today in history
Soldiers tried to change the flow of the Mississippi! By E. Orum Young, Attorney BA in History, NLU 1971
O
ne hundred fifty years ago, right here, our people suffered greatly by an invasion, armed hostilities, and a battle to capture the neighboring town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. That town, which overlooks the high bluffs of the Mississippi River, just to the east of us, was the key to the Confederacy’s supply of beef and grain from Texas. Without Vicksburg in Southern hands, Mexican trade could not reach the Southern people. Lincoln, understood that control of Vicksburg, and our area, was essential for a northern victory. He reportedly said “Vicksburg is the key….The war can never be brought to a close until the key is in our pocket….We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can still defy us from Vicksburg. “ His biographers tell us that Lincoln probably visited Vicksburg as a young man in his travels by flatboat from Illinois to New Orleans. Union troops were under the command of recently appointed Ulysses S. Grant. He sent William T. Sherman, former president of LSU, and later of “marching through Georgia” infamy (who could never understand why Southerners after the war refused to shake his hand) on a naval assault down the Mississippi River to the bluffs at Chickasaw Bayou, north of town. They failed miserably. Grant then attempted to take the town by an overland advance; however, the Confederate “Wizard of the saddle” (and possibly another
kind of “imperial wizard” after the war), Nathan Bedford Forrest, destroyed his supply lines in Mississippi. Protected by the high bluffs of the river on the west, and swamps on the north, the heavily fortified town was a citadel on the “Father of Waters”. Grant took 45,000 troops on the Louisiana side of the river (that’s a lot of men) and attempted at Young’s Point (apparently no relation to my Mississippi Scots-Irish Youngs), to dig a canal to change the flow of the river. Who really thought that would work? Although I’ve never seen them, I understand that their remains are still visible today. That was another failure. By that time, northern papers accused Grant of being lazy, stupid, drunk (possibly true), and demanded his removal from command. During that time, the people of Madison, Tensas and Carroll parishes (East Carroll and West Carroll were still one parish) saw widespread destruction of their property; Monroe and surrounding areas were variously occupied by defending and opposing forces. Maybe someday, we’ll talk about how the defenders and townspeople ate rats, and why many Southerners never celebrated the fourth of July until the 1940s. Ours is a rich heritage. We have Jesse James, Bonnie, Clyde, and a host of other villains and heroes, some of whom are our ancestors. I’ll probably butcher the quote, but “In the South, the past is not dead; it’s not even past.” I guess that’s why we get history degrees, but then can’t find any history companies that are hiring. ‘Til next time...