hands were set to work to throw overboard the corn with which the Era was laden, and amid fog, thunder, lightning and rain, she worried her way out of the Red river into the Mississippi by morning. All that day, which was Sunday, with no fuel but some of the corn with which she had been laden, and cypress found on the banks too wet to make steam enough to give her headway, the fleeing steamer attempted to get up the river. She had made scarcely forty miles in twenty-four hours. At Union Point she was run aground and detained three hours in getting off. After passing Ellis's Cliffs, the black chimney of a passing steamer was discovered over the fog which enveloped her hull. The black smoke from her chimney showed that she burned coal, and that it was a Federal steamer. It was the Indianola, and all fear of the Webb was over. Scarcely was the Era well alongside of the Indianola and the fog had lifted a little, when the Webb hove in sight. A brief pursuit of her was made by the two boats, without success. The Era was then furnished with supplies, and sent up to Admiral Porter. The Indianola, which came so fortunately to the rescue of Col. Ellet, was one of the finest of the ironclad gunboats of the squadron: she was now, and was 174 feet long, 50 feet beam, 10 feet from the top of her deck to the bottom of her keel, or 8 feet 4 inches in the clear. Her sides (of wood) for five feet down were thirty two inches thick, having bevelled sticks laid outside the hull (proper), and all of oak. O side of this was three-inch thick plate iron Her clamps and keelsons were as heavy as the largest ships. Her deck was eight inches solid with one-inch iron plate, all well bolted. Her casemate stood at an incline of 264 degrees and was covered with three-inch iron, as were also her ports. She had a heavy grating o top of the casemate that no shell could pene trate, and every scuttle and hatch was equally well covered. She was ironed all round, except some temporary rooms on deck, and, be sides the amount of wood and iron already stated, had coal bunkers seven feet thick along side of her boilers, the entire machinery being in the hold. She had seven engines-two for working her side wheels, two for her propellers, two for her capstans, and one for supplying water and working the bilge and fire pumps. She had five large five-flued boilers, and made abundance of steam. Her forward casemate had two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, and her after casemate two 9-inch. Her forward casemate was pierced for two guns in front, one on each side, and two aft, so that she could fire two guns forward, one on each side, and four at an angle sideways and astern. She had also hose for throwing scalding water from the boilers, that would reach from stem to stern, and there was communication from the casemates to all parts of the vessel without the least exposure. The pilot house was also thoroughly ironclad, and instant communication could be had with the gunners and engineers, enabling the pilot to place the vessel in just such position as might be required for effective action. She left her anchorage at the mouth of the Yazoo, about ten o'clock on the night of February 13th, to run below the batteries at Vicksburg. night was hazy and cloudy, and thus exceedingly dark. After passing entirely through the fleet, and reaching the vicinity of the upper end of the canal, she shut off steam entirely, and suffered the current to bear her along. Its rate was about four miles an hour. In perfect obscurity she rounded the point, and drifted fairly beneath the formidable batteries. The tide bore her down directly toward the levee of the city. Lights were everywhere numer ous, and the voices of citizens and soldiers sounded as if they were close alongside. Still the black and noiseless mass drifted along, almost rubbing the bank, yet undiscovered. The whole levee was patrolled by sentinels, and at one spot a camp fire was dimly burning. As the drifting vessel approached this point, a soldier stooping down gathered some faggots and threw them into the fire. A bright blaze flashed up for a moment, exposing everything within its sphere. The Indianola was seen by a soldier, who discharged his musket at her. At that discharge the soldiers everywhere along the bluff sprang to arms. A battery near the centre of the city fired a gun, rockets were sent off, soldiers on the bank discharged their mus The kets into the darkness, and indications of excitement were manifest everywhere. The boat had been discovered running the blockade, but no one knew where she was. Five minutes passed after the first gun was fired, and another had not followed. At last it became necessary to start the wheels in order to get steerage way on the