Glass. 
 
 Book 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTED BY 
 
 The True Theory of the Mississippi River. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES M. SEA: 
 
 "17 
 
 -4A+ 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 Printed for the author by Robert Clarke & Co. 
 1893. 
 

 Copyright, 1893, by James M. Searles. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Should the Life and Times be read by any 
 of my civil engineering acquaintances, I trust 
 that they may wish, and hope for me, pleasant 
 and profitable success in determining, for my 
 chief (Mr. Sylvanus Miller), a good location ol 
 the Ferro Carril del Norte, in Guatemala — for 
 which country I propose embarking before this 
 little book shall be given to the public. 
 
 The true theory of the Mississippi river is 
 Mr. Charles Ellet's ; and my sole purpose in 
 making such liberal extracts from his great 
 work, is to call the attention of the United 
 States Congress to it in its entirety, that they 
 may be convinced that the Mississippi river 
 problem can be best, most economically, and 
 permanently solved, by outlets, levees, and res- 
 ervoirs. James M. Searles. 
 
 Vicksburg, Miss., April 22, 1893. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 40, line 16, read "bench-mark" for "bench- 
 work." 
 
 Page 41, line 15, read "too" for "to." 
 
 Page 83, line 5 from bottom of page, "through" for 
 "thoughtful." 
 
 Page 82, line 5 from top of page, "Tate Springs" for 
 "Late Springs." 
 
 Page 92, line 16, read "Benyuard" for " Benguard." 
 
LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF A 
 
 CIVIL ENGINEER 
 
 I propose, in writing of the life and times of 
 a civil engineer, not to attempt instruction in 
 a science which is cosmical in its character 
 and extent, and, therefore, I confess, beyond 
 my ability ; and totally incomprehensible, I 
 verily believe, to the large majority of those 
 who add to their names the two letters C. E.; 
 but, to speak of my experiences as they may 
 occur to me, and thereby, perhaps, be instru- 
 mental in guiding my professional brethren 
 amid the rocks and shoals which are to be met 
 in the current life of real practical engineer- 
 ing. The profession comprehends so much 
 that hesitancy should govern many who pro- 
 pose to adopt it. The precaution is stated, 
 because, not alone that mathematical educa- 
 tion and cultivation are necessary, but that the 
 ability to practically effect or illustrate the 
 great truths of engineering is essential. 
 
 It may seem a strange and curious circum- 
 stance that, at this time, it should be declared 
 that a science, founded on mathematics, and 
 
4 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 practically demonstrated by the greatest and 
 grandest physical achievements of all ages, 
 should be, at this epoch, very frequently di- 
 rected — so far as money and adventitious cir- 
 cumstances can and do, direct — by those who 
 have only entered on the threshold of the en- 
 tered apprentice degree. But so it is. He 
 who is least acquainted with the fundamental 
 principles of geometry, to say nothing of nat- 
 ural philosophy, therefore totally uninformed 
 or incapable of practically demonstrating the 
 great truths of those sciences, is the one se- 
 lected, by the very circumstances as indicated, 
 to govern a staff to whose judgment and ef- 
 forts, if the plan and conduct of the battle 
 were left, success would always respond. To 
 give more pertinency to the thought intended 
 to be expressed, the grand results are not to 
 be denied, but the credit for their accomplish- 
 ment is generally appropriated by those who 
 have been negative factors in the working-out 
 process. 
 
 Occasion will be taken, in the course ol 
 these pages, to particularize some of the re- 
 sults of the circumstances alluded to ; and 
 such, it may be said, will continue as results 
 so long as arrogance can blind the eyes of 
 capital. 
 
 To forestall abrupt criticism, it should be 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 5 
 
 mentioned that the immediate foregoing state- 
 ment is made to set forth and illustrate the 
 fact that the majority of practical civil engi- 
 neers are modest in their pretensions. 
 
 Having done with prefatory remarks, I will 
 begin the Life and Times by. announcing that 
 I was born, not of humble, but illustrious par- 
 entage, in that it was honest and always spoke 
 the truth. 
 
 My schooling as a civil engineer was begun 
 at " Old Brimstone Castle," in the town of 
 Alexandria, Virginia, situated on the right 
 bank of the Potomac river, about seven miles 
 southward Washington City. 
 
 Within the walls of that old institute, and, I 
 may add, venerable, inasmuch as it was pre- 
 sided over and conducted by Benjamin Hallo- 
 well — than whom none was more able to teach 
 the truths of a great and noble philosophy — I 
 was taught the mathematics which have served 
 me as an engineer. 
 
 The associations of the times and place are 
 to me of the most pleasant recollections of 
 early days, and should these pages be read by 
 any of the classes of 1 853—54, I trust they too 
 may be gratefully reminiscent of the times 
 when all was indeed " quiet along the Po- 
 tomac." 
 
6 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 I can recall just now but few of the names 
 of those who composed the classes of thirty 
 odd years ago. First in order of recollection, 
 because of our close and reciprocal friendship, 
 is Bailey Peyton, Jr. He was the eldest son 
 of the Hon. Bailey Peyton, of Tennessee, who 
 represented that state in congress, in times 
 when the office sought the man, and public of- 
 fice was regarded as a public trust, and the 
 records of those days bear testimony to his 
 ability and patriotism. The son gave every 
 evidence of that precocity which sometimes 
 distinguishes uncommon genius. He was cut 
 off, in budding manhood, at the battle of Mill 
 Springs, sharing the lamentable fate of the 
 gallant Zolicoffer. 
 
 There were, also, Edelin, of Washington 
 City ; Buchanan, of Maryland ; Martin, of New 
 York, and others, bright and noble fellows, all 
 of whom, I trust, have journeyed pleasantly 
 up the hill of life, and are still achieving, still 
 pursuing, those things which will make them 
 happy here and happier hereafter. 
 
 Before completing the entire curriculum of 
 the Hallowell Institute, I secured, through a 
 recommendatory letter of the then Secretary 
 of War, a position as aid on the United States 
 Cost Survey. 
 
 This work was conducted under the super- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 7 
 
 intendency of Alexander Dallas Bache, and 
 certainly no one could have been more em- 
 inently fitted for so high and responsible a po- 
 sition; He was not only a mathematician, 
 capable of comprehending and applying all 
 those geodetic principles which were demanded 
 by the survey, and as contemplated by the act 
 of congress authorizing the work, but he added 
 to this accomplishment an administrative ability 
 which has never been equaled, if, indeed, ap- 
 proached, by any of his successors. It was 
 the writer's good fortune to be personally as- 
 sociated with Prof. Bache, during two summer 
 seasons, in the State of Maine, while the work 
 of primary triangulation was being carried on 
 in that district. The superintendent's princi- 
 pal assistants were Geo. W. Dean and 
 Hilgard. 
 
 My duties consisted in recording and com- 
 puting the trigonometrical observations as 
 made by Dean. Hilgard, who was engaged 
 in the determination of the latitude and longi- 
 tude of the trigonometrical points, was likewise 
 assisted by my tent mate, Robert J. Brecken- 
 ridge. 
 
 I had also to make, in addition to the duties 
 enumerated, meteorological observations three 
 times per day. 
 
 It was during this summer work that the su- 
 
8 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 perintendent prepared his annual reports, being 
 assisted by a large clerical force, of whom I 
 well remember Hoe, Cooper, Hugh McHenry, 
 and Hayden, and my old friend Col. McDon- 
 ald, the "Atificer." He would never consent 
 to be called the carpenter. 
 
 During my probationary experience in this 
 particular class of work, the party occupied 
 Mounts Sebattis, Blue, and Ragged as observ- 
 ing points. The heliotropers — or signal men — 
 were located at various other stations, such as 
 Mounts Washington, Pleasant, Kearsage, Har- 
 ris, Cape Small, Isle au Haut, Mt. Desert, and 
 Katahdin. 
 
 It was on our first visit to the State of Maine 
 that I was sent, in company with Hayden, 
 ahead of the party, to look out a convenient 
 camping-ground about Mt. Blue. 
 
 Arriving at the little village of Phillips, on 
 Sandy river— every thing in the shape of a 
 stream in this country is dignified with the 
 name of river — the Sandy was about twenty 
 feet wide between top banks — we put up at 
 the hotel of the place, and found supper ready 
 some time before sun-down. 
 
 The hour of the evening meal was an un- 
 usual one to us, but we were glad of its early 
 coming, as we had appetites that had been 
 hugely built up by a long and jolting stage- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 9 
 
 coach travel ; so that it did not require the 
 ringing of a second bell to persuade us to the 
 eating-room. Being seated, I was surprised to 
 find the table almost covered with sweetmeats 
 — jellies, preserves, cakes, and pies. There 
 was a total absence of meat. This display 
 was not, however, disconcerting ; but when the 
 landlady asked me if I would take "long or 
 short sweetening" in my coffee, I was sadly 
 confused. I made out, for a while, that I had 
 not heard her ; but realizing, in a moment, that 
 I had, ordinarily, a very sweet tooth, and that 
 I had better take all the sweetening that was 
 offered, I answered that I would " take it 
 long. 
 
 I have a very long remembrance of that cof- 
 fee — it was " molasses boiled in." My stomach 
 had been aristocratically trained up to the en- 
 joyment of dripped coffee, sweetened to my 
 taste ; so, when breakfast came about, I re- 
 quested the hostess to give it to me " short." 
 
 We w r ere put to no trouble in making ac- 
 quaintances, as the natives surrounded and 
 plied us with all sorts of questions. A negro 
 boy, John, whom w r e had brought along as a 
 camp waiter, seemed to be an object of ex- 
 ceeding curiosity to them. He w r as as black 
 as charcoal ; and from the w r onder expressed 
 by the people — big and little — as they looked 
 
io Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 him all over, we judged that they had never 
 before seen a human being of his complexion. 
 The boy seemed bewildered by the attention 
 that was paid him. 
 
 While engaged in answering inquiries as to 
 where we lived — -what kind of a country was 
 "down South" — what the coast survey was 
 doing away back among the mountains — how 
 they worked the poor colored people down in 
 Louisiana and Mississippi- — did they really whip 
 them to make them work ? — did you ever see 
 any alligators ? (ku-klux hadn't been born up 
 to that time, else we might have been drawn 
 into a political talk) — we noticed a game of 
 grace hoops that was being played by quite a 
 number of pretty girls in the grassy front yard 
 of a place across the street. The girls had 
 formed a ring, and each one, in turn, would 
 throw the hoop at one or another, and if suc- 
 cessful in encircling the head of one of the 
 party, she had to submit to a kissing by the 
 thrower. 
 
 On remarking that it was a mighty nice 
 game, and that a boy, in such a game, would 
 never grow tired of it, one of our new ac- 
 quaintances, a Mr. Prebble, at once insisted on 
 our going over and taking a hand. Of course 
 we blushingly demurred to such a proposition, 
 as the girls might object, and as we had had 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 1 
 
 no introduction, etc. We were, not excused on 
 any such formal or conventional grounds, and 
 Prebble conducted us over to the charming cir- 
 cle, saying, "Now take your places with me, 
 and throw the hoop to ketch a gal, and, when 
 you ketch one, just run and get your pay." 
 Well, such a time as we had. Suffice it, we 
 had a good play, and the very best of pay. 
 
 The primary triangulation was made with a 
 theodolite of large magnifying power, so pow- 
 erful, indeed, that a signal pole of six inches 
 diameter could be distinctly seen at a distance 
 of from sixty to seventy-five miles — and at even 
 greater distances when atmospherical condi- 
 tions were peculiarly favorable. 
 
 The time of occupancy of a station varied 
 from one to three months, according to the 
 state of the weather. Owing to the high alti- 
 tude, it was frequently the case that these 
 poifits were enveloped by dense clouds, pre- 
 vailing for days, and even weeks. 
 
 The angles were repeated twenty or thirty 
 times in three different positions of the instru- 
 ment. This was done in order to eliminate, as 
 much as possible, any errors of graduation. 
 The azimuth circle was provided with three 
 micrometers, by which the readings were very 
 closely made, thus precluding any probability 
 of an error in measurement exceeding a small 
 
1 2 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 fractional part of a second, after determining 
 the mean of the repeated observations. 
 
 As an evidence of the exactness of the work, 
 six triangles were tested, and the greatest error 
 was found to be but six-tenths of a second. 
 This accuracy is arrived at by extreme care in 
 the measurement of the base ; the selection of 
 well-conditioned triangles (i. e., may have such 
 sides and angles that a small error in any of 
 the measured quantities will cause the least 
 possible error in the quantities calculated from 
 them), down to the determination of personal 
 error and spherical excess. 
 
 The position of each trigonometrical point, 
 with reference to the north star (i. e., its 
 azimuth) was observed, as also its latitude and 
 longitude. 
 
 The first superintendent of the Coast Survey 
 was Hassler, a Swedish scientist. The great 
 theodolite was constructed after his designs, 
 and under his supervision. 
 
 It is reported of him, that on the occasion of 
 a conversation between himself and President 
 Jackson, with reference to a suspension of the 
 work of the survey, he became very much ex- 
 asperated by " Old Hickory's " remarking that 
 the government could do without the survey 
 and its superintendent as easily and as readily 
 as it could change its chief executive officer. 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 3 
 
 " I think not," Hassler replied, " because the 
 people can, at any time, make a President, but 
 it takes God Almighty to make a Hassler." 
 
 The effrontery of the assertion might, in a 
 measure, be palliated by the real scientific abil- 
 ity of the old man, and we should not be too 
 hasty in condemning the propriety of his lan- 
 guage, when, it is remembered, that there have 
 been so many manifestations of impudent as- 
 surance by numerous j^z/;^ men, styling them- 
 selves Civil Engineers. 
 
 On the approach of the winter the party was 
 sent South to engage in the determination of 
 difference of longitude between points in sev- 
 eral states. Our corps occupied, successively, 
 during two seasons, Montgomery, Ala., Wil- 
 mington, N. C, Columbia, S. C, and Macon, 
 Ga. At these and other places, astronomical 
 observatories were hastily erected and con- 
 nected by telegraph. The electric connection 
 was made with a clock and chronographic ma- 
 chine that recorded the observations. 
 
 The same catalogue of stars being observed 
 on the same night, by the observers at two 
 stations, and the right ascensions repeatedly 
 and accurately recorded, the differences of 
 longitude were found to a nicety. The ob- 
 server having a break-circuit key whereby to 
 record his observations of passage of the star 
 
1 4 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 across the wires of his transit, could measure 
 a fraction of a second on the chronograph. 
 
 It was during my connection with the trig- 
 onometrical party in Maine, and when stationed 
 at Mt. Ragged, near the Penobscot Bay; that I 
 met with Professor Joseph Henry. Apart from 
 my appreciation of the man of science, to 
 whose profundity of knowledge a universal tes- 
 timony has been accorded, an observance of 
 his social characteristics was confirmation, to 
 my mind, that modest and natural simplicity is 
 linked with, and inseparable from, true great- 
 ness. In this, as in many other points of char- 
 acter, he had his counterparts in Professor 
 Bache, and that other grand old man and pa- 
 triarch, Benjamin Hallowell. It would be edi- 
 fying and instructive, to an appreciative public, 
 to read the autobiography of the Quaker 
 school-teacher. 
 
 In the course of my movings around, I was 
 sent to Old Cambridge, near Boston, as an aid 
 to Dr. B. A. Gould, who had charge of the 
 Coast Survey Astronomical Observatory at 
 that place. 
 
 The doctor was a gentleman of high scien- 
 tific attainments, as the records o( the Coast 
 Survey Office abundantly testify, and, consider- 
 ing his ability and activity in the astronimical 
 world, it is a matter of surprise that his fame 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 5 
 
 has not been extensively published. While 
 with this gentleman, I was also employed in 
 the calculation of moon culminations, under 
 the direction of Prof. Benjamin Pierce, the 
 great mathematician of Harvard College. It 
 is indulging in no extravagance in denom- 
 inating him as great, when the learned men of 
 the Athens of America pronounced him peer- 
 less in the realm of his special science. 
 
 He was a frequent visitor at the Observatory, 
 and I remember that, on the occasion of one 
 of his calls, he had a very earnest and excited 
 conversation with Dr. G. On the day follow- 
 ing, while talking with the doctor, I spoke ol 
 the professor, and expressed some curiosity to 
 know the reason of their animated colloquy of 
 the past night. The doctor was rather re- 
 luctant to confess the unamiability of his dis- 
 tinguished friend, and disposed to extenuate 
 his exhibition of bad temper because of indi- 
 gestion or some other physical ailment, but he 
 finally communicated a piece of intelligence 
 that impressed me with the belief that the 
 Harvard professor had but little respect for in- 
 ternational courtesies. 
 
 It seems that he had, about that time, con- 
 cluded and published his ad-captandum of math- 
 ematics — the Theory of Probabilities — and that 
 he had received a letter from Prof. Airy, the 
 
1 6 Life and Times of a Civil Enginee7 r . 
 
 Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, in criti- 
 cism of the theory. This was not to be put up 
 with ; and, in a fit of anger, he answered the 
 British officer in about this style : " I don't 
 know that I am surprised at your not compre- 
 hending my theory, but I should be if the dull- 
 est sophomore in college were in your mental 
 condition ; and it is my opinion that the title of 
 Royal Jackass of Great Britain would better 
 designate you than the one your government 
 has bestowed on you." The letter, though 
 dropped in the post-office, was taken out by 
 the good doctor, and never met the eye of the 
 trans-atlantic star-gazer. As a little spark some- 
 times kindleth a great conflagration, so, per- 
 haps, if the mail had been faster than the doc- 
 tor, the Britisher might have submitted the 
 letter to his government as an international 
 discourtesy, and brought about a war, with all 
 its dire and fearful consequences. Why not ? 
 Many a one has been fought because of a the- 
 ory ; and as the Harvard man's theory was 
 greater, and of more possibilities and proba- 
 bilities than most of the political theories of the 
 day, we are at liberty to congratulate ourselves 
 on escaping a conflict with the great naval 
 power of the world, 
 
 Before dismissing the subject of the Coast 
 Survey, it should be said that it is the best 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 7 
 
 schooling in the world, perhaps, for a young 
 man proposing to enter the Civil Engineering 
 profession. It affords him an opportunity for 
 employment and application of the higher 
 branches of mathematics, in the acquisition of 
 the knowledge of which he may have spent 
 years of laborious study ; it gives him a famil- 
 iarity with the construction and handling of the 
 finest and most delicate instruments that are 
 used in the geodetic works of the civilized na- 
 tions of the earth ; and, as its methods and ex- 
 actness should have their influence in deter- 
 mining his work, he will thus lay a foundation 
 for fidelity and precision of observation and 
 calculation in any of the branches of engineer- 
 ing and surveying work to the study and prac- 
 tice of which he may be called. 
 
