Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-04-22
The TaIIahatchIe and YazOO COun.
try-The Warehouses; and
MeadOw-Lands of Middle
Tennessee. lF
Freshet in North Carolina-Fresh
Calamities in LOuisiana-The
Steamers Natchez and
Bradish Johnson.
Losses Of Stock and Farming
Utensils The Tennessee River
Over its Banks-Distress
Of the People.
LOUISIANA.

LOUISIANA
New ORLEANS, April 2l.-Captain
Porter, OF the steamer Alice, reports the
whole Amite valley under water. The
river generally has bank of twelve to
fifteen feet, but now the water is four
feet deep over the banks, and has
washed away the houses, imple-
ments, etc. The inhabitants have fled to
highlands, were they now abide in
destitute condition.
General NJ. jeff Thompson, chief
state engineer, sends the following dis
patch to the Associated Press from Baton
, Rouge to-day:
The Hickey crevasse is twelve hun
dred feet wide, and passes seven feet Of
water at velocity OF eight miles per
hour. The two McCullOm crevasses are
} each one hundred and fifty feet wide,
( but will be closed in a few days"
From the New Orleans Picayune, OF sunday.l
Added to the disastrous intelligence
received yesterday from half q dozen
different quarters, and forming the eli
J max of our ruin by overflow, comes the
news of a cregQSSe in Grand levee, the
great bulwark on whose steadfast
strength depended the safety OF the rich
districts of LafOurche, Terrebonne and
AttakSpas, and by the breaking of
which all hope of their vast and prom
ising crops is utterly destroyed. 1t came
early in the morning as a rumor from
Baton Rouge, but we refrained from
publishing so frightful and disheartening
a suggestion. A telegram TO Bayou
Sara, however, evoked at late hour in
the afternoon the following reply:
BAYOU SARA, April l7.-To Pea
r.ff1 OIL
broke last night. Small break at Nor |
rison's. River declined fourteen inches 1
( here in consequence.
"E W. WHITMAN"
There is nothing to be said. The best |
and richest region of Louisiana will be |
I Inundated, and with it the finest PROM
| ise Of harvest in Louisiana since the
/ war.
Late last evening we heard of another
break in Lafourche, at PaineOurtville,
few miles above ThibOdaux, though, in
view of the supreme catastrophe in
volved in the Grand levee crevasse, this
hardly commends itself to notice.
The break at Nine Z. Laure's, nine
ty-three miles above, on the west bank,
will probably not prove serious now, |
owing to the number of large crevasses
above and the consequent rapid fall of
the river.
William S. Pike, Esq, received the
following telegram:
BATON RoUGE, April Il.
To W. 3. Pike, New Orleans:
Another crevasse at MeCullom's. Old
one not closed. Crevasse Dan Hickey,
West Baton Rouge, several hundred
yards wide. River fell fourteen inches.
d. c. MONTAN.
The pilot Of the Scudder reports a large
oravoesa in Moroo !
Grand levee. 1t is said to be very ex-
tensive, though no further particulars
have as yet reached us.
The Bradish Johnson returned to her
landing on Thursday, having been COM
PEELED to give up her trip in Consequence
of having been forced TO this alterna-
tive by the armed authority Of Plaque
mine. Captain Pickett says that on
making the regular landing at Plaque
mine yesterday morning he was ordered
off, and directed to make fast at 3 point
further down. In attempting to carry
out these peremptory instructions his
boat grounded a few yards from the
landing assigned him, and while in the
act of using spars and other proper
means TO get her to the levee, a posse of
armed men, cOlored and white, appeared
upon the bank, ordering him to desist
at once from turning wheel or using a
spar on pain of having the Bradish
johnson set on fire. Being helpless to
defend bis rights, Captain Puckett yield
ed, under protest, TO this superior force,
and when the Bertha came along, a [
short time after, turned over bis freight
TO her. The excuse given for the meas
ures taken against the Bradish Johnson '
is that any disturbance Of the water 8
near this lower bank would break the {
los an arrarf1nrrr Of ! y
mine. 9
On Wednesday evening last, as the v
well-knOwn and splendid steamer U
Natchez was coming down the river,
and while opposite the lower end of b
Natchez Island, some twenty miles this v
side Of the city Of that name, she was .
struck by a terrible tornado from the
Louisiana side, which in second had Il
wrenched her immense chimneys from a
their sockets, broken ali the stancheons Il
loose, cut short Off the steam pipes, and C
threw them In a wreck on the upper is
deck, on the right side, which giving n
away with their weight, broke and fell b
with a terrible crash on the lower deck,
whence it was tumbled into the river. Fl
The officers in charge, even though the C
tornado struck without a moments n
warning, rushed to their posts and clear r
ing the wreck, the pilots stood by the v
wheel and urged her on to the island. 8
The scene was one terrible in the eX- 4
treme; the river was one mass of yell Ii
lew foam, the sky was as black as night, I,
and the wind OF such terrific violence
that no man could stand against il. In
this emergency all rested on the skill
and determination Of the officers and f
pilots. The position Of these latter was (,
one of great danger. Elevated in a
a frail pilot house one hundred
feet above the river, with its b
supports gone, its stanchions smashed, b
and trembling in every timber, as il 1t &
would follow the chimneys, they ex- B
pected every moment to be hurled into
eternity. The ehimneys being gone,
added TO this, the smoke and escaping o
steam rushed through the upper decks, a
almost smothering the pilots, and in /
ducing them to believe the steamer was
on fire. Not a man Of them moved, {
though, clinging TO the wheel with all Il
their strength for twenty minutes what i
long minutes they must have beenD,
they kept her head to the wind, and O
running under the shelter Of the island, 4
the steamer was safe. The storm sub
sided as fast as it had risen, and back {
ing out, the steamer continued on her I
way down the river, arriving in this l
port at half.past ten O'Clock Thursday c
night. |
aIssIssIPPI.
Prom the Yicksburgerl
By the latest information we learn
that the Deer creek country Is safe.