Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1863-03-16
Vicksburg.

yicksburg, to contradict the Yankee state
ment that all the Yankee feet had passed i
through the canal cut around Vicksburg.-o
The gentleman, wholives not far from Vicks
burg, says, not only has no boat yet passed, !,
but no gunboat will ever pass through
This is certainly Gratifying news, conveyed
BY a gentleman whose knowledge of che
country entities it to great weight.
Some one, evidently intimately conversant
with the geography of that country, has put
the Editors of the Daily State Journal in
possession of the following Interesting state
ment:
We have been mystifed, for some time
past, by the reports We read in Yankee pa
RS of the operations of their fleets against
Vicksburg. We have seen statements going
the rounds that they were in the Ylzno
Pass. and Coldwater and Moon Lake, and
that soon they would be in the rear of Vicks-
burg. Nothing can be more preposterous'
than such statements. The Yazoo Pass is
an old opening of the Tallatchie river into
the Mississippi, nearly opposite Helena, in,
Arkansas, and at least two hundred miles
from Vicksburg, and nearly north of that
city. Flat-boats formerly went through this
Pass, but it has been dlsused for a Ing
time: Now a Yankee boat goes through
this Pass into the Tallahatchie; it goes down
this winding, crooked stream for one hun
dred miles, until it meets the Yallabusha.-
These two rivers unite to form the Yazoo.
From this point it is more than a hundred
miles to the mouth of the Yszoo, which is
already in the hands of the Yankees. Why
should thew expect to derive any benefit by
navigating from the head of a river to its
mouth, more thar they can obtain by enter
ing the mouth and navigating lis source,
we cannot tell, and the Northern papers, in
publishing such statements, are either igno-
rant of the geography of the country, or de.
signedly endeavor to make false Impressions
90 upon the people. When they get into Moon
Lake or Tallahatchie river. they are then
two hundred miles from Vicksburg, and TO
more in the rear than they are in the FEAR of
Memphis, and no nearer to it. Porter's feet
is near the mouth of the Yazoo. 1t was IN
endeavoring to land on this river, at a poin,
at which the Vicksburg hills run down Il
the water, that Sherman was defeated, in TIKI
recent attack upon that city. The enemy
can only land at this place, because between
that point and the M~ississippi'is an impene
trable swamp. This is the only point nea
Vicksburg at which an army descending tn
Yazoo instead of ascending it can land, AM
in either direction the same batteries vii
meet an invader. Vicksburg can not b
hanked from the direction of the Tallahatchi
river. Let the public rest satisfied of this.
The Yankees have made statements in re
gard to their operations in Lake Providenc
equally as foolish and absurd.
They pretend to have. found a path froa
Lake Providence by Bayou Macon and Ten
s&s river, and the headwaters, they say,
Red river to the rear of Port Hudson. /
!, the first place, no Bayous, passable to an
f thing but row boats, empty into Lake Pro-
7 idence, which is situated near the northea
5 part of Louisiana, near the Arkansas line
To open a channel for %gun-boats 70 Baye
S Macon would require q canal of some httee
e or more miles. Then, in very high waite
0 the boat might oct into Tenaas river by 6
ing through a narrow winding channel, fl
of cypress knees, and overhung by tire
}, which frequently meet. In summer q
d channel is dry except in the bottom. u
Il, Tonsas empties into the Block river, and tn
G into the Red, some fifty miles from lis nout
It The Red empties into the Mississippi abo
= fifty miles above Port Hudson. So that a
It ter an immense labor and a troublesome al
lie dangerous voyage, the YANKEES boat is init
duced to the batteries of Red river, and
= the front of Port Hudson, if in any positi
it relatively to that point. Now the Yanke
d can reach the same poiHt without any Fab
Ie and by a very good water route. They ha
y only to 20 up to Atchafalaga river, throu
Re Chetimaches lake, thence up the same ris