 It is not here contended that a probationary 
 experience on this national work is a necessary 
 part of the education of a Civil Engineer, but 
 that an experimental acquaintance with its va- 
 rious departments will prove a material help, 
 as a mathematical preparation, to one who 
 shall afterward engage in the practical solution 
 of the many and wonderfully complex prob- 
 lems which come up with the necessities pf the 
 time and age, and demand, for their solution, 
 an aptitude to select from the vast storehouse 
 of geometry and its concomitant sciences, and 
 
1 8 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 so apply as that the demands of such necessi- 
 ties will be fruitfully realized. 
 
 ^j> 4fe 4t£ 4& $& •$& 
 
 Severing my connection with the Coast Sur- 
 vey service, I at once entered on railroad work, 
 in the double capacity of chainman and rod- 
 man, on what was then known as the Missis- 
 sippi Central — now the Illinois Central. The 
 assistant in charge of the party to which I was 
 assigned was George R. Wilson, an untiring 
 and indefatigable worker, quick in judgment 
 and rapid in calculation, and filling the bill, in 
 every particular, as a field Engineer. 
 
 I remained on the line but a month or six 
 weeks. I have always possessed a very large 
 amount of endurance, but as I had to perform 
 double duty during a summer season of ex- 
 traordinary heat, attended with a drought, 
 which is always a matter of anxious concern to 
 a surveying party — as many a one can testify 
 who has had to satisfy a thirsty craving at a 
 mud-hole or a horse-track — and had also to pay 
 for my own subsistence — and this, too, to hunt 
 up, after twelve hours' work, by walking as 
 many miles as would tire a mule — I concluded 
 not to stand on any particular order of going 
 by sending due notice to headquarters of my 
 intention, and notifying it that, on some certain 
 day, it would be privileged to. fill my responsi- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 9 
 
 ble position by the appointment of some party 
 who might wish for hard work and very small 
 pay ; but I went, and went so fast that, on a 
 hot August day, I tramped over forty-eight 
 miles, carrying, one-third of the way, a thirty- 
 pound transit instrument. This is on record 
 as fair pedestrianism for a non-professional. 
 
 My next service was on the Vicksburg, 
 Shreveport and Texas road. Col. Bonner was 
 Chief Engineer. The assistant to whom I was 
 assigned as rodman was Darrow. Like my 
 former chief, Wilson, he was an industrious 
 worker, but without his capacity to recognize 
 those economic principles which should govern 
 and direct manual labor in surveying, as in all 
 other occupations calling for the exercise of 
 physical force. Two hours' necessary labor 
 was extended over six days in the performance 
 of that which was unnecessary. I don't know 
 that Darrow thought it his duty, strictly en- 
 joined on him by biblical authority, that I should 
 earn my bread in the sweat of my brow. I 
 was, nevertheless, physically so impressed ; 
 and with the impression came the reflection 
 that I had better husband my resources for 
 bigger pay than sixty dollars per month. 
 
 As on a former occasion, I took no time in 
 severing this association, and, within a few 
 days thereafter, found myself aboard Capt. T. 
 
20 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 P. Leathers' magnificent steamer Natchez, 
 bound for the Crescent City, and thence pro- 
 posing to embark for the city of Vera Cruz. 
 At that time it was extensively published that 
 the Mexican capital and the city of " The True 
 Cross" were to be united by iron rails — that 
 American Engineers were in great demand, 
 and the pay of the poor devil who carries and 
 uses the transit and level to be as high as five 
 hundred to a thousand per month, while rod- 
 men and chainmen were to receive double the 
 amount of salary paid to bank tellers and 
 cashiers. 
 
 The temptation was grandly alluring to me, 
 as, doubtless, it was to many others. 
 
 I was full of the memories of Prescott's un- 
 rivaled descriptions of the w T ealth and magnifi- 
 cence of the Montezumas, and equally confi- 
 dent that the Aztecs of old had but skimmed 
 the surface of the mines of mineral wealth 
 which nature had so bountifully provided. 
 Riches had been found in the sands of Cali- 
 fornia, and why not a speedy fortune, easily 
 made, in a land whose temples were roofed 
 with gold, paved with silver, and glittered with 
 gems of purest ray and dazzling brilliancy ? 
 The prospect was tempting ; but, meeting with 
 an accident, a not unusual one, at any time or 
 place, and r at all times, one of the most incon- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 2 1 
 
 venient and troublesome of accidents — want 
 of money — my trip was indefinitely post- 
 poned. 
 
 Going back on the line of my journey, I 
 found myself in Baton Rouge, the capital city 
 of the Pelican State ; and, from this time and 
 place, I should date the beginning of my engi- 
 neering career, as it was then and there I was 
 first clothed with the responsibilities attendant 
 on a commanding position. 
 
 The state was divided into four swamp land 
 districts, and it was my good fortune to be ap- 
 pointed, by the Board of Commissioners, En- 
 gineer-in-Chief of District No. 1. I had reason 
 to be proud of the distinction, as my official 
 commission came just in time to congratulate 
 me on my twenty-first birthday ; and having 
 been long afflicted with a torturing uneasiness 
 produced by chronic impecuniosity, I experi- 
 enced as sudden and gratifying relief from this 
 trouble as I would now, in 1893, if I could hold 
 a capital prize ticket before the window of the 
 paying teller of the Louisiana Lottery Com- 
 pany. 
 
 At this time Louisiana was in receipt of a 
 large revenue, derived from the sale of lands 
 donated by the General Government, which 
 was appropriated to general drainage purposes, 
 and the erection and maintainance of levees 
 
22 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 along the Mississippi and other streams within 
 the state. 
 
 The Commission having determined on the 
 drainage of Cat Island, a section of country 
 lying between the Mississippi River, Bayou 
 Sarah, and the Tunica Hills, I was directed to 
 this as my first work. 
 
 A topographical survey demonstrated the im- 
 practicability of complete and effectual drain- 
 age, and I so reported to His Excellency, Gov. 
 Robert Wickliffe, and the honorable Board. 
 The legislative appropriation having, however, 
 been made, it was deemed proper to expend it 
 in the effort, though it might fail in the result. 
 It should be observed that Cat Island was in- 
 tensely 'and unanimously Democratic in its 
 votes. 
 
 Having secured, by a long line of levee, the 
 lands from overflow by the waters of the river 
 and Bayou Sarah, two iron boiler culverts, with 
 self-acting gates, were placed in position at the 
 lowest and most effective point for the drainage 
 of rainfall accumulation during the prevalence 
 of high water. No patent was taken out on 
 this culvert, as its material and design were, 
 doubtless, contemporaneous with the birth of 
 the iron age ; but it is not thought presumptu- 
 ous in claiming credit for the cost of the work, 
 it being but nine hundred dollars — four hundred 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 23 
 
 linear feet of boiler shells, and each culvert 
 forty-two inches in diameter, while a perma- 
 nency of twenty years added additional testi- 
 mony, not only to its economy in outlay, but to 
 its effectiveness in the accomplishment of such 
 work as was expected. 
 
 It is not the design of the writer to enter 
 into lengthy details in speaking oi the various 
 works of his district, as it certainly would add 
 nothing to the interest of the memoirs of this 
 book, while it might bring upon him the charge 
 of vainly exploiting those things which every- 
 body can do. To those who know me well, I 
 have no apologies to make, as I have no fear 
 of their imputing to me a desire to impress my 
 readers with the idea that I am " learned in 
 engineering above my fellows " ; while to those 
 who might misconstrue my honest intent in in- 
 diting these pages, and ungraciously think of 
 me as one having no modesty, and, therefore, 
 less merit, I can only say that they should lend 
 me all their sympathies, and help me in writing 
 a book in illustration of my Life and Times, 
 and show me how to do so without much 
 speaking of myself 
 
 Following this work, I was next directed to 
 locate the lines of a large body of timbered 
 land belonging to the state — comprising about 
 
24 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 one hundred thousand acres, and bordering on 
 the Amite, Blind, and New river and Lake 
 Maurepas. 
 
 This was by far the most difficult physical 
 task that I have ever had to encounter, and all 
 old sectional swamp-land surveyors must read- 
 ily admit it as one that few of them ever under- 
 took and accomplished. 
 
 The entire country was under water, varying 
 in' depth from one to four feet, and yet for sev- 
 eral months the running of lines was continued, 
 and the winding up of each day's work found 
 every member of the party soaking wet from 
 head to foot. 
 
 Necessarily, the camp was, most of the time, 
 from five to six miles from the field of opera- 
 tions ; and those who have tried wading in 
 water, though but knee-deep — and handicapped 
 by heavy boots — the day's work having lasted, 
 with but an hour's intermission, from early 
 morn till sun-down, and the stomach turbu- 
 lently rebellious, because of a short and hasty 
 mid-day lunch — can not withhold their assent 
 to the conclusion that no greater hardship in 
 the way of surveying can be thought of that 
 will so effectually test the endurance of a field 
 party. 
 
 The evident object of the survey was to pro- 
 tect the lands from the depredations of the 
 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 25 
 
 timber robbers who were engaged in the trans- 
 portation of ash and cypress to the New Or- 
 leans market.. What effect it had the writer 
 has no means of knowing, but doubtless the 
 illicit traffic has grown with the years. 
 
 It may be of interest to timber men to know 
 that this was the most compact and extensive 
 brake of ash and cypress to be found in any of 
 the Southern states ; and if it has not been too 
 much culled, a saw-mill at the mouth of Blind 
 river would prove a profitable investment. 
 
 Next in order, because of the magnitude of 
 the work, was the building of the Bonnet Carre 
 levee. A crevasse had occurred at this place 
 during the flood tide of 1858, and opened up a 
 water-way from the river to Lake Pontchartrain 
 of a mile or more in width. The gap was 
 easily filled up, as ample provision was made 
 out of the swamp land fund ; and the new line 
 having been located at a safe distance from 
 caving bank, and built in due season to permit 
 of thorough settling of material before the 
 coming of high water, it served the purpose of 
 full protection till some time after the war be- 
 tween the states. 
 
 It is the w r riter's recollection that the crevasse 
 was caused by a caving off of a part of the line 
 of levee. If this be so, it is only an additional 
 
26 Life a7id Times of a Civil Engineer. ' 
 
 illustration of the negligence of some levee 
 commissioners. But whatever was the cause 
 of the crevasse which entailed so much of ruin 
 and disaster on the people of the lower coast, 
 it could have been prevented by the adoption 
 of simple means and expedients ; and it is here 
 contended that there is no good reason why 
 levees should break, unless it can be shown 
 that the annual necessities of the contractors 
 demand that such should be the case. 
 
 Doubtless, the positiveness of my assertion 
 regarding the stability of levees will provoke a 
 smile among those who have had much to do 
 with the building of them, but when it is once 
 conceded — as it must be, since fact will force 
 it — that the material of all our levees, however 
 small in cross-section, is ample, by a large fac- 
 tor of security, to withstand the pressure of 
 the water, it should be at the same time ac- 
 knowledged that, if some expedient should be 
 adopted to render the material impervious to 
 water, and act as a successful resistance to the 
 encroachments of woods-rats, crayfish, etc., 
 we could secure for such structures as much 
 permanency as could be expected from the 
 piling up of Indian mounds. 
 
 This could be accomplished by sinking gal- 
 vanized sheet-iron plates along or near the 
 center line of the levee. 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 2 7 
 
 It is not to be inferred that any claim to 
 originality is made in suggesting this device 
 in the construction of levees, as it has been 
 used in many that were erected to resist the 
 impulsive pressure of sea waves, while defying 
 the boring attacks of the numerous marauders 
 of the briny deep. As a notable instance, at- 
 tention is called to the Jersey flats. Previous 
 to their reclamation, they had but a nominal 
 value, but now furnish the most productive 
 garden spots in the vicinity of New York 
 City. 
 
 New plans or devices in levee building have, 
 perhaps, been thought of by many, while a few 
 have obtained a general publicity without any 
 practical indorsement. 
 
 It is well known to the people of the Mis- 
 sissippi and Louisiana bottoms, that the high 
 levees over low marshy localities, are not only 
 costly of erection and difficult to keep up, but 
 require constant and unremitting vigilance in 
 their guarding during high-water periods. 
 
 It was during the political reconstruction 
 era, and the reconstruction of the big Mor- 
 ganza levee in the Parish of Point Coupe, La., 
 that the writer called on and submitted to the 
 Board of Levee Commissioners, at New Or- 
 leans, a proposal to substitute wood for earth 
 in the building of this line of levee. 
 
28 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 It had been contracted for and built the pre- 
 vious season, at figures ranging from seventy- 
 five cents to one dollar per cubic yard. Just 
 think of it, you fellows who are greedy to get 
 hold of a piece of work at any thing, from 
 eleven cents downward, so that the commis- 
 sary holds out and pays the usual dividend. 
 
 It was shown that places of heavy fills could 
 be well secured by the adoption of the wooden 
 plan — the timbers used in building to be 
 thoroughly treated by the Formanizing process 
 for preserving them, and to cost less than half 
 of the ordinary and legitimate price of earth- 
 work. The practicability and economy of the 
 scheme were admitted, but the writer was 
 given no opportunity to demonstrate it on a 
 contract, because the Board had, in its wis- 
 dom, discovered that "some body might set 
 fire to the levee and burn it up." Such was 
 the conclusion of a day's deliberation on the 
 part of these Solons. 
 
 The king of levee contractors, as he was 
 known in those days, owned the Board, and 
 controled their votes, by the same means as 
 are now so conspicuously and so successfully 
 operated by the railroad lobby with honorable 
 Senators and Representatives in our national 
 legislature. 
 
 While on this subject, and before dismissing 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 29 
 
 it, it might be asked if the wooden-levee 
 method has ever engaged even the passing at- 
 tention of those having charge of the building 
 and maintainance oi the long- levee lines in 
 Mississippi and Louisiana. 
 
 Considering the magnitude of the interests 
 dependent, not alone on the integrity, but the 
 skill and ingenuity of the directors of such 
 works, it seems passing strange that some- 
 thing has not been adopted in lieu of earth 
 embankment, because of the many ineffectual 
 attempts to shut out the Mississippi river from 
 the beds of natural drainage therefrom, or 
 other low and marshy localities, such as sloughs 
 and lakes. 
 
 The inevitable settling of material, when 
 dumped into such places, goes on at such a 
 rapid rate as to require a considerable change 
 in the Engineer's estimate of cost — frequently 
 quadrupling original calculations — and in the 
 end, the mountain of dirt, saturated from top 
 to bottom, and honey-combed throughout by 
 myriads of destroyers that are indigenous to 
 the swamp, trembles for a while on its weak 
 foundation, when, giving way, under a pressure 
 of eighteen to twenty feet of water, a vast area 
 is deluged, and thousands and millions of prop- 
 erty destroyed. 
 
 It is evident that a levee of great height, 
 
?o Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 j 
 
 and of the usual and ordinary cross-sectional 
 features, when erected on lines crossing these 
 very low places, necessarily imposes a very 
 great pressure on a very weak foundation. 
 One of the consequences of this is seen in the 
 spreading of the bulk of the earth employed 
 in its construction. The material is generally 
 of a mucky character, requiring a longer time 
 for settling than the sandy loamy soils ordi- 
 narily used in building lower levees. Fre- 
 quently the flood of the river comes upon its 
 slope long before the Irishman and his engine 
 have ceased their work, and the consequences, 
 as adverted to, come to pass. 
 
 The above was penned some time before the 
 public announcement that Mr. Chas. E. Wright 
 had patented his " Levee Safety- Wall." 
 
 Since reading the many indorsements of it, 
 and particularly that of Mr. Murphy, who has 
 tried it, and found it effective ; indeed, so far 
 effective, as to bring from him a proclamation 
 in the New Orleans Delta that he had used it 
 for several years — under the most trying cir- 
 cumstances — in the low marshy grounds below 
 New Orleans ; and that he was going to con- 
 tinue using it " regardless of the Wright pat- 
 ent," I congratulate my inquiry of the Engi- 
 neers who have charge of the Mississippi levees, 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 3 1 
 
 why they do not adopt something that will 
 prevent crevasses ? 
 
 In a late issue of the Vicksburg Commercial 
 Herald, the writer indorsed the Wright Safety- 
 Wall as the best and most economical that 
 could be adopted as a prevention of crevasses. 
 It is of inch plank. The center, or inner plank, 
 to stand vertically from the bottom of a muck 
 ditch to two or three feet below grade of levee. 
 Inch timbers to cross the vertical plank, on 
 either side or both sides — longitudinally ; a 
 continuous section being made by breaking 
 joints ; thus making a strong section over a 
 long span. Hydraulic cement being applied 
 as a filling between the joints and surfaces. 
 
 A -Levee Safety- Wall Co.," of which Mr. 
 Wright is president, has been organized ; and 
 it is the hope of the writer, as well as the wish 
 of the thousands who have property interests 
 in the valley lands, that the company may be 
 given an opportunity by the several Levee 
 Boards, or the Federal authorities, to prove 
 the merit of the invention. 
 
 It was during a very warm summer that, in 
 connection with Fred Farrar, the Chief Engi- 
 neer of the second swamp land district, I was 
 engaged on the survey of the Lafourche 
 valley. It is not to be thought that a complete 
 
32 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 survey of this entire section was accomplished 
 in one season's work. It was merely begun 
 by traversing the Mississippi from Donalclson- 
 ville to Fort Jackson, and thence down the 
 Lafourche bayou to Houma, beside the run- 
 ning of several lengthy cross lines. 
 
 We had with us, as a check-leveler, a com- 
 rade who is now well known to the states — but 
 perhaps better to that of the Lone Star — as 
 what the Hon. J. Proctor Knott terms a com- 
 mercial evangelist. The party should be 
 quickly recognized by traveling men, when it 
 is said that he has a pointer dog, wears a 
 white slouch hat, dresses neatly, plays on the 
 banjo, sings a good song, talks rapidly but 
 well, and is, altogether, as good company as 
 one could find in a day's travel. It is reported 
 that all Texas chews his tobacco — that his 
 commissions are heavy, and he is, altogether, 
 bloomingly prosperous. So mote it be, for he 
 was always a prince of good fellows. 
 
 How often do we hear repeated the woeful 
 experiences of swamp land surveyors, when 
 telling of the miseries inflicted on them by the 
 mosquito tribe. Why, my dear fellows, unless 
 you have handled an instrument in the Parishes 
 of Plaquemine and St. Bernard, you hav n't 
 the slightest conception of the magnitude and 
 voracity of that pestiferous insect. It was be- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 33 
 
 cause of these, and horse-fly blood suckers, 
 that the Lafourche valley work was brought to 
 a sudden close. That it has been continued 
 and carried out, as originally proposed, I do 
 not know. 
 
