canal, which had been located by Brigadier-General Williams,
across the peninsula, on the Louisiana side of the river, with
all vigor, hoping to make a channel which would pass transports
for moving the army and carrying supplies to the new base of
operations thus provided. The task was much more herculean than
it at first appeared, and was made much more so by the almost
continuous rains that fell during the whole of the time this work
was prosecuted. The river, too, continued to rise and make a
large expenditure of labor necessary to keep the water out of our
camps and the canal.

Finally, on the 8th of March, the rapid rise of the river (p. 376)
and the consequent great pressure upon the dam across the
canal, near the upper end, at the main Mississippi levee, caused
it to give way and let through the low lands at the back of our
camps a torrent of water that separated the north and south
shores of the peninsula as effectually as if the Mississippi
flowed between them. This occurred when the enterprise promised
success within a short time. There was some delay in trying to
repair damages. It was found, however, that with the then stage
of water, some other plan would have to be adopted for getting
below Vicksburg with transports.

Captain F. E. Prime, Chief Engineer, and Colonel G. G. Pride, who
was acting on my staff, prospected a route through the bayous
which run from near Milliken's Bend on the north and New Carthage
on the south, through Roundaway Bayou into the Tensas river.
Their report of the practicability of this route determined me to
commence work upon it. Having three dredge boats at the time, the
work of opening this work was executed with great rapidity. One
small steamer and a number of barges were taken through the
channel thus opened, but the river commencing about the middle of
April to fall rapidly, and the roads becoming passable between
Milliken's Bend and New Carthage, made it impracticable and
unnecessary to open water communication between these points.

Soon after commencing the first canal spoken of, I caused a
channel to be cut from the Mississippi river into Lake
Providence; also one from the Mississippi river into Coldwater,
by way of Yazoo Pass.

I had no great expectations of important result