I. ST. FRANCIS BOTTOM. This district extends from the highlands of Cape Girardeau to the mouth of the St. Francis river, near the highlands of Helena. Its area is 6,300 square miles. The levees from Cape Girardeau to New Madrid must be considered local in their character, since the extensive tertiary or diluvial prairies (land above overflow) running parallel to the general course of the river, (one of which crosses the river at New Madrid and at Point Pleasant,) prevent any general overflow being caused by breaks in the levees in that extent of river front. These levees are in ordinary condition. From New Madrid to the boundary line between Missouri and Arkansas the levees are in a tolerably good condition, and, as a portion of the levee fund derived from the sale of the swamp lands transferred to the States by the United States for the purposes of reclamation is said to remain unexpended, the condition of these levees requires no special attention. The levees of Mississippi county, Arkansas, extending from the Missouri boundary line to the Shawnee villages, (a point on the river above overflow, about 35 miles above Memphis,) need repairs of breaks and closures of gaps at eight places. These openings in the levee are not of great extent, except at two points, one above and one below the Shawnee villages; but some are of great depth. This county has laid a tax of ten cents per acre to repair the levees, which is deemed ample for the purpose. For this reason, and for others that will appear in connection with what is stated concerning the levees below Memphis, I do not recommend any repairs by the United States in this county. The following is a list of the breaks and gaps in the levee on the front of Mississippi county: Location. Length, Depth in 1. Bearfield Point, break.. 2. Mrs. McGavock's, near Osceola, break 3. Lamar's place, above Island No. 34, gap.. 4. Nodina place, bend of Island No. 34, gap.. 5. Morgan's and Craighill's, below foot of Island No. 34, break. yards. feet. 6. Pecan Point, at the foot of Island No. 35, (unleveed bayous-Barney's).. 5,300 10-12 From the Shawnee villages to the point opposite Memphis (part of Crittenden county river front) there are but two breaks in the levee. At Morris's, thirty miles above Memphis, ten yards long, and forty feet high. At Fogleman's, seven miles above Memphis, 300 yards long, and from twelve to fifteen feet high. From the point opposite Memphis to the mouth of the St. Francis river (part of the fronts of Crittenden and Phillips counties) the levees may be considered as virtually destroyed. For thirty miles below Memphis one-half of the levees are gone, chiefly in the bends where they were highest. For the remaining distance to the mouth of the St. Francis river (about forty miles) the levees may be considered entirely gone. For this whole length of river front, some seventy or eighty miles in length, new levees will be required, placed further back from the river bank than the old levees. The lower portion of the St. Francis bottom is subject to overflow by crevasse water coming from breaks or gaps in the levees above. The volume of this flood is sometimes so great that in returning to the river near the St. Francis it washes away the levees on the Mississippi front. For this reason, until that portion of the St. Francis bottom above Memphis is securely leveed, a considerable part of the portion below it cannot be fully protected by front levees. With a view to keep out the Mississippi flood from the interior alluvion, a project has been set on foot to construct a railroad from the bank of the Mississippi river opposite Memphis, along a succession of short ridges which run nearly parallel to the river, and about eight miles from its general course, up to the vicinity of Osceola, and thence diverge westward across the bottom lauds to connect with the Iron Mountain railroad of Missouri. The road-bed is to serve as a levee, a branch from it to be extended to the river bank above Osceola, when the road turns to cross the bottom lands. The permanence of the roadbed is secured by its distance from the river bank, eight miles; which is beyond the limit of caving bauks, the chief source of the destruction of the levees. Should this project be executed, immense tracts of interior bottom land of great fertility would be reclaimed, and the plantations below Memphis would be exempted from overflow from the rear. The temporary repair of levees in the condition of those of the St. Francis bottom below Memphis was not contemplated by your instructions. The temporary repair at present of the two large gaps above Memphis would only confer a local benefit. The high grounds in their vicinity restricts the spreading of the water flowing through them, which passes to the interior swamps and bayous, and thence to the mouth of the St. Francis. The repair of the levees of the St. Francis bottom may be estimated at over 2,000,000 cubic yards of embankment at the cost of more than $800,000. II. FROM THE HIGH GROUNDS AT HELENA TO THE HIGH GROUND NEAR GAINES'S LANDING, ON THE RIGHT BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI. The levees of this comparatively limited alluvial tract must be considered local for any objects contemplated by the United States. Between Helena and Bob's bayou, near the mouth of White river, there are several breaks in the levee, some of which the planters are repairing, as between Helena and Oldtown ridge, and at Laconia. At the latter place they are constructing rear levees, and are thus cutting off their plantations from the effects of the neglect or failure of those living above them. From the mouth of White river to the mouth of the Arkansas no levees have ever been built. Those of the narrow strips of alluvion between the mouth of the Arkansas and the high ground near Gaines's landing are very much broken, the river having eroded its banks and carried away the levee near Napoleon and in Cypress bend. III. THE YAZOO BOTTOM. From Memphis to Vicksburg, left bank; area 6,800 square miles. 