steamer. The noise of the steam drew forth a second and third gun, and a discharge of musketry, and again all was still. The boat drifted on a few moments in silence, when the steam was again let on, and she dashed down the river, regardless of any noise that might be made. Battery after battery now opened upon her until twenty shots were fired, and she had passed uninjured beyond their reach. The steamer was under the command of Lieut.Com. Brown, and continued on down the river, until she met the Era as above stated. After pursuing the Webb, in vain, as far as the mouth of Red river, the Indianola proceeded up that stream in search of Confederate transports, and kept up a watch off the mouth of the Atchafalaya river. Here her commander learned that the Queen of the West had been repaired and might soon be down. As the narrowness of the Red river made it difficult to manoeuvre a long boat like the Indianola, while the Queen was much shorter, Commander Brown determined to return to the mouth of the Big Black river, and attempt to pass up that stream, and reach if possible the bridge of the Vicks burg and Jackson railroad. This had been one of the objects for which the steamers had run the blockade. The Big Black river empties into the Mississippi at Grand Gulf, forty miles below Vicksburg. It rises in the northern part of the State of Mississippi, and flows southwesterly, passing about fifteen miles east of Vicksburg. On Tuesday morning, Feb. 24th, the Indianola reached the mouth of the Big Black, and in the afternoon made preparations to move up the river, when two steamers were descried approaching. These proved to be the Confederate gunboat Webb and the Queen of the West. The Webb was a powerful boat and one of the swiftest on the river. They immediately attacked the Indianola, and, chiefly by striking her with their rams, so shattered her as to endanger her sinking, when she was surrendered and immediately run ashore. A few days afterward a flatboat was fitted up by Admiral Porter to appear like a gunboat, and set adrift in the river without a pilot or crew. As it passed the batteries at Vicksburg, it was supposed to be a formidable ram, and they fired fiercely. It escaped uninjured however, and floated on down the river. Information of its approach was sent to the Queen of the West, lying under the batteries at Warrenton, eight miles below Vicksburg, and she immediately fled down stream. The Indianola was undergoing repairs near where she was taken, and the authorities at Vicksburg, thinking that she would be recaptured by the ram, issued an order to burn her up. This order was sent down by a courier to the officer in charge of the boat. A few hours later, and another order was sent down countermanding the first, it having been ascertained that the monstrous craft was nothing else than a coalboat. But before it reached the Indianola she had been blown to atoms: not even a gun was saved. Meanwhile, the work of cutting channels from the Mississippi to Providence Lake, on the west side, and to Moon Lake, on the east side, was progressing rapidly. Lake Providence is a few miles south of the boundary line between Arkansas and Louisiana. It is situated in Carroll parish, Louisiana, about one mile west of the Mississippi river, and about seventy-five miles above Vicksburg. It is about six miles in length. Two streams flow out of the lake to the south, Moon bayou and Tensas river. The former, after running about a hundred miles, unites with the latter. The two continue south, and unite with the Washita, and are called after the junction Black river, which empties into the Red river, as is stated on a preceding page. By cutting a channel from the Mississippi to Lake Providence, Gen. Grant thought a communication might be had through that lake down the Tensas and Black into the Red river, and thence through the Atchafalaya, with Gen. Banks at New Orleans. This route avoided the batteries at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. The canal to the lake was finished so as to let in the water on the 16th of March. The flood was so great as to inundate a large district of country, some of which was fine land for growing cotton. Some boats passed into Lake Providence, but the uncertainty of the channel of the Tensas river, and the interest which was now excited by the Yazoo Pass expedition, together with the unimportant results to be anticipated by remov ing a large force to the Red river or below, caused a diversion from this route to others presenting more certain prospects of success against Vicksburg. Eight miles below Helena, in Arkansas, and on the opposite side of the river, is a little lake, known as Moon Lake. The passage from the Mississippi across the lake to the mouth of