 There is a large area of this valley that is 
 irreclaimable, but a comprehensive survey of it 
 would develop the fact that thousands of acres, 
 by,a judicious system of draining and embank- 
 ing, could be brought under the plowshare. 
 
 Is it not curious that so much capital should 
 now be employed in the digging of canals to 
 penetrate the Everglades of Florida — through 
 a section of country that is reeking with mala- 
 ria — when lands equally as fertile, and requir- 
 ing no more money nor ingenuity to redeem 
 them, are to be had in the Teche country — 
 the Eden of America ? 
 
 Following this work was one of an attempted 
 location of a tide-water levee. That it was 
 not effected, was the result of combined resist- 
 ance on the part of the horse-fly and mosquito 
 tribes. They drove us from the field 'ere we 
 had succeeded in placing an instrument in po- 
 sition. Perhaps this statement will not be 
 credited with being the full truth. To those 
 who doubt, and are proud of their incredulity, 
 it can only be said, go down and try it. " The 
 proof of the pudding is in the eating." 
 
 Brave Fred Farrar! He went to the battle 
 
34 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 fields in defense of his country, and met his 
 death, heroically, at Murfreesboro ; and with 
 him died another of the party — Adolph Kent. 
 One was Lieutenant-Colonel and the other 
 Adjutant of Gladden's regiment of Louisiana 
 Regulars. 
 
 It was about this time that one of my field 
 associates, John Van Pelt, became engaged in 
 a dueling difficulty with a Mr. Le Blanc. Be- 
 ing solicited by Van Pelt to act as bearer of a 
 challenge, I declined to second him in that ca- 
 pacity, but persuaded him to permit of my of- 
 fices as a peace-maker. Llaving failed in get- 
 ting an apology from the other party, I stood 
 aside, while James McDonald, the then editor 
 of the Natchez Free Trader, and at this partic- 
 ular time sojourning in Baton Rouge because 
 of a shooting scrape he had had with another 
 Mississippi editor, Bob Pnrdom, was selected 
 to further conduct proceedings through the 
 challenging and shooting phases. 
 
 The parties met on the pegged line at Pass 
 Christian, thirty paces apart, and emptied their 
 shotguns of ounce balls. Fortunately no blood 
 was shed. The combatants were men of nerve, 
 and their friends had occasion to congratulate 
 themselves that, after but one shot, matters 
 were amicably adjusted. 
 
 Van Pelt entered the Confederate service as 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 35 
 
 a private. He was a native of Elizabethtown, 
 New Jersey. He made a gallant soldier. By 
 the bursting of a cannon at the battle of Shi- 
 loh, he was afflicted with great deafness. Un- 
 til within the last few years he filled the posi- 
 tion of Chief Engineer of the State of Louisi- 
 ana. It was during his occupancy of this 
 office that he was promoted to a heavenly po- 
 sition, for that he was a Christian his every act 
 did testify. 
 
 These were dueling days-, and two more of 
 my friends sought the " field of honor" to ad- 
 just a difficulty, and how unfortunate the re- 
 sult ! 
 
 This " adjusting practice " has been resorted 
 to in all ages. Its advocates have speciously 
 argued in its defense, while by far the larger 
 majority of very good people have more rea- 
 sonably condemned it. 
 
 The writer, when a boy, back in the early 
 fifties, was, with his two school companions, 
 Jim Stetle and Henry Vick, delightfully en- 
 gaged in camp hunting amid the wilds of the 
 Deer creek and Sunflower country. And what 
 a glorious time that was for game ! 
 
 In those days the shooters of the creek — and 
 "who were not shooters " could be more read- 
 ily answered than "who were" — could see no 
 fun in spending ammunition on coons, squirrels, 
 
6 
 
 6 Life and Times of a Civil Engi7ieer. 
 
 and mallard ducks, or even the strutting turkey 
 cock ; such sport was too tame beside the chas- 
 ing and killing of deer, and bear, and panther. 
 
 We were initiated into the ways of hunting 
 their favorite game by that brave and grand old 
 Nimrod, Belcher. Is there an old settler along 
 the Issaquena or Bogne Phalia who does not 
 remember him ? 
 
 Measuring six feet large in his stocking feet, 
 full-chested, with square shoulders, bronzed vis- 
 age, black, fiery, and determined eye, erect and 
 graceful in his every attitude, warm and gener- 
 ous in his affections, while terrible in his ven- 
 geance, yet playful and frolicksome in disposi- 
 tion, full of anecdote, and, above all (I state 
 this as a reminiscence for the old, and as a rec- 
 ommendation to the favor of the new denizens of 
 that country), he loved all kinds of whisky, and 
 was never known to be at the tail end of a 
 crowd when they marched to the jug or counter 
 " to take sugar in their'n," only he didn't take 
 any sugar in his'n. 
 
 Many a side-splitting laugh did we have as, 
 lying in bed at night after a day's hunting 
 tramp, we listened to his unbottling of anec- 
 dotes, while Col. Vick, whom he was specially 
 fond of entertaining, would pass the jug with 
 "Take another, and tell another; you are bet- 
 ter than a good story-book to these young fel- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 3 7 
 
 lows, and I really believe your yarns will cure 
 me of my dyspepsia." "Yarns! did you say, 
 Colonel? No, sir; I tell you, my life's a fact." 
 
 And it was indeed a fact — a theme which, 
 told by the magical pen of William Gilmore 
 Sims or Fennimore Cooper, would reveal a his- 
 tory wonderfully marvelous in its incidents, 
 while impressively illustrative of one of the 
 apparent paradoxes of Hie, that truth is stranger 
 than fiction. 
 
 The old man has long since passed away, 
 but " Belcher's Bridge " and " Belcher's Scales " 
 are yet to be seen, the one over Deer creek, 
 formed by the falling and meeting of two large 
 sycamore trees, clean, and slick, and limbless, 
 full seventy-five feet above the stream ; and it 
 was over this bridge of novel structure — built 
 of two straining beams — that the hunter, with 
 rifle slung over the shoulder, cooned it up and 
 down in hot pursuit of a bear. The other a 
 large cypress log, having one end firmly im- 
 bedded in the muddy bottom of the Sunflower 
 river, while the other bobs up and down, first 
 under, then high above the water. 
 
 A young man on his first swamp trip, which 
 he was taking on one of the little "stern- 
 wheelers" that navigated that river, seeing this 
 cypress sawyer, was curious to know what it 
 was, and on inquiring of Belcher, who was a 
 
38 .Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 fellow passenger at the time, was told that it 
 was his scales. " Why, Colonel Belcher," he 
 further inquired, " what, in the name of sense, 
 do you use them for?" " Why, you see," was 
 the reply, ''these rafsmen up here got to 
 stealin' so much of the state's timber, and 
 there bein' no way to stop 'em from cuttin' it, I 
 jus' went down ter our legislater at Jackson, 
 and made it give me a 'sclusive charter to 
 weigh all the timber that was floated out'er the 
 Sunflower river. The state, you see, couldn't 
 'ford to lose all this valuable timber ; so the 
 weighin' charges was put at a heavy rigger, 
 and me and the state was to dervide. Well, 
 since I put them scales in the river, I've made 
 lots and cords of money — and 'praps the state 
 would 'er made some too, if the timber had 
 hel' out long enough." 
 
 It was during this very happy hunting time 
 that the difficulty arose between my two 
 friends, which, in years long thereafter, termi- 
 nated in a duel to the death. The result of 
 the conflict brought grief and sadness not 
 only to the immediate relatives of Henry Vick, 
 but to another who, within a week from the 
 day of the fatal encounter, was to have been 
 made his wedded wife. Stith was my assist- 
 ant engineer at the time, and I have often re- 
 gretted not being present on the occasion of 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 39 
 
 the renewal of the boyish quarrel. The origi- 
 nating circumstances were, beside these two, 
 known to me alone ; and I have always felt 
 that I could have accommodated all differences, 
 and thus prevented the hostile meeting which 
 .took place on the Mobile race course. 
 
 Vick was seconded by Col. A. G. Dickin- 
 son, the gallant adjutant-general of Magruder 
 in the late civil war, and now a prominent cap- 
 italist of New York city — and Col. Locker- 
 idge, of Nicaragua fame — while the friends of 
 Stith were Tom Morgan and Frank Cheatham, 
 of Baton Rouge. Stith died in Vicksburg 
 during the siege of that city by the Federal 
 army. He was a lieutenant, in charge of a 
 river battery, at the time of his death. 
 
 Following the Lafourche valley survey came 
 that of the New river district. It was an ex- 
 tensive one — from the Mississippi to the Amite 
 river, and embracing Spanish Lake, Bayou 
 Fountain, and numerous other streams that lie 
 within its limits. This work occupied a large 
 party during many months. The New river 
 section was embraced within the boundaries of 
 the once notorious Houmas Land Grant, and, 
 at the time of the surveys, there was much 
 excitement among the planters of Iberville and 
 Ascencion Parishes, because of an attempt on 
 
40 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 the part of J. P. Benjamin and John Slidell, 
 then representing Louisiana in the United 
 States Senate, to have the title confirmed by 
 act of congress. It is an interesting case, the 
 particulars of which are all set forth by a de- 
 cision of the United States Supreme Court, in 
 the case of Slidell v. Grandjean. Then came 
 a trigonometrical survey of the Mississippi 
 river, from the upper end of the first district 
 to the last cultivated lands in the lower portion 
 of the Parish of Plaquemine. These surveys, 
 and all others that were made throughout the 
 First Swamp Land District, under my admin- 
 istration, were kept up in a connected form, 
 and the entire system of levels was referred to 
 a common bench work, on the southwest cor- 
 ner of the capital building, at Baton Rouge. 
 
 Maps of the many surveys that had, for 
 years, been in progress in the four depart- 
 ments, were in course of preparation when the 
 late war broke out — work being done on them 
 up to the time of the passing of Forts Jackson 
 and St. Philip by the Federal fleet. 
 
 As such notes were not essential to the 
 posting of our state authority or military de- 
 fense, they were — not quickly — but hurriedly 
 rustled into drawers and boxes. Where they 
 are now, may possibly be known to Major H. 
 B. Richardson, the present distinguished chief 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 4 1 
 
 engineer of the state. Doubtless, however, 
 they are stowed away in Washington City, with 
 other and more interesting historical papers, 
 which bear the signatures of Jeff. Davis, J. P. 
 Benjamin, R. E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, 
 Beauregard, and a host of colonels. 
 
 I never knew, until after the war, how many 
 colonels it took to prolong it from 1861 to 
 1865. The title seems to be one of common 
 inheritance. I will risk the ring of the chest- 
 nut bell by repeating the experience of a Phila- 
 delphian, on his first trip, by an Anchor Line 
 steamer, down the Mississippi. The boat hav- 
 ing rounded to at a cotton shipping landing, 
 our Quaker City gentleman stood on the boiler 
 deck until the last bale had been rolled 
 aboard — the bell tapped, and the boat was 
 moving out from shore, when, observing a 
 group of a dozen or more men astride their 
 horses, watching the movements of the 
 steamer, and bethinking himself of what he 
 had heard of the number of titled people in 
 the country — raised his hat, and, in a loud 
 voice, shouted, " Good-bye, Colonel," when, 
 to his amazement and amusement, every man 
 lifted his slouch. 
 
 Under the direction of Captain J. K. Dun- 
 can, chief engineer of the state, I made a sur- 
 
42 Life and Times of cv Civil Engineer. 
 
 vey of Old river, between the head of the 
 Atchafalaya and the Mississippi. The object 
 was the improvement of the water way be- 
 tween these points. Capt. Duncan's report to 
 the state legislature suggested the closing of 
 the mouth of the Red and the digging of a 
 canal for slack water navigation from the Mis- 
 sissippi — following the bed of a " dry bayou ' 
 for a mile or two, and entering Old river about 
 that distance below the Atchafalaya. 
 
 Of the merits of the plan, for that time, I 
 can say nothing, as I have no remembrance of 
 any particular features that were developed by 
 the survey. I have, however, a very distinct 
 recollection of observing a very expeditious 
 and practical solution of the navigable prob- 
 lem, by a stern-wheel boat called the " New 
 Era." ' 
 
 While engaged in cross-sectioning the mouth 
 of the river, the little steamer, coming up with 
 a heavy freight, turned her head down stream, 
 and went vigorously to work on a backing- 
 wheel. It being a sandy bottom she quickly- 
 cut a passage through the shoalest places, 
 when, straightening up, paddled on an unob- 
 structed way to Shreveport. 
 
 The term Old river, is the local name of the 
 old channel of the Mississippi at the mouth of 
 Red river. At this point, and immediately be- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 43 
 
 low, the Mississippi formerly exhibited two 
 great bends, the lower and greater of which 
 was cut off by the State of Louisiana, and is 
 known as the Roccourci cut-off. The upper 
 of these bends was cut off at an earlier period 
 by Captain Schreve, for the purpose of short- 
 ening the navigable channel. The portion 
 thus cut off is known as Old river. Red river 
 discharges into this old channel, and the Atch- 
 afalaya, which has an independent outlet to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, has its source in this Old 
 river, two or three miles below the mouth of 
 Red river. 
 
 Some time in the summer of '58 — in the 
 month of August, I believe— I had presented 
 to me, by an engineer friend, a prospect for 
 obtaining a large surveying contract under 
 Uncle Sam ; -certainly not less than one hun- 
 dred townships in Nebraska. 
 
 At that time General Ward B. Burnett, of 
 Mexican War notoriety, was Surveyor-General 
 of the Territory, and Mr. Delohnde, of Louisi- 
 ana, was Register of the Land Office. 
 
 The Register being a brother-in-law of the 
 Hon. John Slidell, who was then representing 
 Louisiana in the United States Senate, I had 
 the good fortune, as a preliminary step, to ob- 
 tain a flattering introductory letter to him from 
 the senator's pen, and with this, and kind rec- 
 
44 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 ommendatory notes from the Hon. Tom Green 
 Davidson, then a Congressional representative 
 of the same state, I posted off for the Ne- 
 braska prairies. 
 
 The Kansas and Nebraska — Squatter Sover- 
 eignty — Free Soil — Abolition — Pro-Slavery — 
 or whatever name it may be remembered by — 
 War! had, about this time, worn itself out; so 
 far, at least, as marshaling big battalions on the 
 field ; but the blue shirt and red shirt — con- 
 spicuous and unmistakable designations of the 
 side a fellow was on — could be observed along- 
 every bend of the Missouri river. 
 
 Outside the shirt two six-shooters and a 
 bowie were sure to be seen ; and they were, 
 doubtless, a very necessary rigging of the shirt, 
 as ''grim visaged war' had not entirely 
 "smoothed his wrinkled front." Some little 
 personal matter might require explanation — 
 instanter settlement — and each fellow needed 
 to have a ready adjuster at his side. In other 
 words, in this time of peace war was already 
 prepared for. 
 
 On the trip from St. Louis, up the Big Muddy, 
 to St. Joseph, the lower, boiler, and hurricane 
 decks of the steamer were crowded with peo- 
 ple of all sorts ; and, to pass dull time away, 
 I made many acquaintances ; but memory is 
 oblivious of all names and features of those 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 45 
 
 with whom I talked and smoked, except one 
 fellow who played on me what, nowadays, is 
 known as the Bunco or Confidence game. 
 
 He was, in age, but a few years my senior ; 
 of fine physical development, and possessed of 
 conversational ability that was wonderfully cap- 
 tivating. Having edited a pro-slavery paper, 
 and commanded soldiers on many desperate 
 fields, I was impressed with the fact that he 
 was a brilliant writer and an heroic fighter. 
 
 My destination was Nebraska City, and my 
 entertaining man, as he informed me, was bound 
 for the same place. In due time we reached 
 St. joe, and as the stern- wheeler which was to 
 take us on our journey beyond was billed to 
 leave late in the afternoon, thus giving us sev- 
 eral waiting hours to stroll around and see the 
 sights, my friend suggested a ride out to his 
 farm — about four miles from town — where I 
 was to see his wife, " a true, noble and beau- 
 tiful Southern woman," his waving fields of 
 wheat and thorough-bred stock, and, having 
 lunched, we would drive back to town, and, 
 being refreshed, we could the better stand the 
 crowded boat trip to Nebraska City. 
 
 In an elegant vehicle, drawn by a prancing 
 team, we made a rapid drive over a splendid 
 road to the farm. And it was, indeed, a model 
 farm, such as I wish might be built and kept 
 
46 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 up over every quarter section of our fair South- 
 ern land ; but I fear the wish will ever remain 
 a fruitless one, until we get rid of a labor that 
 consumes more than it produces, and it shall 
 be supplied by one that is industrious, intelli- 
 gent and responsible. 
 
 But having seen the wife whose grace and 
 beauty had been so lovingly depicted by 
 my hospitable friend, I thought of the broad 
 green acres as but glittering baubles in com- 
 parison with his spousal possession, 
 
 So rare was her beauty, 
 And so charming her face. 
 
 Just imagine what Bulwer or James would 
 say, in picturing a lovely woman, and relieve 
 me of a very large difficulty just here. 
 
 Having partaken of a lunch that was ele- 
 gantly and luxuriously served, we returned in 
 haste to St. Joe, and arrived in time to hear 
 the ringing of the boat's second bell. 
 
 The team was quickly surrendered into the 
 hands of a livery boy, and we bent our way 
 toward the steamer. We had not, however, 
 proceeded very far when my companion sud- 
 denly remembered that he owed a gentleman, 
 around the corner, fifty dollars. His money 
 was in his trunk aboard the boat — he would 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 47 
 
 not have time to make two trips before the 
 boat left, etc., etc., etc. —just loan him the 
 amount, and he would be on hand before the 
 boat shoved out. Of course I loaned the 
 amount without hesitation. 
 
 To reach the steamer was but a few minutes' 
 walk. Comfortably seated on the outer deck, 
 smoking a Western cigar, reflecting on the 
 kind and generous attention which had been 
 shown me by such nice people, and congratu- 
 lating myself on having as a fellow-passenger 
 my ci-devant friend, as far as Nebraska City, I 
 did not realize, till looking at my watch, that an 
 hour's time had passed since returning. Now 
 the captain's pulling the bell-rope ; stage is or- 
 dered hauled aboard ; last, departing tap of 
 bell — and yet Jack Henderson is not in sight ; 
 and Jack never did turn up, so far as I know. 
 
 The trip onward was accomplished without 
 accident to life or limb, though the little boat 
 had many twists among the snags that studded 
 almost every bend of the upper river. 
 
 My introductory letters gained me a cordial 
 welcome from the Surveyor-General, and, soon 
 after meeting with him, I was invited to a 
 prairie ride in an army ambulance, with himself 
 and a one-armed Major of U. S. Infantry. 
 
