Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1862-04-19
How Colonel 1Bissclf's Engineers
Forced Their vyay TO Gen. IsoDe.

A correspondent of the Rochester UdiOn,
with Colonel Bissell at New Madrid, informs
that journal how the steamboats, were carried
through the bayous and sloughs to the relief
OF Gen. Pope. We quote -
Col. Bsscl stated that he could by hand
labor get steamboats, and fatboats through
the woods and bayous, and by that means
land our forces nearly opposite New Madrid,
and take all the cncmy's works in the rear.
General Pope at once gave him carte blanche.
and he sent TO Cairo for four steamboats,.
six flats, and such guns as could be spared.
They sent four steamers, with the barges 4
quantity of lumber, &C., and one S-inch
columbiad and three 32-pounders. Tools
we did not need, for the regiment carries
everything from the heaviest ropes and
screws down to fine steel drills for unspiking
guns.
Our route is about twelve miles long, of
which two miles were through thick timber
and the remaining ten through narrow,
crooked bayous grown up full of brush and
small trees. We have cut our way right
through, the track being fifty feet wide, in
which thirty feet are required for the hulls
of the boats. The timber is cut four feet
below the surface of the water. In one short
stretch we cut scvcnty-fve trees thus deep,
not one less than two feet through The
machines were rugged from RATS and our
lowest flats, and worked each by about
twenty men.
In the first place three large launches went
ahead to cut and push out of the track the
underbrush and driftwood, then the RATS
followed on which were the men who cut
down and cut off the trees; then the saws,
then two large bargcs, then one of the
steamboats,. Very large lines were provided
TO run from the capstan of the steamboats,
and haul out 10y snatch blocks what the men
could not handle. Then followed the rest
of the fleet, men being engaged all the time
converting the flatboats into floating bate
rics From the river to the levce the distance
is about 500 feet here the water was shall
low and the route full of stumps it took
one whole day to pass this-then the cut in
the lcvee.
Here the fall was over two feet and the
rush of water was tremendous. The largest
boat was dropped through with five lines
ont ahead Then a cornficld overflowed
from a cut in the lcvec Here was something
of channel cut by the swift water, and W.
got along well nearly a quarter of mile to
the woods here was the labor-two straight
and long miles to the nearest point in the
bayou. This it took eight days to get
through. Then Wilson's bayou, then East
bayou, then st. Johns bayou, which emptics
into the Mississippi at New Madrid.
If you have never seen Southern swamp
You have no idea how thick it is; a New
York elm swamp does not begin. 1t some
times took twenty men whole day to ge
out half sunken tree across the bayou
Such place as that kept us back, as non'
of the RATS or flats could get by, and all hac
TO wait
The water, after we got into the woods
was about six feet deep, with gentle curren
setting across the peninsula. In the Eas
Bayou the current was tremendous, and tn
boats had to be checked down with heav.
head lines. Here we found some obstruction
aused by drift heaps but cutting off one o
20 logs would start all down the current