Daily Nashville union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-04-17

this plot Of crime are still unknown, bnt
they cannot much longer keep their Sc
cret, and then justice viii baye her due.
Poor, poor deceived and betrayed
Claiborne, thy fate is sad. We mourn
thy loss, and know thy heart was noble
to the last, though thy youthful and I'M
sophisticated mind was ensnared by
these ten1pters from the devil Rest in
peace. Thy destruction will not go an
avenged. "a just Providence will yet
bring the niscreaDts who ruined you TO
the bar of unyieldiDg, pitiless justice.
Great Achievement by the Engineers
The following extracts from a private
letter, written by member OF Col. Bis
sells Engineer Regiment TO friend in
Rochester, give description Of the OBJ
stacles sumounted in order to furnish
Che necessary means of transportation to
Cen Pope's forces. The achievement
was certainly the most remarkable en-
gineering exploit of tine war thus far. The
writer says:
"After the surrender of the forts at
New Madrid, we Col. Bissell's Engineer
RegimenD were engaged for four days
unspilxing guns, changing batteries, es-
tablishing new works, and other engi-
neering matters. Then we were sent
over by Gen. Pope TO ascertain whether
teries opposite Island No. 10, so as to
entilade their works on the Kentucky
shore. We spent three days in the
swamps in canoes, with darkies as guides,
but found the project impfacticable. Col
Bissell, however, stated that he could, by
hand labor, get steamboats, and fatbOats
through the woods and bayous, and by
that means land our forces nearly oppo-
site New Madrid, and take all the en-
emy's works in the rear. Gen. 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 the steamers w. B. Terry. John
Trio, Gilmore and Emma, with the
barges, quantity of lumber, &c, and
one eight-inch chlumbiad and three
32-pounders. Tools we did not need,
Tor the regiment carries everything from
the heaviest ropes and screws down to
line steel drills for unspiking guns. Our
route is about twelve miles long, of which
two miles were through timber, and the
remaining ten through narrow, crooked
bayous grown up full of brush and small
trees. We have cut out our way right
through, the track being fifty feet wide,
in which thirty are required for the
hnlls of the beats. The timber is cut
four feet below the surface of the water.
In one short stretch we cut seventy-fye
! trees thus deep not one less than two
| feet through. he machines were rugged
| from RATS and our lowest fats, and
worked each by about twenty men, In
| the first place, three large launches went
ahead to cut out and push out of the
track the underbrush and driftwOsd:
then three RATS followed, on which were
the men who cut down and cut off the
trees; then the saws, then two large
barges, then one Of the steamboats,. Very
large lines were provided to run from the
capstan of the steamboats,, and haul out
by snatch blocks what the men could
not handle,
Then followed the rest of the fleet,
men engaged all the time converting the
llatboats into floating batteries. From
the river to the levce the distance is about
800 feet; here the water was shallow and
the route full of stumps it took one
whole day to pass this--then the cut in
the leVee. Here the fall was over two
feet and the rush Of water was tremend-
Gus. The largest boat was dropped
through with five lines out ahead. Then
a cOrniield, Overilowed from q cut in the
levee. Here was something Of channel
| cut by the swift water, and we got along
nearly quarter of a mile TO the woods,
! here was the .labOr-tWo straight and
long miles TO the nearest point in the
bayou. Then it took eight DAYS TO get
through, Then Wilson's Bayou, then
East Bayou, then ST Johns Bayou, which
empties into the Mississippi at New Ma
drid. If you have never seen Southern
swamp yOa have no idea how thick il is;
a new York elm swamp does not begin.
II sometimes took twenty men a whole
day to get out half sunken tree across
the bayou. Such place as that kept us
all back, and none of the RATS or flats
could get by, and all had to wait. The
| water after we got into the woods was
about six feet deep, with gentle current
setting across the peninsula. In the East
Bayou the current was tremendous, and
the boats had TO be checked down with
heavy headlines. Here we found some
distractions caused by drift-heaps, but
cutting of one or two logs would star
ali down the current,
This is the hardest job have evel
seen undertaken, but Col. Bissellis s.
far down as to call it successful, for W.
, are in sight of the fence on the "'tothe
side Of Jordan IEir n-.n
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