ey were called into
practice by danger and privation.

Colonel Bissell found no place where a road could be constructed; but,
by following up the bayou (called John's Bayou in the Confederate
reports, called Wilson's Bayou on the map made by the United States
engineers) which comes into the river immediately above New Madrid, he
traced it into the swamp and found that, in connection with depressions
and sloughs, a continuous, though tortuous water-way could be gained at
that high stage of water, from a point in the river between Islands
Eight and Nine and the river at New Madrid. The length of this channel
was twelve miles. Part of it had to be excavated to get sufficient
depth; for six miles it passed through a thick forest of large trees.

General Pope immediately sent to Cairo for four light-draught steamers,
and tools, implements, and supplies needed to cut a navigable way.
Colonel Bissell was at once ordered to set his entire command at work,
and to call upon the land force on the fleet for aid if needed. For six
miles Bissell had to cut through the forest a channel fifty feet wide
and four and a half feet deep. Sawing through the trunks of large trees
four and a half feet under the surface of the cold water was a work of
extreme toil and great exposure. The trees when felled had to be
disentangled, cut up, and thrust among the standing trees. Overhanging
boughs of trees, growing outside the channel, had to be lopped off.
Shallow places were excavated. The whole had to be done from the decks
of the little working-boats, or by men standing in the water. The men
were urged to incessant labor; yet they toiled with such ardor that
urging was not needed. General Halleck telegraphed to Pope, Friday,
March 21st, that he would not hamper him with any minute instructions,
but would leave him to accomplish the object according to his own
judgment, and added: "Buell will be with Grant and Smith by Monday." In
nineteen days, April 4th, the way was open and clear; and on the 5th,
steamers and barges were brought through near to the lower mouth, but
not near enough to be in view from the river.

The Confederate officers on the island were aware of the attempt to
secure this cut-off across the peninsula. Captain Gray, engineer, in a
report or memorandum, dated March 29th, spoke of "the canal being cut by
the enemy," and of heavy guns planted to be used against any boat that
might issue from the bayou, as well as batteries erect