1. De Soto county.-The breaks in the levees of this county are not of material importance; no surveys were made of them. On the Mississippi river front the breaks amount to 1 mile of levee, 5 feet high; on the Horn lake front, to 1 mile of levee 8 feet high, and 2 miles 5 feet high. Contents of both fronts in cubic yards, 150,000; which, at 35 cents per cubic yard, will cost $52,000. 2. Tunica county.-No surveys were made in this county, owing to the high stage of the river when the engineer party reached it. The extent of the breaks has been measured by the county officers, and the result communicated to Colonel Abbot by the sheriff. The crevasse water through these breaks drains to the cold water through a region not so much opened as the counties below, and although considerable damage is done by the overflow thus caused, yet the comparative injury done was not, in my judgment, of sufficient magnitude to justify the temporary repairs of all or of any of the breaks. 3. Coahoma county.-The breaks in the levees of this county were carefully surveyed. The first is the levee of the Yazoo pass, which was cut, for military purposes, in two places in 1863-one in the pass where the levee was 38 feet high, the other about one mile below, where the levee is 18 feet high. This Yazoo Pass levee is 1,200 feet long, with an average height of 28 feet. It was built in 1858, after several unsuccessful attempts, across swampy ground, with quicksand in places difficult to build upon. Owing to the great depth of the cuts in this levee, they let in a large volume of water and flood a great extent of cultivated land on the Sunflower, Coldwater, and Tallahatchie rivers. The repair of this levee I deemed to be one of the cases contemplated in your instructions. The points of repair are difficult of access, and the earth to fill in the breaks must be hauled a great distance. Sixty cents per cubic yard is, perhaps, too low an estimate. The other breaks, excepting the break in the Lewis's Swamp levee, are: These breaks did not, in my judgment, come under the rule prescribed in your instructions for determining what breaks should be temporarily repaired. The next break in order, and the last in Coahoma county, is— 9. The break in Lewis's Swamp levee, Sunflower landing. This break is two and a half miles long in a bend of the river, where the bank is caving rapidly, and has approached to within 2,000 feet of Hushpuckana bayou. The upper part of the break is in Lewis's swamp, which near the river bank has been much filled up by the deposit of the crevasse. The other part of the swamp is, however, very low. The fall of the flood water into Hushpuckana bayou has washed out a deep gully from the bayou to within a short distance of the river bank. The flood of this year may complete the connection of the gully with the river, and form a pass to the Hushpuckana, similar to that of the Yazoo pass, and to the detriment of the country below. The quantity of water that passed through this crevasse was so great as to fill the swamps in the vicinity nearly to the level of the river surface, to flood the country to a considerable distance above, and to overflow a great extent of cultivable land below in Bolivar county. The repair of the levee at this point was, in my judgment, one of the cases contemplated in your instructions. To repair it by throwing up a levee from one end of the break to the other, passing near Hushpuckana bayou, and through Lewis's swamp, sufficiently far from the river to insure the levee from destruction, until the river should wear into the Hushpuckana, was impracticable at the late season of the year at which my examination was made. Foreseeing the difficulty and the delay likely to occur in constructing such a levee, and the temporary character of the protection it would give, the planters east of Hush puckana bayou set on foot to build a levee ten miles long up the east bank of Hushpuckana bayou, beginning at some high grounds near Sunflower landing, and extending to Wimbush's. This would render their plantations. in a manner secure. To perfect this security the two lines of their levee must be united to the levee on the river bank. Five miles of this levee east of the Hushpuckana were under contract, and the work on it progressing well at the time of my examination of this locality in the latter part of December last. Hushpuckana bayou now serves merely as a drain to the downfall upon a narrow belt of land along its course of 30 miles, from its head at Old Port Royal