 The ambulance had been trotted along two 
 or three squares, when it was halted in front of 
 
48 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 an unpretentious, California-built shanty, over 
 the door of which swung a sign of WEL- 
 COME. 
 
 The inner man having been temporarily sat- 
 isfied at the counter, and a half-dozen bottles 
 of " saddle-bag cocktails " deposited in the 
 army wagon, we went rolling along an undu- 
 lating prairie road for, perhaps, a mile or two, 
 when the Surveyor- General perpetrated what 
 might be called that old Gubernatorial chest- 
 nut, and — there was but little left of one bot- 
 tle ; this one, however, got me the promise of 
 ten townships. The increase in promise, how- 
 ever, only counted by arithmetical progression 
 to the emptying of the last bottle ; and, on our 
 return to town, I found it optional to take or 
 refuse fifteen townships. I was not long in de- 
 termining the matter, as business at home was 
 more profitable than such a contract. 
 
 On the homeward journey — making the ac- 
 quaintance of two surveyors- — "old timers," as 
 they let me know — I was informed that I could 
 employ such as they were for $75.00 per 
 month, and that they would guarantee to run 
 up a crib each a day. 
 
 On asking to be enlightened as to the mean- 
 ing of that new surveying term, the " old 
 timers " expressed surprise that a man propos- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 49 
 
 ing to handle a hundred townships contract 
 should not know that much. 
 
 A crib comprises a north and south row of 
 sections, from the south to the north boundary 
 line of a township ; making an actual line run 
 of eleven miles, and a walk of sixteen miles 
 (interior sectionizing). A few moment's re- 
 flection convinced me that I should have closed 
 with the offer of the Surveyor-General, and 
 hired my crib men to do the work, thereby 
 making a very respectable profit out of the 
 fifteen townships. 
 
 It seems, however, that a crib a day was 
 nothing compared with the amount that could 
 be done, and done, too, without much outfit or 
 undue exertion. 
 
 All that was necessary, according to the 
 statements of my surveyor acquaintances, was 
 to provide a light wagon and team, a tent or 
 two, provisions, and a few et ceteras — some few 
 jolly fellows— shot guns and plenty of amuni- 
 tion, and a seven-up deck ; camp out, and 
 have a good old time ; only running a few 
 miles and locating a few corners. Expenses 
 would be almost nothing — all feed and no 
 work — and, when a reasonable time had passed 
 away, notify the authorities, by sending in a 
 nice set of field notes, that the contract was 
 complete, and call for an immediate inspection. 
 
5<D Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 The inspector on the ground, treat him to the 
 very best in camp, walk him to corner this and 
 corner that ; and having satisfied him that you 
 had planted a yellow locust seed at corner 
 
 , a beech-nut at corner , and an oak 
 
 acorn at corner , take him back to camp, 
 
 fill him up again, have him O. K. your certifi- 
 cate, and — drop the curtain. 
 
 Ye old Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi 
 swamp land surveyors may w 7 ell ask the ques- 
 tion if, under the old contract system, a good 
 deal of the location of corners was not done 
 in camp. Isn't it remarkable that half of a 
 well wooded township may be thoroughly sur- 
 veyed, and yet not more than one or two 
 
 Government corners will be found ? 
 
 ****** 
 
 Let the survey talk be suspended for a while, 
 as the several most prominent works on which 
 I was engaged, prior to 1862, have already 
 been noted. 
 
 It is impossible for any one to determine the 
 influential actions of their lives ; or, rather, let 
 it be said, the originating and controlling cause 
 of certain consequences in our individual lives ; 
 but it is easy to retrospect the history of the 
 thirty-three states that composed our American 
 Union, and, from it, pronounce the cause of 
 the untold suffering and sorrow which, through 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 5 1 
 
 civil war, came upon Louisiana and all other 
 states that raised the standard of the Southern 
 Confederacy. 
 
 For interesting and instructive facts, pre- 
 sented in true and unmistakable shape, con- 
 cerning the formation of the original Union — 
 the Constitution of the United States — and the 
 position and expressed opinions of the party 
 that was blindly fanatical on the negro ques- 
 tion, no better reference can be given than the 
 History of the United States by that grand 
 patriot and statesman, Alexander H. Stephens. 
 
 I had thought, up to the beginning of the 
 second year of the war, that hostilities would 
 soon cease, and every thing return to accustomed 
 channels ; but after Forts Jackson and St. Philip 
 had been knocked into a cocked hat by Farra- 
 gut's gunboats, and rendered almost useless 
 for defense, some time prior to their bombard- 
 ment, by the treachery and mutinous spirit of 
 the Dagoes that constituted a large- portion of 
 the garrison, and the surrender of the Crescent 
 City, I obtained a six-months' leave of absence 
 from Governor Thos. Moore, and, as First 
 Lieutenant of the Alfred Davis Guards, num- 
 bering eighty-five able-bodied Irishmen, en- 
 tered on a military career that was neither 
 grand nor glorious. 
 
 My six-months' leave proved of no value in 
 
52 Life and Times' of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 shortening my term of service in the army, 
 as conditional enlistments were construed, by 
 higher authorities than State Governors, to 
 mean " during the war." 
 
 Not many days had elapsed, since the forma- 
 tion of our regiment, when our company was 
 found to be minus a Captain. It was soon dis- 
 covered that he had not surrendered his life a 
 sacrifice in defense of his country, but had ne- 
 gotiated a secret treaty with the enemy, and 
 had taken advantage of its comfortable terms 
 to return to the bosom of his family. In the 
 order of military succession, I was promoted to 
 the captaincy. 
 
 The regiment, as originally organized, had, 
 as its Colonel, Wm. R. Miles ; Lieutenant- 
 Colonel, Fred Brand ; Major, James T. Cole- 
 man, and Adjutant, R. S. Hewitt. Colonel 
 Miles soon had a brigade command. He spent 
 a large fortune in equipping a Legion, consist- 
 ing of infantry, artillery, and cavalry. This did 
 not so much manifest his confidence in our 
 ability to whip the fight, as his judgment of the 
 effect of consequences. 
 
 Said he to the writer, while in camp near 
 Port Gibson, Miss., in answer to an inquiry 
 why he had trusted the Confederacy so largely : 
 " Well, if we succeed, I will be reimbursed my 
 outlay ; if we get whipped, why, plantations and 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 5 3 
 
 negroes won't be worth a cent." The General 
 was truly prophetic of the value of such stock, 
 as it was for many years after the conclusion of 
 hostilities ; and yet, through the good manage- 
 ment of his vast estates in the Yazoo valley, he 
 has not only paid off the enormous debts that 
 had accumulated on them during the four years 
 of fighting times, and twice as many more of 
 reconstruction times, but stands among the in- 
 dependent planters. 
 
 The first service rendered by the Legion was 
 in the neighborhood of Bruinsburg, a place 
 made historically memorable, in 1807, by Aaron 
 Burr's expedition, as the place of his capture ; 
 and again, in 1863, as the landing place of 
 Grant's army, after he had passed his gunboats 
 and transports by the batteries of Vicksburg, 
 and his troops had been marched down the 
 Louisiana shore. 
 
 Here, having gathered his forces, it might be 
 said, at his leisure, as there was scarcely a cor- 
 poral's guard to oppose their debarkation, he 
 marched, almost without opposition, to Baker's 
 creek, where, defeating the Confederate forces, 
 crossed Big Black river, and effected the be- 
 siegement of Vicksburg. 
 
 I felt inclined to pursue the subject of the 
 above paragraph, to the extent of giving my 
 views of the military operations connected 
 
54 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 with the capture of Vicksburg ; but happening, 
 just at the time when I was going to open my 
 vials of wrath and criticism on the heads of 
 several Lieutenant-Generals, to be reading 
 over the introduction to Claiborne's " Missis- 
 sippi as a Province, Territory, and State," it 
 occurred to me, that the following extract, from 
 the pen of that grand old Mississippian, would 
 be more edifying and instructive than would be 
 any presentment of the plan whereby I would 
 have defeated Grant's designs on Vicksburg, 
 and have kept his name out of history as one 
 oi~ the Presidents of the United States. 
 
 The. introduction says : "I had meditated 
 a detailed account of the Civil War, to enable 
 me to do justice to Mississippians, who won 
 renown in so many battles. With this view I 
 have read most of the books that have ap- 
 peared, particularly General Sherman's, Gen- 
 eral Joseph E. Johnston's, General Albert Sid- 
 ney Johnson's — -the highest authorities — and 
 most of the magazines devoted to the subject. 
 I find them interesting, but conflicting ; contro- 
 versional, not conclusive ; positive assertion 
 and peremptory denial ; full, in short, of dis- 
 crepancies that must be adjusted before either 
 can be adopted as history. A competent mil- 
 itary critic might now write a work of intense 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 55 
 
 interest, on the errors of history in regard to 
 the Civil War. 
 
 " The reports of battles and campaigns, ac- 
 cepted in the current literature of our times, 
 are, in numerous instances, grossly erroneous, 
 and, in some, mere coinage of the brain. But 
 the world clings, with the grip of a drowning 
 man, to these pet historical lies. 
 
 44 Men who know better continue to rehearse 
 them, and would crucify the bold sceptic, even 
 though he held in his hand the sacred torch of 
 Truth ! When a favorite falsehood gets firmly 
 planted, the conservative public does not care 
 to have it uprooted ; and sometimes, even the 
 author of it, when the proof is brought home 
 to him, will not take the trouble to repair the 
 wrong. 
 
 " When the Abbe Vertol had finished his 
 work on the famous siege of Malta, a friend 
 furnished him the proof of material errors ; but 
 he merely shrugged his shoulders, and said : 
 1 Mon siege est fait ! ' The manuscript went, 
 as he had written it, to the press, although 
 known to be an historical romance. There are 
 many Abbe Vertol's in our day. 
 
 " The conflicting narratives of great military 
 operations in our times may be traced, prima- 
 rily, to the correspondents that'followed the Na- 
 tional and Confederate armies. Some of these 
 
56 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 aimed to be, and were, as accurate as possible, 
 under the circumstances. Some were merely 
 sensational ; some were paid to make false re- 
 ports, in the interest of stock-jobbers and fa- 
 natics. The reports of European battles, and 
 the wonderful achievements of Clive, Hastings, 
 and Wellington in the East Indies, were writ- 
 ten by the commanding general, or an officer 
 of his staff, and accepted as authentic. But in 
 the Crimean campaign, and in every war since, 
 the newspaper correspondents became an or- 
 ganized corps, moving with the army, in famil- 
 iar intercourse with the officers, sending off 
 their bulletins in advance of the official reports, 
 and forming a public sentiment not authorized 
 by the facts, but very difficult to eradicate. 
 
 " Thus, the received opinion is, that we won 
 a great victory at the first Manassas, and that 
 Johnston and Beauregard might have marched 
 into Washington, captured President Lincoln, 
 and ended the war, but were culpably supine, 
 and lost the opportunity. 
 
 " The facts are that we fought there an army 
 three times stronger than ours, with superior 
 equipments. When the retreat commenced, as 
 we had no cavalry, it was impossible to pursue 
 with infantry, exhausted and bleeding. ' Pres- 
 ident Davis,' says Joseph E. Johnston, ( was 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 5 7 
 
 present, and gave no orders to pursue, because 
 he knew that it was impracticable.' 
 
 "The battle of Shiloh, on the first day, was 
 won by the Confederates against a superior 
 force, which, notwithstanding its valor, and the 
 ability of its generals, would probably have been 
 withdrawn or destroyed the next day, but for 
 the arrival of a powerful reinforcement. Con- 
 fronted by fresh troops and vastly superior 
 numbers next morning, our diminished and ex- 
 hausted army fought heroically, but not com- 
 pactly or in masses, as it should have done, six 
 hours, and was then withdrawn by Beauregard, 
 without losing a straggler, or a gun — one of 
 the most difficult achievements in war. Yet 
 historians on both sides have given erroneous 
 accounts of the battles and the retreat. 
 
 "'Sherman was completely surprised.' 
 'Grant routed.' 'Grant victorious without 
 Buell.' ' Beauregard utterly defeated.' ' His 
 army demoralized ; a mere mob ; every thing 
 lost.' 
 
 "The actions of General Bragg in Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, have been 
 subjected to versions not at all to his credit. 
 And, in return, Generals Polk, Hill, Hindman, 
 and Buckner, have been accused by him and 
 his friends of conspiracy, disobedience, and in- 
 competence. 
 
58 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 ''General Albert Sydney Johnson, at Bowl- 
 ing Green and at Nashville, was neither a sol- 
 dier nor a hero, if the critics are to be credited, 
 yet the same shot that killed him at Shiloh, 
 killed the Confederacy, if we credit other state- 
 ments. 
 
 " General Joseph E. Johnston has been 
 eulogized as the master strategist of the war, 
 and condemned as a timid and wavering officer, 
 who might have relieved Vicksburg, and by his 
 want of pluck, opened the way for Sherman's 
 march to the sea. 
 
 " Pemberton is charged with a want of gen- 
 eralship in not fighting Grant, with his whole 
 force at Bruinsburg or Bayou Pierre ; with pos- 
 itive disobedience in fighting the unfortunate 
 battle of Baker's creek, thus superinducing the 
 fall of Vicksburg, and, with a cowardly, if not 
 treasonable, surrender of his army when he 
 might have cut his way out and formed a 
 function with Johnston. On the other hand, 
 Pemberton insists that if he had concentrated 
 his army at or near Bruinsburg, the iron-clad 
 fleet of the enemy w r ould have seized the city 
 he had been ordered to defend ; that the fight 
 at Baker's creek occurred under circumstances 
 neither to be avoided nor amended ; that his 
 little army enacted prodigies of valor in the 
 trenches ; that a council of general officers, 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 59 
 
 with only one dissentient (Stephen D. Lee), 
 determined that the attempt to cut through 
 Grant's lines was impracticable, and, finally, 
 that General Johnston had it in his power to re- 
 lieve him, and by his inaction and timidity oc- 
 casioned the surrender. 
 
 " General Lovell, as true a soldier as ever 
 carried a sword, signalized for his personal 
 courage in the war with Mexico, was charged 
 with cowardice and treason for the evacuation 
 of New Orleans, though General Beauregard, 
 and other eminent engineers, are of opinion 
 that the forts below were not competent to 
 prevent the passage of iron-clads, and that 
 once passed, the city was at their mercy. 
 
 "General Hood was called into command as 
 the man of action and movement at a critical 
 period of the war, who was to repair all the 
 blunders of his predecessors, and lead his vic- 
 torious army across the Ohio. But he was 
 soon represented as a mere dragoon ; rash, hair- 
 brained, impetuous in the charge, with no 
 faculty for command, who criminally failed to 
 attack at Spring Hill, when he should have at- 
 tacked, and slaughtered his army in the insane 
 attempt at Franklin. 
 
 " Longstreet ascribes the terrible defeat at 
 Gettysburg to General Lee's obstinacy and 
 want of precaution, and, in return, some mili- 
 
60 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 tary critics attribute it to his own disobedience 
 of orders. 
 
 " The parties to these conflicting representa- 
 tions, arguing from their own standpoints, and 
 summoning only their own witnesses, have 
 made a plausible showing. But it is obvious 
 that a true and impartial history of that tre- 
 mendous conflict can not be written until fur- 
 ther and complete testimony has been col- 
 lected." 
 ****** 
 
 Laying aside the chronicles of the times as 
 so romantically and eloquently told by our 
 learned and venerable historian, we come down 
 to a later date, in 1862, to tell of the exploits of 
 Miles' Legion about Grand Gulf, a small vil- 
 lage situated on the bluffs, about four or five 
 miles above the mouth of Bayou Pierre. 
 
 This place had been deserted by its inhabit- 
 ants on the approach of some Federal troops, 
 who, under the protection of gunboats, had 
 been brought up the river in sloops, which, on 
 our arrival, were anchored near mid-stream. 
 
 A quick reconnaissance of the situation de- 
 cided General Miles to post two six-pound 
 guns on a rocky bluff, whence he could com- 
 mand the enemy within a distance of about 
 eight hundred yards. There were no roads 
 leading to the position which he wished to oc- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 6 1 
 
 cupy, and the bluff .sides were precipitous and 
 thickly covered with timber. The employment 
 of horses was impracticable, and the placing ol 
 the guns being a matter that permitted of no 
 delay, they were hauled to the summit by ropes 
 in the hands of the artillerymen. 
 
 The work was all accomplished and the guns 
 in position, loaded and trained on the trans- 
 ports that, with their living freight of several 
 hundred souls, were lying within easy range 
 and full view, on a moonlit river, when, just as 
 the voice of the guard sang out, " Four o'clock, 
 and all's well," the lanyards were pulled, and 
 two solid shot struck the forward decks of the 
 vessels and tore their way to the stern-posts, 
 amid the crowded sleepers, who, unapprehen- 
 sive of the proximity of their foe, had swung up 
 their hammocks below, and had strewn them- 
 selves along the pine flooring of the upper 
 decks, to find sweet slumber in the gentle 
 breezes that were freshened by the rapid cur- 
 rent of the mighty river. 
 
 Sixty-seven balls had struck the transports 
 — killing and wounding, as we subsequently 
 learned through a Natchez newspaper, between 
 three and four hundred — before they succeeded 
 in tripping their anchors and floating beyond 
 the range of our little field-pieces. 
 
 The party, consisting of Colonel Miles, Ma- 
 
62 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 jor Coleman, Lieutenant Kearney, and several 
 other officers, while engaged in observing the 
 position of the enemy and determining an ad- 
 vantageous one for our light battery, was dis- 
 covered by the sentinels in the shrouding, and 
 minnie balls were soon flying thick and fast 
 about the summit of the bluff, when Colonel 
 Miles turned to Major Coleman and, in a tone 
 that manifested extreme annoyance, exclaimed, 
 " Why, Major, this is the damnedest place for 
 bugs I ever struck." " Yes," replied the Ma- 
 jor, who had, on several Nicaraguan battle- 
 fields, become familiar with the peculiarity of 
 such bugs, " they are bugs, Colonel, and, when 
 one hits you, you will find he has a stinger in 
 his tail that will go clean through you. Don't 
 you see those fellows popping away at us from 
 the vessels? These are minnie-bugs." "The 
 devil you say. Come, let's hurry up this thing 
 and get back to camp, and take some bug-juice 
 as a preventive." The suggestion was so 
 quickly acted on by the entire staff that the 
 Colonel was fairly distanced in the scrambling 
 race to a place of safety. 
 
