From Young’s Point the Mississippi turns in a north-easterly direction to a point just above the city, when it again turns and runs south-westerly, leaving vessels, which might attempt to run the blockade, exposed to the fire of batteries six miles below the city before they were in range of the upper batteries.  Since then the river has made a cut-off, leaving what was the peninsula in front of the city, an island.  North of the Yazoo was all a marsh, heavily timbered, cut up with bayous, and much overflowed.  A front attack was therefore impossible, and was never contemplated; certainly not by me.  The problem then became, how to secure a landing on high ground east of the Mississippi without an apparent retreat.  Then commenced a series of experiments to consume time, and to divert the attention of the enemy, of my troops and of the public generally.  I, myself, never felt great confidence that any of the experiments resorted to would prove successful.  Nevertheless I was always prepared to take advantage of them in case they did.

In 1862 General Thomas Williams had come up from New Orleans and cut a ditch ten or twelve feet wide and about as deep, straight across from Young’s Point to the river below.  The distance across was a little over a mile.  It was Williams’ expectation that when the river rose it would cut a navigable channel through; but the canal started in an eddy from both ends, and, of course, it only filled up with water on the rise without doing any execution in the way of cutting.  Mr. Lincoln had navigated the Mississippi in his younger days and understood well its tendency to change its channel, in places, from time to time.  He set much store accordingly by this canal.  General McClernand had been, therefore, directed before I went to Young’s Point to push the work of widening and deepening this canal.  After my arrival the work was diligently pushed with about 4,000 men—­as many as could be used to advantage—­until interrupted by a sudden rise in the river that broke a dam at the upper end, which had been put there to keep the water out until the excavation was completed.  This was on the 8th of March.

Even if the canal had proven a success, so far as to be navigable for steamers, it could not have been of much advantage to us.  It runs in a direction almost perpendicular to the line of bluffs on the opposite side, or east bank, of the river.  As soon as the enemy discovered what we were doing he established a battery commanding the canal throughout its length.  This battery soon drove out our dredges, two in number, which were doing the work of thousands of men.  Had the canal been completed it might have proven of some use in running transports through, under the cover of night, to use below; but they would yet have to run batteries, though for a much shorter distance.

While this work was progressing we were busy in other directions, trying to find an available landing on high ground on the east bank of the river, or to make water-ways to get below the city, avoiding the batteries.