the Yazoo Pass is about eight miles; thence through the Pass proper to the Coldwater river, twelve miles. The Coldwater, a narrow stream, runs south, empties into the Tallahatchie, which continues to flow south, and unites with the Yallobusha, forming the Yazoo river, which empties into the Mississippi, a few miles above Vicksburg. By opening a wider channel from the Mississippi into Moon Lake, it was the opinion that the inner streams would be rendered more easily navigable, in consequence of an increase of water, so that some sinaller gunboats and a few troops could destroy the enemy's transports in the Yazoo, and their gunboats which were building. In ordinary stages of water, steamboats could ascend the Yazoo and Tallahatchie to the mouth of the Coldwater. The region of country through which these streams flow, especially the Yazoo, is very fertile, producing a large quantity of cotton, and furnishing considerable supplies to the rebel army at Vicksburg. The expedition consisted of two of the largest and heaviest ironclad gunboats, one ram, six light-draft gunboats, three barges laden with coal, three steam tenders, and fifteen or eighteen transports. The passage from the Mississippi to the mouth of the Pass, after the im provement made upon it, was not attended with much difficulty. On the morning of the 25th of March it entered the mouth of the Pass. The tortuous stream was a hundred feet wide, and in some parts less. On its banks were cypress, sycamore, and gigantic cottonwood trees, whose branches formed a perfect arch over the stream. At the upper end the current rushed with great rapidity through the channel, and lower down were strips of bottom land, which were overflowed, and gave to it greater width, and, consequently, less rapidity. In the narrow and crooked passage it was necessary to resist the force of the current by the back revolution of the wheels of the boats, and by lines fastened from tree to tree as they moved along. Three days were thus passed in making a distance of about twelve miles, and reaching the Coldwater. Smokestacks were swept away, and much of the light upper works of several of the boats. The principal difficulty in the Pass arose from the activity of the enemy, who would close one end while the Federal force was opening the other. In this manner time was gained to prepare to resist the progress of the expedition by fortifying at the mouth of the Tallahatchie. On the 2d of April the expedition proceeded down the Coldwater. This stream was a little wider than the Pass, so that the branches of the trees seldom met over head, but its current was more sluggish, and its channel equally tortuous. Two mortar boats now joined the expedition, adding their force to the heavy guns on the other boats. As it advanced it was further reenforced, until it consisted of eighteen transports, five small gunboats, and two of a large size, the Chillicothe and the De Kalb. The advance consisted of one division of Gen. McClernand's corps, which had been stationed at Helena, under command of Brig.-Gen. L. F. Ross, and the 12th and 17th Missouri regiments from Gen. Sherman's corps, as sharpshooters, on the gunboats. The mouth of the Coldwater was reached with only some damage to the light work, wheels, and rudders of the transports. Proceeding down the Tallahatchie, the expedition arrived within ten miles of Greenwood on the 11th. Greenwood is a small village on the Yazoo river, just below the junction of the Tallahatchie with the Yallobusha, forming the Yazoo. Just below the position of the Federal transports, the Tallahatchie turns to the eastward, bending in the form of a horseshoe, and resumes its southerly course at a point nearly south of that where the transports were. The base of the peninsula formed by this bend, being the narrowest part, and nearly a mile across, was occupied by a Confederate fortification. It consisted of a single line of breast works facing westerly, and composed of cotton bales and earth, and flanked on the right by a battery of three heavy guns fronting the river. field pieces were in position on the works. On the right flank of the line, a defence or raft of logs had been constructed, to serve as a blockade of the river. Directly in front of the breastworks was a deep slough, extending across the peninsula, and admirably serving the purpose of a ditch. The slough was close to the base of the works at the upper end, but gradually receded from them at the lower, where it was several hundred yards distant. Beyond the slough there was an almost impenetrable canebrake, backed by an extensive forest. Below this fortification on the river, and in the are of the bend, the Yallobusha flows in from the northeast, and forms its junction with the Tal Other |