 It was not, however, permitted us long to 
 rejoice in triumph over this, our maiden vic- 
 tory, as, within a few weeks thereafter, Federal 
 infantry and cavalry, numbering about five 
 thousand, stole a march on us by landing 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 63 
 
 about a couple of miles below Grand Gulf. 
 This movement was effected during the night, 
 and soon after daylight the Legion was pre- 
 pared — not to fight — but to escape the conse- 
 quences of a flank movement which the blue- 
 coats were endeavoring to execute, and which, 
 but for our hasty and practical recognition of 
 the fact that prudence is the better part of 
 valor — and the fastest of double-quicking on 
 our part toward Port Gibson, would have re- 
 sulted in the capture of our whole command, 
 as its effective strength did not exceed at the 
 time eight hundred men. 
 
 It is true the disproportion was not so great 
 as that of the Persian and Grecian troops on a 
 celebrated occasion ; but we could not take 
 time to make a Thermopylaean Pass — and no 
 one felt inclined to take the part of Leonidas. 
 
 But we did fall back, to and across Bayou 
 Pierre — where we resolutely made up our 
 minds to stay until the enemy again came in 
 view. We were not pursued. They made a 
 bonfire of the poor little town of Grand Gulf, 
 and thus testified their exultation in having 
 driven us from our camp-ground at "Benja- 
 min's Hollow." 
 
 The inarch to Port Hudson was begun and 
 accomplished in a leisurely and comfortable 
 
64 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 way. The dullness of camp life had about be- 
 gun, with its weariness and general dissatisfac- 
 tion, when, on the 20th of May, the approach 
 of General Auger's Division from Baton Roge 
 was announced by some slight brushes with 
 our cavalry ; and the same night General Banks 
 commenced crossing the river with his army at 
 Bayou Sara. On the. 21st, Colonel Frank 
 Powers, with a small body of cavalry and 
 Abbey's Mississippi battery of Light Artillery, 
 were skirmishing in a pretty brisk way all the 
 morning near Plain's Store, with the advance 
 of General Auger. To relieve Colonel Powers 
 and to enable him to get his force safely to 
 their position, General Gardner, at noon, sent 
 an order to Colonel Miles to take four hundred 
 men of his Louisiana Legion, with a light bat- 
 tery, reconnoiter the enemy, and make a diver- 
 sion. This order was promptly obeyed, and 
 the Legion marched out of Port Hudson, sup- 
 ported by Boon's Louisiana Battery. Passing 
 our picket post, Major James T. Coleman was 
 directed to take two companies and advance 
 as skirmishers to discover the position and 
 strength of the enemy, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Fred. Brand directed to support him with the 
 balance of the Legion. 
 
 For this purpose, he selected a company 
 from St. Landry Parish, commanded by Cap- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 65. 
 
 tain De Jean, and another from St. Tammany, 
 commanded by Captain J. B. Turner, these 
 companies being almost perfect in skirmish 
 drill, and composed mostly of woodsmen and 
 hunters skilled in the use of the rifle. He de- 
 ployed Captain Turner's company on the right 
 and that of Captain De Jean on the left of the 
 road from Port Hudson leading to Plain's 
 Store. 
 
 He soon struck the enemy, and opening a 
 running fire, drove him backward toward 
 Plain's Store. 
 
 x^rriving at a large plantation on the east of 
 the road, it was found that the enemy had 
 planted a battery on an eminence in the road, 
 and supported it with two regiments, the 48th 
 Massachusetts and 23d Maine, which were par- 
 tially concealed in a road which formed the 
 southern boundary of the plantation. On the 
 west of the road, and protecting their left flank, 
 the country was almost impenetrable, being an 
 old orchard overgrown with plum trees and 
 young crabs and vines. 
 
 As soon as he ascertained the situation, he 
 directed Lieutenant Morrison to detail half of 
 De Jean's company directly in front of the en- 
 emy's line, and support the section of artillery 
 under Lieutenant Harmanson, who was di- 
 rected to open a brisk fire on the enemy's 
 
66 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 guns, and continue it, threatening to cross, un- 
 til Colonel Brand arrived with the rest of the 
 Legion. 
 
 With the remaining portion of his command, 
 warmly supported by his officers and men, 
 Major Coleman penetrated the thicket, undis- 
 covered by the enemy, until well on the flank 
 and in rear of the battery, when the skirmish 
 line was rallied on his left file, the front charged, 
 and the column ordered to fire and charge with 
 fixed bayonets. This order was splendidly 
 obeyed under his lead, and at one deadly fire, 
 at only twenty paces distance, and a wild rebel 
 yell, our boys had possession of the artillery, 
 and killed and wounded, and captured the gun- 
 ners and their supports. Here Major Cole- 
 man captured, and at once mounted, the fine 
 horse, with all its war trappings, of Colonel E. 
 F. Stone, of the 28th Massachusetts, a present 
 of the citizens of Boston, and Captain De 
 Jean also captured and mounted a fine war 
 horse. 
 
 By some inexplicable misunderstanding or 
 mismanagement, the brilliant and successful 
 movement was not supported. The balance 
 of the Legion, under the immediate command 
 of Colonel Brand, failed to make its appear- 
 ance at the critical and decisive juncture, when 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer'. 6j 
 
 the enemy were totally demoralized, and their 
 entire advance line captured or routed. 
 
 By this change of front to charge the battery 
 and its supports, our own flank was exposed to 
 the entire brigade of General Dudley, com- 
 posing the second line of the enemy further 
 back in the woods. These could be plainly 
 heard now, recovering from their surprise, by 
 the orders and language of the officers, and 
 soon seen advancing to recover the guns and 
 and prisoners. In addition to this, our own 
 battery continued its fire, and its shell were 
 now bursting among our own men. Before a 
 messenger could reach Colonel Miles to inform 
 him of the success of the maneuver and our 
 present situation, our boys were overpowered 
 by a largely superior force, and although they 
 fought stubbornly to hold their prize — every 
 moment expecting the. support to reach them — 
 they were finally compelled to relinquish their 
 cannon and prisoners, after suffering a heavy 
 loss. 
 
 A correspondent of a New Orleans paper, 
 in giving a contemporaneous account of this 
 action, employs the following complimentary 
 language: "For about an hour the fight 
 raged with much spirit, our men being greatly 
 outnumbered. Finding" that he was out- 
 flanked, on both wings, and likely to be sur- 
 
68 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 rounded, Colonel Miles sent Lieutenant Har- 
 manson with a section of artillery to turn the 
 enemy's left. This was so well obeyed as to 
 break the movement which was about to en- 
 circle our small force, and after having picked 
 up and sent from the field all of the wounded 
 he had ambulances for. Colonel Miles main- 
 tained his original position on the north side 
 of the plantations where he was soon re-en- 
 forced by General Beall, who had been or- 
 dered out to his support, on General Gard- 
 ner's hearing the very hot fire in the vicinity 
 of Plain's Store. The enemy making no 
 further demonstration, without further ex- 
 change of shots, our men retired within their 
 intrenchments. On that day Colonel Miles 
 reported a loss of eighty-nine killed and 
 wounded* and among the heroes were Captain 
 J. B. Turner and Lieutenant Crawford of St 
 Tammany parish, and Lieutenant J. B. Wilson, 
 of New Orleans, killed. The gallantry of 
 Major Coleman received deserved praise, as 
 did also the skill and tried courage of Colonel 
 Miles, and the fight was looked upon with ex- 
 treme satisfaction by our troops in garrison." 
 
 The siege of Port Hudson, like that of 
 Vicksburg, has been so much written of that I 
 will attempt no description of my own. The 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 69 
 
 result is well known. Doubtless, it could have 
 been taken by assault, as the garrison, through 
 hard fighting, constant watchfulness and hun- 
 ger, was reduced to a minimum of strength. 
 
 Without presuming to detract from the valor 
 of those who defended the breastworks ol 
 Vicksburg, I must be pardoned the reflection 
 that Port Hudson had not the natural means 
 of defense which belonged to the Walnut 
 Hill ; and it must be conceded that Gardner's 
 small army did well, at least, in defiantly re- 
 jecting terms of surrender until several days 
 after the fall of Vicksburg. 
 
 % *• * * •» * 
 
 111 health compelling the resignation of my 
 infantry command ; after taking advantage of 
 a resting spell, I again entered on a soldier 
 life as a First Lieutenant of Topographical 
 Engineers. 
 
 Having been duly commissioned I reported 
 for duty to Colonel S. H. Lockett at Mobile, 
 Ala. This officer was a West Point graduate. 
 He was not, however, so essentially W T est 
 Pointish that he could n't see a chair, and ask 
 me to be seated on my entering his office and 
 introducing myself. I have thought it well to 
 mention this polite departure on the part oi 
 Lockett, as being distinguished from the swell 
 
yo Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 and offensive manners, which the Civil En- 
 gineers of the country see so frequently and 
 flauntingly manifested by so many of Uncle 
 Sam's be-castled dudes. 
 
 Having been assigned to duty in making 
 examinations of Blakely and Spanish Fort, I 
 had orders to report on their condition as de- 
 fensive positions. 
 
 In this connection, it is pertinent to mention 
 that, during the interview between the colonel 
 and myself, I was interrogated as to my knowl- 
 edge of. civil and military engineering ; it be- 
 ing, evidently, his intent, to impress me with 
 the view that the military part of it was a 
 strange, mysterious, and altogether very high 
 science that only West Pointers could at- 
 tain to. 
 
 I had, however, on reaching Mobile, pro- 
 cured a copy of Mahan's Field Engineering, 
 a very large book of about six cubic inches in 
 volume, including the pictures, had filled myself 
 full of it, in about thirty minutes, and was well 
 equipped to stand a siege of questions. 
 
 I am blessed with a goodly share of mod- 
 esty, as much, I believe, as dignifies the char- 
 acter of people who have been well raised, and 
 who do not ever-estimate their ability or ac- 
 complishments, but, being somewhat provoked 
 by having to submit to a catechisation as to 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 7 1 
 
 my knowledge of military engineering, I 
 brought matters to a sudden close by remark- 
 ing that what I knew of civil engineering was 
 gathered from the studying of mathematics and 
 field practice that covered quite a number of 
 years ; that I had much to learn in the line of 
 my peculiar profession ; that, through the most 
 faithful and diligent application, I could not 
 hope to possess myself of but a few of its 
 many great and wonderful truths, but that I 
 had, however, graduated myself in the so-called 
 military science, so far as it was taught by Ma- 
 lta ji s Pocket Edition. 
 
 This concluded my examination, and I was 
 at once ordered to inspect and report the de- 
 fensible position and condition of the forts 
 across the bay. 
 
 Blakely had been constructed after the de- 
 signs of Lieutenant Ned Ford. I don't know 
 whether Ned had a copy of Mahan or not. I 
 never saw one about his person or in his tent ; 
 indeed, so far as I know, his whole library con- 
 sisted of but one volume, and that was of Bob- 
 bie Burns' poetical works. Nevertheless, 
 Blakely seemed to be built up according to my 
 ideas of military architecture. It had entering 
 and re-entering angles, and many other things 
 about it that had names that I have long since 
 
72 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 forgotten. Take it all altogether, it was a 
 common-sense structure, and I could never see 
 but one defect in its defensibility, and that was 
 the scarcity of troops to hold it. 
 
 I don't think I can more adequately describe 
 the condition in which I found Spanish Fort, 
 than to say that it had an admirably command- 
 ing position, i. e., of the bay immediately in 
 front of it, where no man-of-war could come, 
 and, therefore, from this quarter, no danger 
 could possibly be apprehended, while, at the 
 same time, the whole fort was commanded by 
 numbers of high hills that almost semi-circled 
 it. The place was pronounced untenable long 
 before the enemy ever thought of approach- 
 ing it, and why it was that we didn't get out of 
 the hole and occupy the hills, has always been 
 one of those mysteries about military en- 
 gineering that the colonel held up for the 
 contemplation of my unsophisticated brain. 
 
 The boys slipped out under cover of night, 
 and when daylight broke, the Yanks, seeing 
 nothing to shoot at, marched quietly down from 
 their roosting places and, as quietly, took pos- 
 session. 
 
 While the fighting down and across the bay 
 from Mobile was going on, the bridge at Four 
 Mile creek was swept away, and I was ordered 
 to reconstruct it in the shortest possible time. 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 73 
 
 I had but little difficulty in stopping the 
 rush of water that had destroyed the bridge, 
 as I was well supplied with sand-bags and 
 negro cavalrymen who had been captured by 
 Ned Forrest on one of his raids in North Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 For fear some supersensitive, tender-hearted 
 commiserator of the colored brother might 
 think that I dumped him in the crevasse 
 holes instead of the sand-bags, it should 
 be remembered that the cotton of which the 
 bags were made was worth more, about that 
 stage of the war, than negroes — a dollar and a 
 half per pound, I believe — and that I only 
 compelled him to take daily baths for about 
 four days, when my work was finished. 
 
 I know that such treatment was very objec- 
 tionable, as not one in ten thousand of the 
 " nation's wards " voluntarily undergoes an 
 ablutionary process — it is too much like work. 
 I can not, however, vouch for the cleansing or 
 purifying effect it might have had, as I am in- 
 clined to believe that 
 
 You may wash and may scrub the nigger if you will, 
 But the scent of the nigger will hang round him still. 
 
 The occasion for the use of the bridge arose 
 just on its completion, as the forts had been 
 
74 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 captured, and it was only a matter of a few 
 days' time when the enemy would be in occu- 
 pation of the city of Mobile. There was a 
 hurried exit, by way of this route, in the direc- 
 tion of Meridian, Miss. All along the line of 
 retreat we had abundant news from the Vir- 
 ginia and Tennessee armies. "Lee had anni- 
 hilated Grant's army" — " Hood was in fight- 
 ing and marching condition, and was striking 
 a bee line for the State of Ohio " — " as a dis- 
 tractive movement to Sherman," etc., etc. — 
 and these reports continued to cheer us until 
 our arrival at Meridian, when it became quite 
 positively known that the Confederacy was a 
 thing of the past. 
 
 Of course, we subordinates at once con- 
 cluded that we would resign and go home — if 
 we could find one ; but military rule seemed 
 yet to prevail, as I soon found out, when I re- 
 ceived orders to make a hurried ride on to 
 Columbus, Miss., and report by telegraph my 
 engineering reconnaissance and general obser- 
 vations with reference to a continuance of our 
 retreat to that place. 
 
 At that point I was to await instructions as 
 to searching out a crossing of the Mississippi. 
 This last announcement, indicating my future 
 movements, was something that I determined 
 to kick against. , Was it possible that Maury's 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 75 
 
 small and demoralized army was to be started 
 on a trans-Mississippi trip ? It would never 
 get there. Even if it did, who was to support 
 us on our arrival in the wilds of Arkansas ? 
 Jeff. Thompson's Partisan Rangers had either 
 been killed off or ^one off. Texas was too 
 big a country to hide in, and too wide to march 
 over before we reached the protecting wing of 
 Maximillian. Some may have gone west just 
 for the fun and romance of the trip. I know 
 of some who thought they could not live in 
 this country after the war, and, having a pile 
 of greenbacks which they had accumulated in 
 cotton speculations and general robbery, struck 
 out lor Brazil and British Honduras, and, hav- 
 ing spent their all in teaching the natives how 
 to farm, returned home, sadder and wiser men 
 
 To Columbus was as far as I proposed go- 
 ing. I thought myself to be about as well posted 
 as to the military situation, at that time, as 
 any one nearer to and in the confidence of the 
 Government ; and so I took the responsibility 
 of telegraphing my chief that I proposed re- 
 turning to Meridian, and, being paroled, to 
 quit soldiering. 
 
 By the time I reached Meridian, the United 
 States paroling officers were there, and I was 
 put to no trouble by a charge of insubordina- 
 tion or disobedience of orders. 
 
76 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 I trust Colonel Lockett will read what I have 
 said in an amiable spirit, as I wish here to as- 
 sure him that all my recollections of him, as an 
 officer and a gentleman, are of the most pleas- 
 ant character. I have heard of him, since the 
 war, as filling a high educational chair in one 
 of our Southern Universities, and have met 
 many young men who enjoyed the advantages 
 of his tuition, and all spoke enthusiastically of 
 his virtues as a man and his high attainments 
 as a scholar. 
 
 We were not long in going through the pa- 
 roling formalities, and, having received trans- 
 portation, through the graciousness of Uncle 
 Sam, to Vicksburg, I bid adieu to many com- 
 rades who were eagerly dispersing themselves 
 to their respective homes, and took passage for 
 the Hill City ; but not as one starting on a 
 pleasure trip, anticipating enjoyment at every 
 step, but with a heart-sickness that I had al- 
 ways been a stranger to. Hope had always 
 been a strong element in my composition ; but 
 now, as I reflected on all the changed condi- 
 tions of my country, I had almost given up to 
 a feeling of despair. 
 
 We may philosophize as we please about the 
 equality of mankind, and try to reason our- 
 selves into a belief that we are all adapted to 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. *]*] 
 
 the same conditions of life ; that, whatever they 
 may be, we should, with equal complacency and 
 amiable temperament, meet the environments 
 and circumstances that naturally belong to 
 such. But our own individual feelings testify 
 against the truth of any such doctrine. 
 
 The destiny of the human race may be a 
 common one ; and let us hope that it may be a 
 happy one. In this life, what is agreeable to 
 one is disagreeable to another. That which is 
 looked on by one as beautiful and attractive, is 
 regarded by another as more than homely and 
 repulsive. 
 
 It is, more or less, our appreciation of things 
 that constitutes our true happiness and worth. 
 As a legal proposition, we must conclude that 
 there is an equality in man — in all his rights 
 and privileges ; but do we not know that every 
 one can not naturally insist on the same privi- 
 leges of social condition or distinction, when 
 we realize that all have not the same tastes, de- 
 sires, temperaments, or ambitions ? 
 
 Retrospecting the former surroundings of my 
 life, in its home and general aspects, and know- 
 ing" that the times and circumstances had so 
 changed them that I would have to begin the 
 battle of life anew, I had to call on all of my 
 resolution of character and purpose to deter- 
 
78 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 mine that I would " let the dead past bury its 
 dead," and "act in the living present." 
 
 Reaching Vicksburg in a penniless state — 
 and in what other condition could I have been, 
 never having handled a greenback that I could 
 call my own — I remained there only long 
 enough to enable me to secure further trans- 
 portation to New Orleans, where I had hopes 
 of finding employment in the line of my pro- 
 fession ; but on getting there, and making dili- 
 gent effort to secure it, I found the supply 
 greater than the demand, and I concluded to 
 make my way back to Vicksburg. 
 
 The return trip was made under circum- 
 stances that were peculiarly mortifying and hu- 
 miliating. My pocket-book was not thick 
 enough to purchase a cabin passage on the 
 Cincinnati steamer, and I had to take my 
 chances with deck-hands, horses and mules, 
 and discharged Federal soldiers, who, though 
 now relieved of guard duty and hunting up 
 Johnnie Rebs, were industriously employed in 
 catching "Blue-Backs." 
 
