462 SAWING OUT THE CHANNEL ABOVE ISLAND NUMBER TEN.
barges, were to land at break of day at the mouthof the slough about a mile below and oppositeFort Thompson, and with their intrenching toolsdig a line of rifle-pits as soon as possible. Aboutthe same number of picked men were to be withthem to help fight or dig, as occasion might require.The other two sections of the flotilla were to befilled with men, and landed just below, as bestcould be done when the resistance was developed.The reserve steamer with her men, not beingincumbered with barges, could move rapidly andtake advantage of any opening to land the force.
When about half-way through the channel, I leftthe flotilla and reported progress to General Pope.Upon a reexamination of the ground from FortThompson, he concluded that it would be best tomake the leading boat a fighting boat that couldnot be disabled; so he telegraphed to Cairo andSt. Louis for a great number of coal-oil barrels,which were laid in two tiers all over the bottomsof two barges ; the interstices were filled with dryrails, the whole well secured in place by a heavyfloor. In the mean time the steamer was so bulk-headed with lumber that her engines and boilerswere secure from damage from field-artillery, andthe forward part of the hull, which projected be-yond the barges, was bulkheaded off and filled withdry rails, to keep her from being disabled. On thesteamer and barges protection was prepared for alarge number of sharp-shooters.
The boats and barge gun-boats were kept con-cealed in the bayou, just back from New Madrid , fora day or two, till the soldiers could be prepared forthe passage and attack. Meanwhile Foote con-cluded to risk the passage of the island with the
Tfle effort to cut the canal was known to the Con-federates as early as March 31st, the day General Mack -all relieved General McCown of the command at MadridBend; for General Mackall says in his report, thatGeneral McCown then informed him “ that they [the
I have read Colonel J. W. Bissell’s article on the“Sawing out a Channel above Island Number Ten.” Idesire to call attention to what he says :
“Some officer making some suggestion about a ‘canal,’ Iimmediately pulled out my memorandum-hook, and, showingthe sketch, said the whole thing was provided for.”
This on the evening of March 19th, 1862, which is thedate of General Pope’s letter to which Colonel Bissellrefers in a foot-note, saying he did not receive the letterbecause he (Colonel Bissell) was on his return from thereconnoissance he had been ordered to make. To thepublic this reads as though the plan originated withColonel Bissell, while I am ready to show that while thecolonel directed the work, “ some officer,” as he says,—or to be exact I myself,—was the sole inventor of theproject. My own official report, dated HeadquartersSecond Divison Army of the Mississippi, Pittsburg Land-ing, April 22d, 1862, reads as follows:
“Transports having reached us through a channel cutwith enormous labor under the direction of Colonel Bissell,on a suggestion advanced by the subscriber, March 17th, 1862,the Second Division embarked on them, April 7th, to cross theMississippi , which was accomplished in gallant style, butwithout opposition, the gun-boats Carondelet and Pittsburgh ,under Captain Walke, having in dashing style silenced theeuemy’s shore batteries.”
General Pope wrote to General Halleck, under dateNew Madrid , Mo., April 9th, 1862:
Carondelet and afterward with the Pittsburgh , andthe whole plan was changed ; the gun-boats couldmove so much more rapidly that they were tosilence the Confederate field-guns, while the trans-ports could land the troops wherever an openingcould be found. The barges were not used at all;nor did any of the Engineer Regiment cross; theywere kept on the right bank, ready in case of disaster.
Several of the captured officers told me thatafter the gun-boats had run their batteries, nearlytheir whole force was withdrawn from about IslandNumber Ten and kept concealed in the woods backof the practicable landing-places, and they wereprepared to pick off all the men that could belanded; but when they saw the four transports,loaded with troops, steam out from the bayou, theword was given for each man to take care of him-self. A few hundred did manage to make their waythrough the swamps in the rear, but the most ofthem quietly yielded to the inevitable. So wellhad the movement been concealed that they hadnot the least idea of what was being done.-&
Postscript : The Official Records, which, sincewriting the above, I have just seen for the firsttime, contain a letter from General Pope to me,which I never before heard of (dated the day I wason my way back from the gun-boat with the planfully matured), asking if I could not dig a canal, a“ mere ditch of a foot wide which the water of theriver would soon wash out,” from a point one mileabove Island Number Ten to a point one mile be-low. That land was at this time ten feet underwater.—J. W. Bissell.
December, 1884.
Union forces] were endeavoring to cut a canal acrossthe opposite peninsula for the passage of transports, inorder to land below the bend; that they would fail, andthat the position was safe until the river fell, and nolonger.”—E ditors.
HAMILTON, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.
“The canal across the peninsula opposite Island NumberTen, and for the idea of which I am indebted to GeneralSchuyler Hamilton, was completed by Colonel Bussell'sEngineer Regiment, and four steamers brought through onthe night _of the 6tli.”
General Pope again, in his official report to GeneralHalleck of May 2d, 1862, writes :
“ On the 16th of March I received your dispatch, directingme, if possible, to construct a road through the swamps to apoint on the Missouri shore opposite Island Number Ten,and transfer a portion of my force sufficient to erect batteriesat that point to assist iu the artillery practice on the enemy’sbatteries. I accordingly dispatched Colonel J. W. Bissell,Engineer Regiment, to examine the country with this view,directing him at the same time, if he found it impracticableto build a road through the swamps and overflow of the river,to ascertain whether it were possible to dig a canal across thepeninsula from some point above Island Number Ten to NewMadrid , in order that steam transports might be brought tome, which would enable my command to cross the river. Theidea of the canal was suggested to me by General SchuylerHamilton in a conversation upon the necessity of crossingthe river and assailing the enomy’s batteries near IslandNumber Ten in the rear.”
The New York “ Herald,” in its issue of April 13th, 1862,published an article iu reference to this channel, en-titled “The Schuyler Hamilton Canal.”
NEW YORK, June 16th, 1885.