March 9, 1863, The New York Herald
The much despised spade turns out to be a trump in the Southwest, as appears from the map we published yesterday illustrating the three great Union expeditions on the Mississippi. In the peninsular campaign of last year General McClellan was violently abused for resorting to the spade, though it turned out he saved by it thousands of lives. What the spade could accomplish in war was then matter of history, and illustrated in the case of the famous earthworks of Washington in the Revolution and of Tottleben at Sebastopol, and the counterworks of the English and French. It has since done something for the rebels at James Island, in the vicinity of Charleston, and also at Fredericksburg and Vicksburg. This year, however, the spade is the chief weapon of our armies in the Southwest – more potent than cannon to open the highway of the Father of Waters from the mouth of the Ohio to the Gulf. If the simple spade, with the aid of American ingenuity, can neutralize the frowning guns and formidable works of “The Gibraltar of the Mississippi,” that will be a great triumph of a peaceful implement of agricultural industry over the terrible enginery of war.
The cut-off from the river, commencing four or five miles above Vicksburg, and entering the river again below the city, near Warrenton, is only a work of time, when the blue clay is cut away with the spade and the sand is reached. Then a new channel shall have been opened for our gunboats, leaving Vicksburg far to the east, and, it may be, cutting it off from navigation. But, if the latter result do not follow, Big Black river – near Grand Gulf, on the Mississippi side – can be ascended, and the rear of Vicksburg gained in that way, and the strong-hold reduced by siege and starvation. This, the rebel newspapers say, is the object of the cut-off at Vicksburg.
But the importance of gaining time has suggested two other water routes by which Vicksburg may be circumvented more rapidly, and already each is pronounced not only practicable, but a fait accompli. Our telegraphic intelligence published in yesterday’s HERALD declares that the cut-off to Lake Providence as […..] success,” and that Yazoo Pass is also to be […..] a success.” By the latter boats would be enabled to reach the rear of Vicksburg and the Tallahatchie, and perform a most important service in reducing the place. Yazoo Pass is not to be confounded with the Yazoo river, which enters the Mississippi a few miles above Vicksburg. Yazoo Pass is two hundred and seventy-four miles above Vicksburg and was formerly a navigable water course; but its mouth was closed by the Legislature of Mississippi in order to prevent the inundation of the adjacent country when the water was high in the river. This pass is now opened, and connects with Moon Lake, which, by a very crooked, narrow pass, connects with Coldwater river, which enters the Tallahatchie, which discharges itself into the Yazoo river, whence the rear of Vicksburg above the fortifications on the Yazoo river can be reached and all the steamboats on that river destroyed. The communications of Vicksburg with the country in the rear of it may be thus completely cut off. We learn that the gunboats have already started on this expedition, and every hope is entertained of its success. The rebel journals laugh at the enterprise, say it is utterly hopeless, and that every vessel which attempts it will fall into a trap. But we shall soon see.
No doubt is entertained by our generals that by way of Lake Providence, the Tensas and the Black river (in Western Louisiana), our boats will be able to enter the Red river, and thence the Atchafalaya, which leads direct to the Gulf, thus diverting the Mississippi from its present bed, fifty miles above Vicksburg, and, after a course of five hundred miles, directing it into the Gulf of Mexico, fifty miles west of New Orleans, cutting off that city, Baton Rouge, Port Hudson, Natchez and Vicksburg – a work compared with which the capture of Babylon by turning aside the course of the Euphrates was a mere bagatelle. The canal, five hundred yards in length, connecting the Mississippi with Lake Providence is completed with entire success by the spade, and it will soon be determined whether the reminder of this proposed new route to the gulf is practicable. It appears that in connection with this expedition another has started from New Orleans to meet it from below. At least so the best informed rebel journals say. Highly interesting news may therefore be expected at any moment from that region.
These stupendous undertakings are characteristic of the country. When Napoleon was told by the chief officer under his command that it was impossible to storm the bridge of Lodi, he replied, “Impossible is not French.” He took the colors in his own hand and led the way in that immortal charge in which the future Marshal Lannes equally shared the glory with him. The bridge was won. The word ‘impossible’ is still less American than French. The opening of the Mississippi from its headwaters to the sea is but a question of time, and must be accomplished, and when that is done it will be seen that spades are trumps.