 Uninviting and horrible as the prospect was, 
 my dire necessity would not permit of my im- 
 proving it, and so I made the trip of four hun- 
 dred miles. The weather was intensely warm, 
 and there was nothing to assuage a burning 
 thirst but the yellow, muddy water of the river, 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 79 
 
 and drank from a bucket that was used in 
 watering mules, cleaning decks, and other va- 
 rious and promiscuous purposes. But the pov- 
 erty of my state was more poignantly felt when, 
 sitting on the stern railing of the lower deck, I 
 could see iced creams and sherbets handed on 
 silver platters to dusky courtesans by gentle- 
 men wearing shoulder-straps. 
 
 It appears that, thus early, in the beginning 
 of my post bellum career, I was brought face 
 to face with a condition of life that I can never 
 think of but with a great and intense disgust. 
 
 I was not long in getting into business after 
 reaching my destination. The first helping 
 hand extended me was that of Colonel Peter 
 Casey, a brother-in-law of General U. S. Grant. 
 I was made a cotton clerk in his grocery and 
 commission house. Though born and raised 
 in a cotton country, I have never been able, 
 even to this day, to distinguish a good sample 
 from a bad one ; but, as my duties were simply 
 to receive, receipt for, store and discharge 
 the bales, I was only required to do addition 
 and subtraction according to the simple rule as 
 laid down in Pike's arithmetic, and so I found 
 it an easy berth. 
 
 My employer was a man of generous and 
 charitable impulses. He is now numbered 
 with the dead. I think of him with a feeling 
 
80 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 of obligation for personal kindnesses, and with 
 regret, that not a few southern planters, though 
 materially helped by him, when credit for sup- 
 plies for family and hands was scarcely to be 
 had, repaid him with base ingratitude. 
 
 I had scarcely time to familiarize myself with 
 the ways of keeping books by single entry in 
 a cotton warehouse, when my friend, Captain 
 J. A. Porter, was appointed to the position of 
 Chief Engineer of the Second Levee District 
 of Louisiana, extending from Red river to the 
 north boundary line of the state, and I was 
 called into service as one of his assistants in 
 charge of the line from New Carthage north -~ 
 ward. My memory fails to recall the names of 
 other engineer associates on this work, beside 
 Captain F. Y. Dabney, Ernest Gouvier, and 
 Clay Porter. Dabney is now Chief Engineer 
 of some Georgia railroad, having been in 
 charge, as such, of several others since the 
 war, and but a year or two ago General Super- 
 intendent of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and 
 Texas Railroad. With Gouvier as Transitman, 
 and Clay Porter as Levelman, under the di- 
 rection of the Chief, I conducted a survey of 
 the levee lines within my section in the summer 
 of 1866. During the administration of Cap- 
 tain Porter, quite a number of new levees were 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 8 1 
 
 built, and many old ones reconstructed. Nota- 
 bly among the number were the Ashton and 
 Diamond Island. 
 
 It was my pleasure to be associated with 
 Gouvier in ante war times. He was the son 
 of a wealthy sugar planter of Iberville Parish. 
 He had all the fine graces and manners which 
 so eminently characterize the Creole gentle- 
 man — being beautiful embellishments of his 
 mental accomplishments as a scholar and an 
 Engineer. He, too, with many other of the 
 bright camp spirits, has " crossed the dark 
 river." His attainments and ambition gave 
 promise of great distinction in the realms of 
 science. 
 
 My old chief, Captain Porter, having proven 
 himself a valiant soldier in defense of the in- 
 tegrity of his profession, has retired to his 
 home, near Cooper's Well, Miss. Being 
 brought up in the old Virginia school, his do- 
 mestic inclinations — superinduced somewhat 
 by advancing years — have called him from the 
 activities and hardships of practical Engineer- 
 ing life to a pleasant rest in his piney woods 
 home, where he can find good chalybeate 
 water and "look after the widows who fre- 
 quent the well." 
 
 The name of Joe Porter is, perhaps, more 
 familiarly known to the people of the lower 
 
82 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 Mississippi valley than that of any other En- 
 gineer of the South, and we never hear it men- 
 tioned but with evident pleasure and esteem. 
 
 yfc yfc "7F <f* - Tpr *¥» 
 
 Returning from Late Springs, Tenn., in 
 1867, whither I had gone to recuperate from a 
 very severe sickness, contracted while making 
 some swamp surveys, I formed a levee part- 
 nership with Captain M. W. Hughes, and, un- 
 der the name of Hughes & Searles, proposed 
 to build the levees in the State of Mississippi. 
 
 There had been chartered by the Legis- 
 lature, in 1865, an organization known as the 
 Second Levee District, composed of the coun- 
 ties of Bolivar, Washington, and Issaquena, 
 and it was authorized to issue one million dol- 
 lars in bonds with which to repair the line of 
 levee which had been a bulwark of protection 
 to this fine country, but, necessarily neglected 
 during the war, required extensive repairs and 
 a general rebuilding. 
 
 The Board had, for several years, endeavored 
 to find a market for the bonds in the moneyed 
 capitols of the north and east, but had failed 
 to placed them. 
 
 There being fourteen hundred thousand 
 cubic yards of earth to pile up, we proposed 
 to the President to undertake the work for 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 83 
 
 the price of fifty cents per cubic yard in bonds. 
 We were to assume the negotiation of the 
 paper. It looked like a big figure for handling 
 dirt, and, as a cash figure, it would have been 
 then — and a princely one now. 
 
 The conditions of the contract having been 
 duly considered and agreed to, we took the 
 first preliminary step toward a negotiation, by 
 obtaining sound legal opinions from some of 
 the most eminent jurists of the state, regard- 
 ing the constitutionality of the law authorizing 
 the issuance of the bonds. They were se- 
 cured by a tax of one cent per pound on each 
 and every pound of lint cotton and ten cents 
 per acre on every every acre of cultivated and 
 cultivable land within the several counties. 
 Though the interest was large, amounting to 
 ten per cent, the security was ample for the 
 payment of the bonds as they might mature, 
 the series extending from one to five years. 
 
 The next step was to show, by the United 
 States Census of i860, the value of the prop- 
 erty within the Levee District, this being testi- 
 mony which could not reasonably be doubted. 
 With such data, and a thoughtful prospectus 
 illustrative of the increased values of the coun- 
 try to be protected by the building of the 
 levees, I started for the great moneyed empo- 
 rium of the land, New York City. 
 
84 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 Bethinking myself, while on the way, that 
 some Southern men might be engaged in the 
 banking business in the great metropolis, I 
 made up my mind to make my first call on one 
 should I find out his address. 
 
 My first call was on Mr. James Robb, who 
 had at one time done a large banking business 
 in New Orleans ; and I was about to congratu- 
 late myself on my good fortune in getting his 
 favorable opinion and indorsement — I could not 
 expect him to countenance it by a subscription 
 to my bonds, as I had no idea that a man from 
 the South was able to do so — when I was very 
 brusquely told that he did not wish to be both- 
 ered with a talk about Southern securities, and 
 much less did he want to hear of any thing 
 from Mississippi, a state that had repudiated 
 its debts. 
 
 This was a blow right in the house of one 
 whom I thought I could claim as a friend. 
 
 I have often tried to determine Robb's ail- 
 ment at that time. Maybe he had just been 
 Hutchinsonized, or, probably, Jim Fisk had 
 about sent him " where the woodbine twineth ;" 
 but as I don't know the many ways those Wall 
 street fellows have of making some speculators 
 look sick and talk ugly, I must attribute my 
 unexpected reception to his having eaten some- 
 thing that disagreed with him. He looked 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 8$ 
 
 very dyspeptic that morning, and must have 
 felt very bad. I do know, however, that, on 
 reaching the pavement, I had a great big dis- 
 gust on me, and I made for my hotel, there to 
 think up the next move. 
 
 I next visited Mr. Cisco, the banker in Wall 
 street. The wealthy Union Pacific Director 
 gave me a long and attentive audience, and 
 manifested so much interest in the matter 
 which I presented to him that I was almost 
 convinced he would lend me his influence by 
 subscribing for all or one-half of my bonds. 
 He admitted the securities to be valuable, but 
 gave me a set-back by saying that he had so 
 many other interests to attend to that he was 
 not inclined to invest in any new enterprises ; 
 hoped, however, for my success. 
 
 The unfolding of my scheme had been lis- 
 tened to in high quarters, and I felt encouraged 
 to go ahead. The Messrs. Opdike also gave 
 me their attention, and after I had orone over 
 the whole ground, I was asked to call on the 
 morrow. This I did, and repeated my callings 
 for several days., being from time to time in- 
 formed that the more they thought of the mat- 
 ter the more they appreciated it, and it was 
 probable they would undertake the selling or 
 hypothecation of the bonds. I worked on the 
 
86 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 parties as industriously and intelligently as I 
 knew how, and failed in the long run. 
 
 For more than a month, from day to day, I 
 was interviewing the moneyed men in the in- 
 terest of my big contract. I first begun with 
 the proposition that, as the securities were 
 sound, and the interest large, / would take dol- 
 lar for dollar, but, as my pocket-book flattened 
 out, I lowered my price, until finally I couldn't 
 even get a bid from any body. 
 
 I had lost the battle, and was thinking of 
 how I could make a respectable retreat, on 
 exhausted finances, over the long road to Mis- 
 sissippi, when I was re-enforced by a sugges- 
 tion from a gentleman (not a banker or broker, 
 but one who knew them well) that I put the 
 matter into his hands, and leave the negotiation 
 with him — without any conditions, restrictions 
 or stipulations whatever, and that if he could 
 do any thing at all, it would be all arranged 
 within three days — that, if not done by that 
 time, it would be a hopeless task. To this I 
 agreed, as the time was near at hand, when we 
 had contracted to begin shoveling dirt. 
 
 The third day had nearly died away when 
 my negotiator came hurriedly to my room, and, 
 laying before me several pages of closely writ- 
 ten foolscap, said : " Read these papers, and 
 sign, if they suit you. It's the very best that 
 
Life a7id Times of a Civil Engineer. Sy 
 
 can be done. It's this or nothing — and no 
 time to be lost;" and I, accordingly, signed 
 away, right there and then, an income of more 
 than twice "ten thousand a year." But there 
 was no alternative. I was to receive forty 
 cents on the dollar ; and, though the last series 
 of bonds matured at the expiration of five 
 years from date of issue, our notes for total 
 amount of money received were to be taken 
 up in one and two years. Every thing was to 
 be concluded on the following day, provided a 
 certain lawyer, of their own selection, should 
 pronounce the law creating the Levee Board 
 constitutional, and, whatever might be his 
 opinion, I was to settle the legal fee. All this 
 didn't make me hesitate. 
 
 To-morrow came, and together we repaired 
 to their attorney's office, and I had just begun 
 to explain the objeet of our call upon him, 
 when he interjected a remark about "the un- 
 certainty of every thing South, in these recon- 
 struction times ;" but this I cut short by re- 
 ferring to the legal opinions of Judges Sharkey, 
 Yerger, and Simrall, all of whom were nation- 
 ally known. We were told to call again in an 
 hour or two, when he would be prepared to 
 give us his written opinion. We were punc- 
 tual in meeting him at the appointed time, and 
 iound him, as on our previous visit, busily en- 
 
88 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 gaged in discussing New York politics with a 
 party of his friends, who were occupying easy 
 chairs and smoking costly looking cigars. I 
 had no idea that he could have given our mat- 
 ter much thought — certainly no serious investi- 
 gation — but he was, nevertheless, prepared 
 with a written opinion which, on his call, a clerk 
 handed me from his desk. It was an elaborate 
 and exhaustive one — running over nearly three 
 lines — reciting that he had examined the opin- 
 ions of my lawyers, and found them sound. 
 This was satisfactory to me ; but when in- 
 formed of the amount of his bill — two hundred 
 and fifty dollars — I was more than satisfied 
 that he could charge more, for doing nothing, 
 than the carpet-baggers who flooded the South 
 in the days of military rule, charged the lonely 
 and disconsolate colored widows, for services ren- 
 dered in securing pension money. 
 
 We were on time in beginning work on the 
 Lake Bolivar levee — proposing to finish this, 
 the heaviest work, before the coming of the 
 rainy season, when Col. Ned Richardson ar- 
 rived with several hundred convicts, which the 
 "Pole-Cat Legislature of 1867" had paid him 
 twenty-five thousand dollars to take care of and 
 set to work on the Vermillion line. 
 
 Without having consulted with or notified 
 us, in any way, the president had assumed to 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 89 
 
 let, to the great " Cotton King," one-half of 
 our contract — and that, the very cream of our 
 work — giving, as a reason for his unwarranted 
 action, that the contract was too large for one 
 party to handle. It's remarkable that this 
 afterthought should have struck him, when we 
 had spent our last dollar in finding a market 
 for his paper ; when there was an abundance 
 of labor ; and though our negotiation was not 
 as satisfactory to us as we had hoped it might 
 be, yet the margin of profit justified the pay- 
 ment of high labor wages, and every thing in- 
 dicated our ability to complete the work by the 
 specified- time. We, of course, had our legal 
 remedy, but, deferring to advice, we accepted 
 the changed condition of things, and went on 
 with our work by having Richardson take the 
 Bolivar Lake line, while we moved down on 
 the Christmas levee ; one of the conditions of 
 our agreement being, that no reservations were 
 to be made on our monthly estimates. 
 
 We had about got under full headway, when 
 the Massachusetts' governor of Mississippi 
 (Adelbert Ames — I think he was from Massa- 
 chusetts — at all events, we learn that he mar- 
 ried Ben Butler's daughter) issued his imperial 
 ukase, whereby the duly elected commissioners 
 from the people of the levee district, were 
 
90 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 swept from office, and, as many carpet-baggers, 
 appointed to their places. 
 
 This was about a million dollar contract, 
 and, as we didn't have enough money to talk 
 to the Private Secretary of the Suzerain ^ at 
 Jackson (I believe that is the titled and tilted 
 word that Governor Alcorn used in one of his 
 state messages), one of the first acts of the 
 new board was to tell us "to git " — and we got. 
 
 There is a heap more of this story, but I will 
 leave it unwritten. For further information and 
 more interesting details, reference is made to 
 my friend Captain Mike Hughes, of Vicksburg, 
 Miss., than whom none can better " point a 
 moral or adorn a tale." 
 
 It may be that I shall again have occasion to 
 present some other enterprise for the invest- 
 ment of New York capital, and 1 avail myself 
 of the present to say that every dollar of the 
 bonds, with interest, was paid without protest 
 or postponement. The cotton tax now only 
 amounts to a dollar per bale, the levee line is 
 all built up, the yearly contracts for maintenance 
 and repairs are all for cash, and we don't ex- 
 pect to have any more Military Governors. 
 
 With these presentments, and other features 
 that might be mentioned, I shall, on another 
 eastern trip, and with some other paying enter- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 9 1 
 
 prise in pocket, ask such favorable attention as 
 that I will get enough on my securities to en- 
 able me to bear, with gracious content, the loss 
 of a fortune on the Mississippi Levees in 1868. 
 
 After spending a year or more in plantation 
 and sectional surveying in the swamps of Mis- 
 sissippi and Louisiana, and serving, for a while, 
 as Assistant Engineer on the location of the 
 Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad in Ken- 
 tucky, I was appointed to the Chief Engineer- 
 ship of the Memphis and Vicksburg Railroad 
 Company. 
 
 My assistant Engineers were Captain T. G. 
 Dabney, now the Chief Engineer of the Up- 
 per Mississippi Levee District, and Holmes 
 Pattison and Major Powhattan Robinson. 
 
 Under the Presidency of General Wirt Ad- 
 ams, the first twelve miles west of the Yazoo 
 river, and extending along Deer creek were 
 graded. Though the line as proposed ran 
 through the richest cotton-belt in the South- 
 west, work had to be suspended for several 
 years, because of the inability of the railroad 
 company to place its bonds. 
 
 This was an enterprise that engaged most 
 of my time and attention, even after it had 
 been given up ll as a lost cause" by parties 
 who should have been most interested in its 
 
92 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 success. I talked for it, and wrote for it, and 
 endeavored, in every legitimate and business 
 way that I could think of, to persuade the mer- 
 chants of Vicksburg and the Deer creek plant- 
 ers to keep the work going ; though they 
 might accomplish but little, from month to 
 month, assuring them that if they would but 
 evidence, in this way, their own appreciation 
 of the value of the road, their expenditure 
 would be comparatively small when Northern 
 capital would come to their aid and bring 
 about the completion of the line. But all was 
 of no avail. 
 
 My next service was under Major W. H. H. 
 Benguard, U. S. Engineers Corps, in examin- 
 ing the Mississippi levees, and, subsequently, 
 engaged in the improvement of the navigation 
 of the Sunflower river. 
 
 It gives me pleasure to state that the Sun- 
 flower river men are unanimous in their praise 
 of Major Benguard's common sense w r ays of 
 applying appropriations to work, and not to 
 plant, and excessively minute triangnlations ; 
 and if further appropriations are made for this 
 water-course, they want the Major to direct the 
 improvement, being confident that the money 
 will not run out before enough wing-dams are 
 built to scour out and deepen the little stream, 
 so that George Bookoutcan make his weekly 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 93 
 
 trips, with his big steamboat, without having 
 to put out a " dead man," and capstan over Oli- 
 phant's bar and Mussle shoals. 
 
 While engaged in this Government work I 
 received a call to the Chief Engineership of the 
 Vicksburg and Ship Island Railroad. Some 
 ten or thirteen miles from Vicksburg southward 
 had been graded and ironed several years pre- 
 viously, and a party of Yicksburgers had pur- 
 chased it for a nominal sum. The State of 
 Mississippi held a mortgage on it of one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, but the new purchasers 
 had succeeded in having a legislative act passed, 
 whereby the state was to release its mortgage, 
 provided the road was built to Big Black, and 
 the river bridged by a certain day. Such 
 building and bridging was to be certified to by 
 the Chief Engineer of the road ; and, upon his 
 statement, the Attorney-General was author- 
 ized to cancel the State's lien.] 
 
 The time in which this work was to be done 
 was short, and the company equally short in 
 funds. However, we went to work and rushed 
 it with, perhaps, more expedition than was 
 ever known in railroad building under the same 
 circumstances — there being a hustling and 
 scuffling about, at the close of each week, to 
 know where the money was to come from to 
 meet the expenses of the following one. 
 
94 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 A contract had been made with the Penn 
 Bridge Company, of Pennsylvania, to erect a 
 bridge over the river, and we had reason to 
 believe, from their representations, that . we 
 would meet with no difficulty on that score ; 
 but these gentlemen had made their calcula- 
 tions with little or no reference to the stream 
 they proposed to bridge. 
 
