The Cecil Whig., 1862-04-26
The Military Canal.

The OPERATIONS af Col. Bissep, Engineer Corn,
The Manner in Which The Cdnak was Cut-
The Lubor of lie Undertaking g-Skeich Of The
Mode Of Cutting Down the Trees, etc.
After the surrender of the forts at
New Madrid, Colonel Bissells Engineer
Regiment were sent over by General
Pope to ascertain whether 1t was not
practicable to establish batteries oppc-
site Island No. 10, so as to enfilade
their works on the Kentucky Shore
They spent three days in the swamps in
canoes, with darkoys as guides, but
found the project impracticable. Col.
Bissell, however, stated that he could
by hard labor get steamboas and fiat
boats through the woods and bayous,
and by that means land our forces nearly
opposite New Madrid, and take all the
enemy's works in the rear. General
Pope at once gave him carte blanche,
and he sent to Cairo for four . eamboats,
six fats, and such guns as could be
spared
Their route was 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. They
cut their way through, the track being
fifty feet wide, in which thirty feet were
required for the hulls of the 5oa.s.-
The timber was cut four feet below the
surface of the water. In one short
$ reich they cut seventy-fve trees thus
deep, not less than two feet through
The machines were rugged from RATS and
the 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 driftwood 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 cap
stan of the steamboat, and haul out by
sna a'chblocks what the men could not
handle.
Then followed the rest of the feet,
men being engaged all the time CONVEX
ting the fat-boats into floating batteries.
From the river to the lcvee the distance
is about five hundred feet; here the
water was shallow and the route fall
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 wa:er was I very great
The largest boat was dropped through
wi h five lines out ahead. Then a corn
field, overfowed from cut in the levee.
Here was something of a channel cut by
the swift wa er, and they got along we'll
nearly quarter of mile to the woods;
here was the labor-two straight and
long miles to the nearest point to the
bayon. This it took eight days to ge.
through. Then Wilson's Bayou, then
Fast Bayou, then St. Johns Bayou,
which empties into the Mississippi at
New Madrid.
1t sometimes took twen'y men whole
day to get out half sunken tree across
the bayou. Such a place as that kept
them back, as none Of the RATS or flats
could get by, and all had to wait. The
water. after they got into the woods,
was about six feet deep, wi h a gentle
current set ing across the Peninsula
In the Fast Bayou the current was tre-
mendous, and the boa.s had to be checked
down with heavy head lines. Here they
found some distractions, caused by
drift heaps but cutting off one or two
logs would start all down the current.