to its mouth in Sunflower river. Formerly it was open to the river at Old Port Royal, and hence the high ground along its eastern bank. By running a levee from the lower end of the Lewis's Swamp break, at Grant's plantation, across the Hushpuckana, to its east bank, protection would be given to the great body of cultivated land overflowed by this crevasse, since there was no doubt that the building of such a levee would insure the simultaneous extension to Wimbush's of the planter's levee already referred to. This project I approved, but its execution would still leave subject to overflow by the backwater of the crevasse some four or five thousand acres of cultivated land situated on the river above the break-comparatively a local matter. To fix the location of the levee from Grant's to the east bank of the Hushpuckana, to ascertain how far it was practicable to protect the plantations from backwater by throwing up a levee above the break, and running from the river bank to the east bank of the Hushpuckana, and to ascertain the practicability and cost of building the levee through to Lewis's swamp, I directed certain surveys to be made. The result of these surveys is as follows: Repairing the break by a line through Lewis's swamp, 33 miles long, contents, cubic yards, 190,000. But the located line, in crossing Lewis's swamp, keeps so near the river bank (in order to pass over the deposit of the crevasse) that the levee would soon fall into the river by the caving of the bank. Keeping 2,000 feet from the river, the quantity of embankment will be greatly increased, and will not be less than 400,000 cubic yards. For the lower levee: From Grant's to Hushpuckana, contents. Total of lower cross levee, cubic yards 79,000 28,000 107, 000 Lewis's swamp extends up the west bank of the Hushpuckana a considerable distance, and the first practicable point of crossing is some five or six miles above Sunflower landing, (12 miles by the river,) at Robson's. From Robson's to Totten's, on the east bank of the Hushpuckana, is six miles; contents of levee, 435,000 cubic yards. This cross levee would leave some 1,500 acres of cultivated land below it exposed to overflow from the backwater of Lewis's swamp crevasse. It would also make dead water in the Hushpuckana bayou, for six miles above, and turn the bayou at that distance into Harris's bayou, which connects the Hushpuckana with the Sunflower. The levees required to protect the plantations from overflow, caused by this backing up of the rain drainage of this part of Hushpuckana bayou, would be small. It is evident that an expenditure like the preceding, for the end in view, was not contemplated by your instructions. As a temporary protection to the region in question, the levee across Lewis's swamp may be built in the ensuing fall. It is a legitimate expenditure under your instructions, and not disproportionate to the amount of saving of crops it will effect, although as part of a whole system it is not an economical application of means to an end. Repair of Lewis's swamp levee, by a line from Grant's west of the Hushpuckana and across Lewis's swamp to the upper end of the break, contents 190,000 cubic yards, which, at forty cents per yard, amounts to $76,000; or, the inuer line being chosen, contents 400,000 cubic yards, at forty cents per cubie yard, amounts to $160,000. As the board of levee commissioners for the State of Mississippi has been reorganized, and the former chief engineer of the levees has been re-elected to that office, a project for the permanent protection of the region just treated of will demand their attention at an early day. The problem is a somewhat intricate one, and as the chief elements for the solution were collected by the surveys made under the direction of Colonel H. S. Abbot, United States engineers, in accordance with my instructions to him, I will here state their principal results. up the east A levee from Grant's to the east bank of the Hushpuckana, and bank of that bayou to its head, at Old Port Royal, on the Mississippi. Length of levee, 18 miles; contents, exclusive of levee already built, 685,000 cubic yards. This will leave about 5,000 acres of cultivated land (the plantations below Wilkinson's landing) subject to overflow from backwater of the crevasse at Lewis's swamp, to keep out which back levees along these plantations will be required. A levee from Grant's to the east bank of the Hushpuckana and up the east bank to Wimbush's; thence across the Hushpuckana to Wilkinson's landing, on the Mississippi. Length of levee, 15 miles; contents, exclusive of levee already constructed, 611,000 cubic yards. This will leave 4,500 acres of cultivated land below it subject to the backwater of the crevasse at Lewis's swamp, to keep out which back levees on those plantations must be constructed. A levee from Grant's to the east break of the Hushpuckana, and up the cast bank to Totten's; thence across the Hushpuckana to Robson's, on the Mississippi. Length of levee, 13 miles; contents, exclusive of levee already constructed, 637,000 cubic yards. This will leave some 1,500 acres of cultivated lands below it exposed to overflow from the backwater of the Lewis's swamp crevasse, to protect which back levees must be built. Small levees may be re |