 The Big Black crossing was located about 
 seven or eight miles from its emptying point 
 at the Mississippi river, and, in this distance, it 
 had a fall of a foot to the mile. The driving 
 of piles was begun on Christmas day. Under 
 the contract, the Bridge Company was to do its 
 own work, from the foundation seats through- 
 out ; but, at their request, and through my 
 anxiety to hurry matters, I undertook the su- 
 perintendency of the pile driving and the erec- 
 tion of the piers. 
 
 This was done under difficulties that arose 
 from day to day, but the greatest we had to 
 contend with were the extraordinary freshets 
 of the river — rising as much as twenty feet in 
 a night, and a current of fully ten miles or 
 more per hour. What would be the velocity — 
 fifty feet in depth, and having a slope of twelve 
 inches per mile — it is not necessary, for the 
 purpose of this book, to determine to any par- 
 ticular degree of exactness. If any one thinks 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 95 
 
 Big Black is not a thoroughbred racer when 
 in running trim, the advice is, go and look at 
 her. 
 
 The 25th of February being near at hand, 
 and the Bridge Company finding itself unable 
 to erect false works — the river being yet on 
 one of its booms — I anchored a hundred-foot 
 barge between the piers, and piling cross-ties 
 on it, up to the level of the bridge seats, had 
 the iron rails spiked thereon, and crossed a 
 train over into, and back from, Claiborne 
 county. 
 
 This was on the morning of the last day- 
 given us for lifting the mortgage. And thus, 
 by as hard work as I ever did, and by the near 
 loss of my life, I saved to the company their road 
 and its franchises — and, for all this, I was most 
 illiberally requited, to say the least, as I will, 
 in a measure, attempt to show before conclud- 
 ing my history of the road. 
 
 Before engaging with the Ship Island Com- 
 pany, I had obtained a judgment against the 
 Memphis & Vicksburg R. R. Co. for an amount 
 of salary that was due me ; and after the com- 
 pletion of the line of road (/. e., grading and 
 partial ironing) to within a mile of Port Gib- 
 son, I suggested to the Ship Island Packing 
 Company, as I had done lrequently before, that 
 
96 Life and Times of a Civil .Engineer . 
 
 they build the Memphis road in connection 
 with the one they had in charge ; as the Ship 
 Island, by itself, and terminating at New Or- 
 leans, Ship Island, or any other point along 
 the Mississippi coast, was of no value ; but 
 could be so made, by having its initial point 
 at Memphis. 
 
 The advice was acted on, and it was pro- 
 posed to buy my judgment of six thousand 
 dollars for the sum of five hundred dollars, 
 the company retaining me as Chief Engineer 
 of both lines, at a respectable salary. 
 
 As the latter road had been, for years, a 
 matter of great interest to me, as I have al- 
 ready indicated — and was assured by the par- 
 ties that they could readily obtain all necessary 
 means to construct, and that they had also se- 
 cured the chartered rights of the Tennessee 
 Southern, of which I was appointed Chief En- 
 gineer — I parted with my judgment on the 
 terms as proposed, and continued to serve them 
 by working on both lines. 
 
 In course of time, and that not long, while I 
 was industriously at work — unsuspicious ot 
 any duplicity on the part of those for whom I 
 had labored, clay and night, and for small com- 
 pensation — as I did most of the necessary field 
 work, the company being too poor to supply 
 me with the usual engineering aid — I learned 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 97 
 
 that they had sold out to Huntington and 
 Wilson, and, in the sale, I found myself sold. 
 
 I had not thought, in the beginning of the 
 relation of the circumstances attending my 
 connection with these roads, that it would 
 prove an interesting or entertaining thing to 
 any who might pick up this little book, but I 
 could not well tell of my experiences as a Civil 
 Engineer without dwelling at some length on 
 these just spoken of. I have thus written in 
 justice to myself. 
 
 Under the new administration of these 
 roads— the combined lines being now known 
 as the Louisville, New Orleans, and Texas — 
 Captain J no. A. Grant was its Chief Engineer, 
 and Mr. R. H. Elliot the Principal Assistant, 
 under whom I served as Division Engineer. 
 Both of these gentlemen are well known to 
 the railroad world, and are now occupying dis- 
 tinguished Engineering positions. 
 
 I was one of the company with Mr. R. T. 
 Wilson on his first trip up the Yazoo Delta, 
 and I remember his making inquiry of me as 
 to what I thought of the value of the lands 
 which his company had purchased of the 
 state — about seven hundred thousand acres 
 for thirty-five thousand dollars ? He thought 
 they were altogether swamp lands ; and though 
 a railroad might be built through them, they 
 
98 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 would never command a very high price. I 
 answered, that my familiarity with the lay of 
 the Yazoo Dalta, assured me in the belief, that 
 there was not an acre of ground within its 
 limits but could be brought under successful 
 cultivation * through a judicious system of 
 ditching and draining. That though the maps 
 of the country showed many small rivers, 
 creeks, bayous, lagoons or sloughs, and lakes, 
 that the main drainage, by way of the rivers 
 and creeks, had all a common tendency south- 
 ward, debouching, ultimately, by the Yazoo, 
 into the Mississippi, at the foot of the Delta 
 which had a slope, latitudinally, of from three 
 to four inches to the mile ; and that the drain- 
 age of the lower or swampy places would be, 
 in time, accomplished by proper ditch or canal 
 connections. 
 
 As to the present value of the lands, I rated 
 them all around at three dollars per acre, and 
 that the time was coming — and I thought it 
 not far distant — when that of his whole pur- 
 chase would equal the cost of construction of 
 his road from Vicksburg to Memphis. These 
 lands are now being sold by the company at 
 from five to ten dollars per acre. 
 
 It is remarkable how little is known, by the 
 people of the states generally, of this wonder- 
 fully productive section of country. It has an 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 99 
 
 area of about seven thousand square miles, or 
 four million four hundred and eighty thousand 
 acres, capable of producing one hundred 
 bushels of corn to the acre — or a total of four 
 hundred and forty-eight millions — a provision 
 of about seven bushels per head for the entire 
 population of the United States, estimating it 
 at sixty millions. Or, if in cotton, a bale per 
 acre, a total of four million four hundred and 
 eighty thousand, being more than one-half of 
 the entire cotton crop of the Southern States. 
 
 These figures look very large, and it may be 
 thought that I have introduced them solely to 
 add to the number of pages of this book, but 
 I shall always insist on the correctness of my 
 estimate until some one proves that the soil 
 has not the productive capacity I have credited 
 it with. 
 
 It is no argument to ask why the planters 
 buy so much corn of the West. Under the 
 present system of labor, and the iron-clad con- 
 ditions accompanying the supplies of the mer- 
 chant to the planter, the corn-patch is, neces- 
 sarily, small in comparison with the cotton- 
 field. 
 
 When the Delta shall be filled with such 
 thrifty and intelligent labor as till the prairies 
 of the North-west, it will then be demonstrated 
 
ioo Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 that the cotton planters can live independent 
 
 of foreign corn-cribs and smoke-houses. 
 
 •* * * * * * 
 
 Having made the surveys of the Vicksburg 
 and Canton and Vicksburg and Yazoo City Rail- 
 road lines, I next turned my attention to the 
 hunting up of cypress timber in Bolivar county. 
 
 Having been told, by Governor Charles 
 Clark, that if I could find out a way to flood 
 the California Brake, I could lay aside Engi- 
 neering, and retire on a comfortable provision 
 for my remaining days, I took up my compass 
 and level, and started in search of the fortune 
 which that excellent old gentleman so allur- 
 ingly represented as being within my grasp. 
 
 Procuring a township map on which the 
 brake was shown as covering several sections, 
 I had no difficulty in finding it ; but, on exam- 
 ination, discovered that it was impracticable to 
 flood it to a floating depth, and the timber, 
 though abundant, was of a scraggy growth, 
 and unmerchantable. 
 
 After talking with an old squatter whose 
 hospitality I had enjoyed for several days, I 
 learned that there was a fine lot of timber 
 about seven miles below the California that 
 was worth looking at, and on going there found 
 it as he had represented — covering about two 
 sections, having a mean average diameter of 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer, i o i 
 
 fully three feet ; from fifty to sixty feet to low- 
 est limb ; of straight and regular grain, and 
 numbering about thirty to the acre. 
 
 This was a California brake, indeed. Hav- 
 ing located the sections, I ran many lines of 
 levels, and finally developed a feasible and 
 economical plan for floating the timber into the 
 Sunflower river, and thence to a market where 
 it would command from twelve to fifteen dollars 
 per tree. 
 
 Well, did you enter it as State Land ? In 
 order to do so, it was necessary to be in pocket 
 to the amount of six hundred dollars — a small 
 sum, it is true, to a man who has a good many 
 six hundreds more ; but I had n't the first six, 
 and could n't get it — while some others, equally 
 as enterprising as myself, but better heeled, slip- 
 ped out to the Land Office and cut me out of 
 another fortune. It is now known as the Meri- 
 gold Brake along the line of the Louisville, 
 New Orleans and Texas Railroad. 
 
 The next time I go timber hunting — and find 
 a good thing — I propose to keep a still tongue 
 in my head, until I see the man at the Capitol 
 who has charge of the records, and maybe I 
 can get a part interest. 
 
 I wonder, often and often, what star I was 
 born under. We are, every now and then, 
 advised, if there be no opportunity, to "make 
 
 . 
 
102 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 an opportunity." Why, I've made more op- 
 portunities — whereby other men have made for- 
 tunes — than any other individual in six states. 
 I've quit making them, and hereafter I will 
 wait till they are made for me. It may be, in 
 time, that I will have some offered or forced 
 on me — just cut and made to my liking. Nous 
 verrons. 
 
 I had about recovered from the afflictive 
 stroke that was dealt me in this big timber 
 deal, when I was called on by a raftsman to 
 locate the lines of certain sections of land in 
 Issaquena County, on which he had cut, and 
 had ready for floating, a large quantity of 
 cypress. 
 
 Arriving at his camp, I found the swamp 
 covered with the monster trees which had been 
 felled by his sturdy axemen, and the trimming 
 up process was being carried on at a rapid 
 rate. 
 
 What a lusty and jolly set of fellows these 
 raftsmen are. Their expertness with the axe 
 is truly wonderful. They will stand in a dug- 
 out — so light in weight that a boy can lift and 
 carry one, and so easily toppled over that you 
 have always to look carefully to your balanc- 
 ing — and, from it, cut to the line and clean 
 chip, these forest giants to a fall ; and again 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 03 
 
 they will insert a narrow board above the butt- 
 swell, at times as much as ten feet higher than 
 their dug-outs, and from this precarious perch 
 will chop with quickness and precision until, 
 assured by the cracking and leaning, that not 
 another stroke is needed, will hurriedly slide 
 into their frail and bobbing little boats, and 
 dart away out of reach of danger. 
 
 Having made the survey, I found my party 
 was cutting timber on another man's land, and 
 before leaving his camp the sheriff had taken 
 him in charge. The penalty for this offense in 
 the State of Mississippi is a fine and imprison- 
 ment in the penitentiary. 
 
 The trial coming off, I was employed by my 
 man, in a pseudo legal capacity, to assist his 
 attorney before the court in examining the 
 county surveyor. 
 
 This officer was of the reconstruction era, 
 having floated into this county with the large 
 cargo of carpet-baggers that was shipped here 
 after "the late unpleasantness," to adjust and 
 regulate matters generally. The court was 
 presided over by two justices — one a full 
 blooded negro, and the other a white scallawag. 
 
 The county surveyor being on the witness 
 stand, he was interrogated as to his knowledge 
 of the lines in question. 
 
 Q. Are you a surveyor ? 
 
1 04 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 A. I am. 
 
 Q. I presume you are thorough and capable 
 in your line of business ? 
 
 A. I should rather think I was. 
 
 Q. Did you make a survey of the lines of 
 
 Sections No. in Township No. and 
 
 Range No. ? 
 
 A. I did. 
 
 Q. What point did you select as the initial 
 one of your survey ? 
 
 A. As near as I remember, the southeast 
 corner of section No. — ■-. 
 
 Q. How did you know it to be the corner? 
 
 A. Because I knew it. How else would I 
 know it? 
 
 Q. The corners, Mr. , as you should 
 
 know, are indicated by certain bearing trees, 
 as shown by the government field notes. Did 
 you have the field notes, and did you find the 
 bearing or pointing trees, and from them obtain 
 your starting point ? 
 
 A. No; I didn't have any thing of the kind. 
 
 Q. How did you know it was the corner 
 then ? 
 
 A. I just knew it because there was a stick 
 stuck there. 
 
 Q. All right. Which way did you then run ? 
 
 A. I run due South. 
 
 Q. How far ? 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 105 
 
 A. Two miles. 
 
 Q. Very well. That brought you to the 
 southeast corner of Section No. — . 
 
 A. Yes, sir; as near as I figger it, it did. 
 
 Q. If you are good at figgei'ing, let's know 
 how you figgered to run- two miles due south, 
 by informing the court as to your allowance for 
 the needle variation at the time you made the 
 survey ? 
 
 A. As near as I now remember, it was eight 
 degrees and forty-five minutes west. 
 
 Q. Are you positive that the magnetic varia- 
 tion, at that time and place, was as you have 
 stated it to have been ? 
 
 A. Yes, sir ; on reflection, I'm positive. 
 
 Q. Now, don't you know that, at that time, 
 the variation was as much as a degree and a 
 half less than what you have stated it to have 
 been, and that it is east, and not west? 
 
 A. Well, I oughter know what I'm talking 
 about, as I fixed it. 
 
 O. I presume you determined the variation 
 by observations on the North or some other 
 circumpolar stars, at their culminations or elon- 
 gations ; if so, please tell us how you did it. 
 
 A. Well, look here, now. I came here to 
 be examined about worldly matters. When 
 you git into astronomy and all them hifalutin 
 things, which don't have a thing to do with this 
 
106 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 cypress timber business, I'm going to let you 
 ^tar it out 'til you come down to something 
 that's reasonable. 
 
 Q. Very well.. Now, Mr. , I suppose 
 
 you are acquainted with the way of calculating 
 latitude and departure ? Will you please tell 
 the court how much an angle of one degree 
 will subtend at a distance of one hundred feet ? 
 
 A. As that question involves a case of log- 
 arithms, I'll have to do a little figgcring. 
 
 Here he pulled from his pocket a little book, 
 which he told the court was his lt old reliable, 
 Gibson on Surveying;" and after turning over 
 its pages for so long a time, that the court came 
 near adjourning to take a drink, he announced 
 that he found the answer. 
 
 0. What is it, Mr. ? 
 
 A. As near as I have figgered it — to the 
 second decimal place — it's about six feet and 
 thirty-three hundredths. 
 
 Q. Don't you think your logarithms are a 
 little stretchy? 
 
 A. No, sir ; I sorter held them in. I might 
 have gone on with them decimals to ad infin- 
 itum, as they call it, but thirty three hun- 
 dredths is close enough. You see the compass 
 wont read any nearer than that. 
 
 Q. Well, let's go on from your last point. 
 Which way did you next go, and how far ? 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 107 
 
 -A. I went due east, two miles. 
 
 Q. Had to go through deep water most of 
 the way, did you not ? Found it impossible to 
 chain most of the line. Suppose you triangu- 
 lated part of it, and traversed about a great 
 deal ; and eventually got back on your line by 
 the usual determining ways ? 
 
 A. Yes, sir ; that was a thing that didn't 
 bother me a bit. 
 
 0. Why, that is remarkable. How did you 
 accomplish it ? 
 
 A. Now, there's where I've got you, if you 
 did come here as an expert. Why, I used two 
 compasses. 
 
 Q. Two compasses ! F or what ? 
 
 A. Why, I used one to take my fore sight, 
 and the other to take by back sight. 
 
 The half of the examination has not been 
 told. Witnesses all examined, the lawyers 
 made their speeches, and judgment rendered 
 against my raftsman. That he had trespassed 
 on another's property was true, but how did 
 the court arrive at the fact ? 
 
 However, my man escaped the heavy penalty 
 by a money compromise — how, or in what 
 way, I never knew — and shortly after the trial 
 was killed in a street fight in Vicksburg. 
 
 And so terminated another cypress transac- 
 
108 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 action ; but this time I got what I had ex- 
 pected, not a fortune, but my surveying fees. 
 
 fit, &. Cte. jit jJt J4» 
 
 ?{* ^S ^t> t^jc y(s vpr 
 
 After occupying myself, in connection with 
 Mr. 'George D. Stonestreet, in general en- 
 gineering and surveying in Birmingham, Ala., 
 the magic city of the South, for a year or 
 more, I next moved to Kansas, where I was 
 employed, during a winter season, by Captain 
 A. W. Gloster, the then Chief Engineer of the 
 Kansas City, Wyandotte and North-western 
 Railroad. 
 
 My stay in this State was of such short 
 duration that I have nothing to relate of an en- 
 gineering experience. 
 
 I had heard so much of the great and grow- 
 ing State of Kansas — its climate, productive- 
 ness, varied industries, its many churches and 
 school-houses, and the general intelligence of 
 its people — that I was prepared to see some- 
 thing that I had never seen before ; and I did 
 see it, but not as Emigration Agents had ad- 
 vertised it. 
 
 The thermometer, on the day of my arrival, 
 registered twenty-eight degrees below zero, 
 and so continued, with no material variation, 
 so far as comfort was concerned, for several 
 months ; while the wind blew with almost hur" 
 ricane velocity. This is one beauty of the cli- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 09 
 
 mate. I left in the springtime, and therefore 
 missed a delicious summering in that mild lati- 
 tude. I am told that it is blissfully inviting at 
 that season of the year. 
 
 When the topmost thermometrical gradua- 
 tion is almost reached, and you are sweltering 
 under a red-hot sun, and thirsting for water, 
 there comes along a gentle breeze which, in 
 other states, brings cooling comfort and re- 
 freshment ; but this is a Kansas breeze — and it 
 burns and parches you. 
 
 The United States Census averages its corn 
 production at thirty bushels per acre. A ne- 
 gro's mule would laugh at the task of making 
 such a crop in the Mississippi or Louisiana 
 bottoms. Its industries are not comparable to 
 those of Georgia, or even Alabama. But, as 
 to the number of its churches and school- 
 houses, it is bountifully supplied — and it needs 
 them. It has more religious denominations, 
 so-called, than any other two states. You can 
 see a school-house on nearly every square mile, 
 but, withal this, the general knowledge and in- 
 telligence of the state that, only recently, the 
 Kansas Legislature wanted Congress to put 
 under martial law — Arkansas — is far beyond 
 the people of Kansas who claim so many edu- 
 cational aids and privileges. Of the masses, it 
 may be said, that their ignorance borders on 
 
i io Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 stupidity, and their bigotry and intolerance are 
 of the most sickening order. 
 
