rapid run for the levee, and some of the troops that were on the lower side of the peninsula had to be ferried over to join the main body of the army. Attempts were made to repair the damages, but the water was so high that they were ineffectual, and it was evident that the canal could not be utilized for its intended purpose.
While the work on the canal was progressing, General Grant ordered a channel to be cut from the Mississippi into Lake Providence, on the west side of the river, in the hope of opening a route by which he might send transports and gun-boats to co-operate with General Banks farther down. He also sent an expedition to the Coldwater River, by way of Yazoo Pass, in the hope of getting into the Yazoo River and destroying some transports and partially completed gun-boats at Yazoo City. The Confederates had established a navy-yard at that point, and it was from there that the ram Arkansas descended in 1862 and created the havoc and alarm already described.
Neither of these and two or three similar enterprises amounted to any thing further than to furnish occupation for idle troops and keep the Confederates in considerable alarm for their communications, and doubts as to the intentions of the Union commander. The Confederates had a steamboat, the City of Vicksburg, lying at the levee in front of the town, and the Union commander desired to destroy her. Colonel Ellet, commanding the ram, Queen of the West, volunteered to undertake the dangerous task, and at the same time run below Vicksburg and destroy other boats which the enemy were using for the transport of troops and supplies across the river. To protect her as much as possible three hundred bales of cotton were placed in such a position as to partially shield her engines, and her steering wheel was removed from the usual position and placed under shelter. But it was found that with this arrangement she steered so badly that the wheel was put back in its old place; the necessity of the
