The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-03-26
The Yazoo pass Expeniuou.

The YazOO Pass ExpeHitiOu.
Correspondence of the New York Herald.
UNITED STATES GUKBoAr MARMoRA.
CoLDWATER RIVER, Miss, Feb. q
The Rubicon is crossed. Three and q half
days Of most tedious, veXatious, bothersomc,
troublesome and damaging steambOating has
brot the expedition twenty miles on its way,
and disclosed to its view the now famous va
700 Pass. A more execrable place was never
known. Should one propose TO run a steamboat
to the moon, he would be considered equally
sane by those who had seen the YazoO Pass be-
fore this expedition forced a passage through
it as the person who proposed this move
mcnt. | would like to describe the Yazoo
Pass,
/ would like to compare it to something
that would be Ineligible to Il readers
But I know Of nothing III heaven or on earth,
or in the waters under the earth, that will
compare with it. Had the immortal bard de
sired a subject from which to draw a picture
of the way that leads to the realms of dark
ness and despair, he had only to picture the
Yazoo Pass. Let me try, then, in the feeble
language / can command, to describe it
Perhaps the reader has passed through the dis
NAL swamp Of Virginia; or, if not, he has
read the accounts of travellers who have en-
ioyed that privilege. Then hs has heard of
the famous iungles of India. He has seen or
read Of the unbroken silence that pervades the
boundlcss tall forests of the John Brown tract
in Western New York. Conceive the ugliest
features Of these three varieties Of territory,
he will DO able by combining them. to form
II tolerable correct idea of the region through
which the Yazoo Pass ryus. Those who have
watches the course of q snake as he trails his
way along the ground, winding this way and
that, hlther and yoDder, going i'll all direct
ions at the same time, and yet maintaining
something Of a regular course in the average,
will, by eXaggerating the picture intheir own
minds, understand something Of the ~tortuous
course of the Yazoo Pass. l have passed
through it, from one end to the other, and [
candidly assert that there is not, throughout
it's entire length, apiece 200 feet long of per-
fectly straight river. The orders under which
this expedition moved required that boats
should keep 300 yards apart; but there was
no place t. befoundin the whole suroom whore
they could see one third of this distance ahead
or behind them. Ouca, indeed, we did catch
a glimpse of the Rather, flag ship. She was
lust abreast of us. and about 100 yards away.
going in an opposite direction to us. We fan
Cied we were close on to her, and as it was
near night, concluded to tie up, so as to let her
get away from us. The next morning we GOT
under way at daylight, and just as the SUI
was at the meridian, we passed the spot where
we had seen our file leader eighteen hours be
fore.
Much has been said and written Of the cf-
forts put forth by the rebels to obstruct this
pass. Their labor was all thrown away. Ma
ture had placed greater Instructions in the
way than an enemy could place there, no mat
ter how powerful he might have been, or how
long he had been employed. Cypress and Syc-
anore trees lined the banks i'll great profusion,
intermixed with gigantic cotton-woods
bearing the greatest ENHANCEMENT Of wild
grapeyines. Thestreamitse self, is never t~oexceed
u hundred feet in breadth, and frequently not
more than fifty or seventy five. Over this the
timber forms a most perfect arch frequently,
as good fortune would have it, SO high as to
admit OF the easy passage of the tall smoke
stacks beneath II, but sometimes grazing their
tops, and again angrily topIing over the intru-
ders, But Providence did not probably in
tend this pass for a military highway. Prov
ldence opposed the movement, not so much
by his high arch enclosing the river, and shut
ting it out from view, as by the long jagged
limbs it thrust out from the trees directly
across the channel, and the numerous leaning
and crooked trees that formed a most effective
blockade.
Ii may be possible from what have writ
ten, to get an idea of the YazoO Pass. A short
account Of the trip through it will be more
profitable for this purpose. The total length
Of the Pass from the Mississippi to the Cold
water River, is twenty miles. From the Mis-
sissippi to the east side of Moon Lake, where
the Pass proper commences, is called eight
miles, leaving the distance from Moon Lake
to the Coldwater, twelve miles. We left the
Lake on Wednesday mornivg, the 25th inst,
and reached the Coldwater this afternoon Just
after dinner, making the trip in exactly three
days and a-half,
IN thesupper end of the Pass the stream is
confined, and rushes along with great rapid
iy through it's narrow channel, the rate not
being less than five or six miles per hour
Lower down there are strips of bottom land
along the sides, which are now overtlOwn, Civ
ing greater width, and consequently less rap
pidity TO the current. But in no place We're
we able even to drift with the current. That
would inevitably have dashed Ms into the tim
her and torn our boat to atoms. From the
time we entered the Pass until we emerged
from II, we could only keep our wheels back
ing, and even this was not enough. 4 small
boat was requisite on either side, by which
lines were constantly passed out and made
fast to the trees, to check our Roadway, or
ease US around the sharp bends. The expe-
dltion has been facetiously called the stern
wheeled expedition" from the circumstance
Of there being none but stern-wheel boats
(Which are narrower than side wheel steam
ers) engaged in it. but it might with equal
improperly be called the back water expe-
ditiOn, or the hold back expedition" be
cause Of our advancing only by holding back.
But with all our care and labor it has been
impossible to save our boats from much dam
age. frequently it was impossible to check
the Roadway of a vessel in time to save it's
smoke stacks, and away would go those tall
iron cylinders, crashing through the hurricane
deck, and making a complete wreck of the
caoln and light upper works. Again a huge
hlnb would come crashing and dashing along
the SIDE, tearing away sanctions and braces /
audsometImes even the light bulkheads around
the upper works. The flagship was thus Wis
tied, and Acting Commander Smiths cabip
turned into a cOmalete wreck. In fact al Of
the vessels look as though they had been in
hard fought battle and been badly worsted. on
" that none Of them are damaged in maebin-
or hull. II has been O most exciting Trim. |
l believe or hear all have survived it save
one poor old Niagara contraband beIouoino. |
10 this vessel. He was lying in his hammock
the sick bay, being on the sick list. when
huge limb, broke off by the persistence of
Dur smoke stacks, came down endwise upon
the deck, and administered the death blow to
poor Cu1tee. 1t was a more bitter emancipa-
Ion proclamation TO that poor darkey than
any Father Abraham has issued vet.