New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-02-14
THE LEVEEs OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

!. Our statement based npon the suggestions of /
report was that the levees q near the mouth of
Ohio river should be three feet above the high,
water mark rising gradually they should be sew
faet high at 0sceola from Helena to Island
TEten feet, etc, etc. We meant that these firur
y should all be understood to apply to the ahighs
water mark but it appears that they have be
understood differently is to say it's presum
that we meant to say that the levees at osceo
should 20 sevenafeet high above the ground
]. THIS would bea serious error indeed. Iii order
dispei the ambiguity which seems to attach
I'll our hrst statement, we will say now I'll;
General Humphreys means,y in all cases
E which the proper height of leYees is suggested
the highest water mark of the great flood of 1856
should be taken as the basis of calculation Tha
is to say, at the mouth of the Ohio the levee
q should be three feet above high water mark o
1858. But in order that there may be no misap
tprehension whatever, we quote the exact words o
3 the report sisss,st n a. Z; 4, s,5s.5f
i S Near the mouth. of the Ohio they should be
about three feet above the actual high water level
Qf 1888, which has been selected as the plane OF
Il reference, because more unvarying than the Ssur
face Of the ground. The height above this level
sAApld be gradually to about feet
i at Qsceola. Thence to, Helena the latter height
should be maintained. Thence to Island ri the
height should be gradually increased to ten feet
Thence to. the vicinity Of Napoleon it may be
gradually reduced to eight feet. Thence to Lake
! Providence it must be gradually increased to
eleven feet. Thence to the mouth Of the Yazoo Il
may be graduaIly reduced To about six feet. ana
should be thus maintained to Red River Landing.
Between that locality and Baton Rouge it should
be kept uniformly about four feet, and below
Baton Rouge about three feet. Ifthe water mark
OF 1858 be unknoWrat any Locality, 1T may be rel
dueed to any well determined local mark by the
table IN chapter q, " tof the report. IS
nj While on the subject a brief $ynopss Of the
history lof our leFee system, coIlated from the
report of General Humphreysswill prove bp no
means uninteresting.
When New Orleans was laid out in l7I7, by the
engineer De Ia Tour he direoted adyke orleyee to
be raised in front of the town. This work was.
however, not completed till November, l727, when
Governor Perrier announced that the New Orleans
levee was finished it being 54oO feet in length and
ls feet wide ontop. "a isls.5 silaigs asis 81
m172s, says Dumont, there were Eve colonies
extending for thirty miles above New Orleans, and
these were obliged 10 construct levees for their
protection
q ! III 1875, according 10 Du Pratz. the leyess
extended from Engiishsbend, twelve miles below
to thirty miles above and on both sides of the
river.
In 1852 the plantations extended twenty miles
below and thirty miles above New Orleans and
within that distance the coast was securely BRO |
tected and in high state of cultivation. twenty
years afterwards, in f770, no advance had been
made and we thus find that in the three years
succeeding the founding of New Orleans only fifty
miles of the delta alluYian had been rescued from
the Hoods and brought under cultivation. This
slow progress presents remarkable contrast
with the vast and rapid extension of the leyee sy
TEN during the last thirty or forty years. .T9 r
il N iS0S, the date of the cession to the United
states, the settlements [cn1tiyated lands1 On the
mississippi, begansat about twenty leagues from
the sea, and extended to Baton Rouge, about forty
leagues above New Orleans On the right bank
there was rich settlement at Point Coupee. ex.
tending eight leagues along the river Beyond I
this there were no settlements on that bank. till
reaching New Madrid, exoepta smallone opposite
Natehez and one at the mouth OF the Arkansas. 250
leagues above New Orleans. ss 'ssf4t*aa ssa9
In 1872, when Louisiana was admitted into the
Union, the levees extended from the lowest sette
nents to Point Coupee ON one side, and to- the
ighboriaood'of Baton Rouge on the other, q ex
epf,1 says stoddard, where the country remains F.
.sl ID 4; q H.. III n b
ln 1873 ths leyees were continuous from New r
fleafs nearly to Red River Landing, exec ptinp q
here the bluffs rendered them sn1lnece ssary' fe
boye Red River they were in a very disconnected O
% unfinished state the right bank as far as 81
,ieon.s slia 5St as
"a "a ls4 the levees had been made nearly con. s.
luoas Fom New Orleans to Nap oleea on the y
sht bank and many isolated leyees existed along
3 lower part Of the Yazoo front. Above Napo N
On %. few or none had yet been attempted. IN N
N 1850 great impulse was given to the work !.
Eecialmlpg me aslnvial region below the mouth
tne ONO BY the action Of the Federal govern ~
snt ~ granting oathe respective States within ~,
nieh they were situate, all swamp andpover + + !. i.
'wed lands remaining unsold.s "
N tne winter 1855 which time the leyee sys ,a
p may pc presumed to have attained nearly its - 80
eaIest aetuai extension, the river, from Cane .a
rardeau 70 Island 56, including the whole Of the ~.
FRANCIS bottom, was leFeed, with the excep a.
q q number Of small gaps amounting III the =,
gregate 20 twenty five miles. But these leyees A.
hot peen ps tested and were inadequate They L,
sfaged hardly three feet in height, although ~;
ne af them across old bayous were of enormous -
8. One Of them, near the northern boundary :. a.
g}rlttenden county, Arkansas, was reported to ~
forty feet high forty feet wide at the ton and
ee hundred and twenty feet wide at the bottom. e.
from the mouth Of the ST Francis to Old Town .RIs R
levees were complete. Thence to scrubarass ~ :
fon there were gaps amounting to about four. =,
ainilesa Thence to. Napoleon there were no ~ ~,
II of cv,,ress 'ile nigh land on.
f~p pos III