 I have said, in the beginning of this book, 
 " Occasion will be taken, in the course of these 
 pages, to particularize some of the results al- 
 luded to," etc. Subsequent reflection, how- 
 ever, has concluded me to go back on the 
 promise, as, in attempting to fulfill it, in its 
 original intent, I should be obliged to mention 
 names — for the owners of which, in their per- 
 sonal capacity, I have high respect — and what- 
 ever may be my estimate of their professional 
 worth, is a matter of no concern to the general 
 public ; and, while refraining from such publi- 
 cation, I will be adhering to that ethical code 
 of the fraternity, which should not be disre- 
 garded. . 
 
 I will, however, say this much, that the 
 proper adaptability of means at hand never 
 fails of legitimately corresponding results. 
 This is not only true of mathematics, but may 
 be asserted of the various commercial and 
 practical enterprises of the world. 
 
 The right use of the means is the determin- 
 ing factor in producing beneficial results. The 
 Engineer having charge of the building of an 
 important line of several hundred miles of rail- 
 road may be backed with ample capital to en- 
 
Life and Times- of a Civil Engineer. 1 1 1 
 
 able him to construct the road ; and this may 
 be done regardless of economy in location and 
 construction, while another have so little of 
 pecuniary backing as to prevent the employ- 
 ment even of the field assistants, demanded by 
 the convenience and necessities of the surveys 
 (and made distressingly: anxious concerning 
 the payment of his own small salary), yet gives 
 due consideration to every surveying item', and 
 from it determines a location on true engineer- 
 ing principles. 
 
 The writer has no hesitancy in proclaiming 
 that the contracted engineering as indicated in 
 the above paragraph had its practical counter- 
 part in the location of an important line of rail- 
 road with which he was connected, and his 
 suggested but rejected plans have been ap- 
 proved by many Civil Engineers of unques- 
 tionable competency. 
 
 The results alluded to are conspicuously ex- 
 posed on every hand, and the practical eye 
 finds no difficulty in discerning them. 
 
 In concluding this short narration of the 
 " Life and Times," I think it a duty I owe to 
 the many comrades who have faithfully toiled 
 along the hard road of "out-door" Engineer- 
 ing, and to the profession at Targe, to protest 
 against the money estimate of their services. 
 
112 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 While it must be admitted that, as a science, 
 there is none of higher rank than that of Civil 
 Engineering ; and that, to an attainment even 
 of such elements as will enable the Engineer 
 to comprehend its simplest works, years of 
 mental, and, in most cases, physical labor of 
 the most arduous character, are required, it can 
 not be denied that, of all professions, it is the 
 most poorly paid. This undervaluing of such 
 service was begun, and is now continued, by 
 those of the profession occupying more or less 
 high positions. The salary of competent- field 
 Engineers ranges from sixty to one hundred 
 dollars per month ; many of them more thor- 
 oughly acquainted with the work they have to 
 do than the one who thinks it labor merely to 
 sign their papers ; and yet the latter is paid by 
 the thousand per month. 
 
 Why do n't these small salaried fellows climb 
 to the top rung of the ladder ? Because money 
 and influential circumstances, uncoupled with 
 true merit, push so many up that ladder that 
 the worthy ones can only look up. 
 
THE TRUE THEORY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 RIVER. 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 15 
 
 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 
 
 There are 40,000 square miles of Delta lands, 
 The areas drained by the tributaries of the 
 
 Mississippi river : 
 
 Sq. Miles. 
 
 The area drained by the tributaries of the Mis- 
 souri river 519,400 
 
 The area drained by the tributaries of the Ohio 
 
 river ,< 202,400 
 
 The area drained by the Upper Mississippi river, 
 including all the tributaries which come in on 
 the east above the mouth of the Ohio, and on 
 the west above the mouth of the Missouri 184,500 
 
 The area drained by the Arkansas and its tribu- 
 taries, including White river 176,700 
 
 The area drained by the Red river and its tribu- 
 taries 102,200 
 
 The area drained by the Yazoo, and all other 
 tributaries coming into the Mississippi, on the 
 east side, between mouth of Ohio and mouth 
 of Red river 29,300 
 
 The area drained by the St. Francis, embracing 
 the territory lying between its waters and the 
 Mississippi 12, 100 
 
 Total area drained above the mouth of Red river. .1,226,600 
 
 Reduced to feet, the total area of the Missis- 
 sippi Valley is 34,195,645,440,100 square feet. 
 
1 1 6 Life and Times of a Civil E7igineer. 
 
 Assuming the annual downfall of rain over 
 this immense area to be forty inches, we have, 
 as a result, 113,985,484,800,333 cubic feet. 
 
 Investigation of the discharge below Red 
 river, and its great natural outlet, the Atcha- 
 falaya, during sixty days of the high water in 
 the spring of 185 1, was 6,225,000,000,000 
 cubic feet, or at the average rate of 103,750,- 
 000,000 cubic feet per diem. 
 
 The actual drainage below Red river, during 
 sixty days of the high water of 1851, was, 
 therefore, very nearly the eighteenth part of the 
 total annual downfall over the whole area of 
 the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 The value of the drainage during these 
 sixty days, reduced to inches, is 2^^. 
 
 Now let it be supposed, that, from any cause 
 as to the tillage of the prairies, the destruction 
 of the vegetable growth, or the better drain- 
 age of the fields, out of the forty inches of rain 
 which falls, two-fiftJis of an inch, or nearly one 
 per cent of the whole, should be discharged into 
 the Mississippi in the course of these sixty 
 days of flood, over and above the present 
 average discharge. If this slight increase of 
 the total discharge were distributed . uniformly 
 over the whole period of sixty days of high 
 water, it would require that the channel of the 
 river should be competent to give vent to an in- 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 1 7 
 
 creased volume equal to 220,000 cubic feet per 
 second ; and the result would be an increased 
 elevation of high water of six feet. This con- 
 clusion is derived from an approximate deter- 
 mination of the increased height of a flood, due 
 to any given increase in the volume discharged, 
 when the general dimensions and slope of the 
 river are given.. 
 
 The average depth of the river at high water 
 of 1850, in mid-channel way, from Vicksburg 
 to New Orleans, was one hundred and fifteen 
 feet, while the area of high water section from 
 Vicksburg to Donaldsonville was 215,200 
 square feet. 
 
 The general slope, at high water, between 
 Red river and Donaldsonville, being" taken at 
 twenty-five hundredths of a foot per mile, the 
 working of the accepted formula, for the de- 
 termination of mean current velocity, shows 
 4,584 feet per second, and a discharge of 
 985,560 cubic feet per second. 
 
 But if the surface should rise twelve inches 
 higher, in consequence of an increased supply 
 of water, the depth would become 1 16 feet, the 
 slope about tVi/V feet, and the area of the 
 average section would be increased to 218,300 
 square feet. The working of these new ele- 
 ments gives an increased discharge of 1,015,- 
 640 cubic feet per second. This shows that 
 
1 1 8 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 the average volume which must be supplied to 
 the channel, when in full flood, in order to raise 
 the surface one foot, to be 30,080 cubic feet. 
 
 The average volume of 35,000 cubic feet per 
 second has been assumed as a result applica- 
 ble to the general or average dimensions of 
 the Lower Mississippi. No rule can be given 
 which will apply to every position ; for the 
 width, depth, and area of the stream are most 
 variable ; and as the same volume of water 
 must pass through different sections, its veloc- 
 ity, both surface and mean, must be subject to 
 continual change. 
 
 A great flood is the result of a simultane- 
 ous discharge of the great tributaries, which 
 usually run off successively. 
 
 The high water produced by the Red and 
 Arkansas rivers, in the ordinary course of 
 things, has begun to subside before that of the 
 Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee comes 
 down ; and these, again, begin to recede be- 
 fore the Mississippi discharges its volume ; and 
 this, in its turn, subsides before the snows of 
 the Rocky Mountains, which swell the northern 
 tributaries of the Missouri, are melted by the 
 tardy sun in those high latitudes, and the wa- 
 ter has had time to flow through the three 
 thousand miles of channel intervening between 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 1 9 
 
 the sources of the distant streams and the 
 head of the delta. 
 
 It is a part of the natural order of events 
 that these great rivers shall discharge suc- 
 cessively. But there were, doubtless, in former 
 ages, as now, exceptions to this natural rule ; 
 and a meeting of the flood-waters of distant 
 tributaries may have occurred many a time in 
 the course of the tens of thousands of years 
 which have witnessed the formation of the 
 delta. Such things may occur hereafter, and 
 greater floods than have yet been seen by 
 men may be felt along the banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 The floods which now carry annual distress 
 and destruction into the Lower Mississippi, 
 are the result of artificial causes. The water 
 is supplied by nature, but its height is increased 
 by the works of men. The prominent cause is 
 the extension of the levees. 
 
 The Mississippi has been accustomed to find 
 vent for its surplus waters in the vast swamps 
 which are to be found along the valleys of Red 
 river, the Arkansas, White river, the Yazoo, 
 and the St. Francis ; and to the right and left 
 of its proper course, almost the entire distance 
 from Cape Girardeau to the Belize. 
 
 In the progress of the levees no regard has 
 been paid to those bayous, or natural outlets, 
 
1 20 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 through which the Mississippi, in its unre- 
 strained condition, vented, as it rose, a large 
 portion of its surplus water. 
 
 The numerous channels through which the 
 rising floods were safely discharged into the 
 swamps, with few exceptions, have been all 
 stopped by the extension of the levees across 
 their mouths, consequently that portion of the 
 flood which these openings allowed to pass into 
 the great reservoirs of the delta, has been ex- 
 cluded from them, and is now forced, when the 
 levees stand firm, to flow between the artificial 
 banks down the main channel of the river. 
 
 It will be readily perceived how this com- 
 pression of that surplus water which, in the 
 original condition of the stream, spread over a 
 width of fifty or one hundred miles of inun- 
 dated country, within a channel of half a mile 
 in breadth, will cause the flood to rise higher. 
 
 Shall the river be restored to its original 
 condition by reopening the closed outlets, and 
 again allowing the water to pass out through 
 its natural vents ? This is now wholly im- 
 practicable. The bayous are all types of the 
 Mississippi itself. They originally received 
 their supply from the river, and, in extreme 
 floods, were subject, like the river, to overflow 
 their borders. Naturally, as on the main river, 
 these overflows left their deposits. To open 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 2 1 
 
 all these bayou outlets would lead to certain 
 and immediate destruction of great interests. 
 
 What will be the effect of the levee system 
 above when it shall be prosecuted to such an 
 extent as to fill up all the gaps above Red 
 river ? 
 
 That we may have a more definite idea of 
 the consequences that will result from the ex- 
 clusion of the water from a given portion of 
 the swamps, and confining the volume so ex- 
 cluded to the channel of the river, when the 
 Mississippi has already overflowed its banks, 
 and is pressing on the levees, let's figure some 
 more. 
 
 It has been stated that the swamp lands of 
 the delta are supposed to cover about 40,000 
 square miles. But if we confine our attention 
 to that portion of this area which is found 
 above the mouth of the Red river, we may es- 
 timate its length, northwardly, at four hundred 
 miles, and its average breadth at about sixty- 
 five miles, dimensions which give for the total 
 area of inundated lands north of Red river, 
 26,000 square miles. 
 
 If we assume that the water over the whole 
 of this area is excluded from the swamps to a 
 sufficient extent to reduce the depth of over- 
 flow only twelve inches, we shall have for the 
 additional volume which, by that process, will 
 
122 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 be forced into the river, and which must, there- 
 fore, be carried off by the channel. 
 
 26,000X5, 28o 2 = 724,838,400,000 cubic feet. 
 
 This additional volume must be discharged 
 through the channel of the river in the ordi- 
 nary period of high water, which is assumed to 
 be .sixty days. The increased discharge 
 through the channel due to this cause, will 
 then be 
 
 12,080,640,000 cubic feet per diem, and, conse- 
 quently, 139,822 cubic feet per second. 
 
 This is about the one-seventh part of the ac- 
 tual high-water discharge of the Mississippi 
 below Red river, as previously shown. 
 
 But, it having been shown that if only 
 35,000 cubic feet per second were added to the 
 high- water discharge, the surface would be 
 raised at or above Plaquemine fully one foot, 
 it follows that by reducing the depth of over- 
 flow throughout the swamps above Red river 
 only one foot, the high-water surface below 
 Red river will be raised nearly four feet for a 
 period of sixty days. 
 
 •In the above calculation, it has been assumed 
 that the depth of overflow, prevented by the 
 levees, is but twelve inches. From the best 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 1 2 
 
 
 
 data obtainable, it is estimated that five feet is 
 about a fair average for the depth of the inun- 
 dation, distributed over the total area north of 
 Red river, which is subject to overflow. It 
 follows, therefore, that whenever the levees are 
 made to stand firm and exclude all the water 
 from the swamps, the quantity so excluded 
 will be equal to five times that above obtained, 
 or sufficient to require an increase of discharge 
 through the channel, of 699,110 cubic feet per 
 second, kept up for a period of sixty consecu- 
 tive days. 
 
 The actual discharge of the Mississippi in 
 extreme high water, in 1851, below Red river, 
 was 1,134,000 cubic feet per second. It fol- 
 lows, therefore, that to fill up the computed 
 area of the swamps which are found above the 
 mouth of Red river, to an average depth of 
 five feet, will require a supply from the over- 
 flow of the river equal to 700,000 cubic feet 
 per second for a period of sixty days, or equal 
 to the total high water discharge of the Missis- 
 sippi for a period of thirty-seven days. 
 
 In other words, if all the water which passes 
 through the channel of the Mississippi below 
 the mouth of Red river, when at its highest 
 point, were discharged into the swamps above 
 Red river, it would require a period of about 
 thirty-seven days to fill up all those swamps 
 
124 Life a?id Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 to an. average depth of five feet. And, there- 
 fore, on the other hand, if that portion of the 
 Mississippi floods which is absorbed in filling 
 up the swamps, were entirely excluded from 
 the swamps, by a system of substantial levees, 
 and forced into the channel — when an increase 
 of 35,000 cubic feet per second will cause an 
 increased elevation of surface of about one 
 foot — the 700,000 cubic feet per second, so ex- 
 cluded, would raise the surface about fifteen 
 feet above the present high water marks. 
 
 Let it be conceded that the abrasive force 
 increases with the volume of water transported, 
 and that the channel is enlarged as the abrasive 
 force is augmented. The scouring force of 
 the river can not be increased until after the 
 surface has been raised ; and, therefore, after 
 the damage from overflow has been done. 
 When the bottom will be washed ont deep enough, 
 and the banks will have caved in far enough to 
 accommodate the total drainage of the Missis- 
 sippi Valley, is beyond the prescience of science, 
 or the light of experience, to foreshow. 
 
 When the volume discharged by the river is 
 increased, the channel will, no doubt, undergo 
 a gradual enlargement ; but more than a thou- 
 sand miles of material must be excavated and 
 transported, re-deposited, re-excavated, and 
 again transported many hundred times ; and 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 125 
 
 there is no reason to doubt that hundreds, and, 
 perhaps, thousands of years will be required 
 to accomplish, by the levee system, the re- 
 clamation of the Mississippi delta lands from 
 overflow. 
 
 It is contended that the construction of 
 levees in the upper part of the river can not 
 increase the floods essentially below, for the 
 reason that the channel below is larger than 
 that above, and can, therefore, vent between 
 levees all the water that can be brought down 
 between any new levee which may be built 
 above. 
 
 There are portions in the upper divisions 
 of the Mississippi which are much larger than 
 other portions below the Yazoo. The Missis- 
 sippi, when in flood, discharges more water im- 
 mediately beloiv the mouth of the Ohio than it 
 does at a7iy point in the neigJiborhood of Red 
 river. 
 
 It is said that the water which is now dis- 
 charged into the swamps above, passes through 
 those swamps and reappears at their outlets, 
 and aids in swelling the flood in the river 
 below. But this is at war with the facts. The 
 flood in the river travels faster than the flood 
 in the swamps ; and the highest rise at the 
 mouth of the St. Francis is not produced by 
 the water of overflow which entered those 
 
126 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 swamps above and is drained off by the St. 
 Francis ; nor that at the mouth of the Yazoo 
 by the water which is drawn through the 
 swamps of the Yazoo ; nor that at the mouth 
 of Red river by that which is discharged by the 
 Cocodrie and the Tensas. The floods of the 
 Mississippi are produced by water which does 
 not go into the swamps at all, but which de- 
 scends through the main channel of the river, 
 aided by the discharge received from the 
 tributaries on the way. The height of the 
 flood at any point depends on the volume that 
 is brought down by the river and its tribu- 
 taries, and not by the discharge from the 
 swamps. But, after the river has attained its 
 height, the supply is kept up, and the duration 
 of the flood prolonged, by the subsequent dis- 
 charge from the swamps. 
 
 It is not unreasonable to assume, that if it 
 be in the power of the government to so 
 control the waters as to add to the height and 
 violence of the river, it will be equally within 
 its power to reduce its force and moderate 
 its velocity ; and that, too, without impairing 
 its navigable channel way. 
 
 The total steam power engaged in navigat- 
 ing the Mississippi and its tributaries is about 
 equal to 600,000 horses ; adequate to the lift- 
 ing of all the water discharged by the river 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 127 
 
 and its outlets, at the moment when this dis- 
 charge is greatest, as fast as it comes down, 
 to a height of four feet. It is evident that 
 these floods can be restrained by mere mus- 
 cular strength, by steam power, by a dead lift, 
 and without the aid of any resources which are 
 supplied by art and experience. But great 
 volumes of the Mississippi floods may be dis- 
 charged directly into the sea, by merely remov-. 
 ing a portion of the artificial embankments 
 which now confine them to the river, while the 
 floods may be controlled by retaining a portion 
 of the waters in the valleys above. 
 
 Right here we are met with the objection, 
 that the river will be shoaled below the site 
 of the outlet. The Mississippi and its natural 
 outlets are now greatly overburdened in times 
 of extreme high-water, and are unable to vent 
 the volume which is forced into them by the 
 distant tributaries as fast as it is brought down. 
 This excess of water finds new outlets by over- 
 flowing the natural banks, or through crevasses 
 in the artificial levees. Outlets then, acting only 
 as high-water vents, through which this surplus 
 water may be let off, can not possibly dimin- 
 ish the actual area of the river's section be- 
 low; for such outlets will discharge water 
 which does not pass through the channel at 
 all. The water which injures the country is 
 
128 Life arid Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 not that which descends between the natural 
 banks, or even that larger quantity which now 
 descends between the levees of the Mississippi, 
 but is precisely that which, after the levees 
 have given way, leaves the river and spreads 
 over the cultivated fields. This portion, there- 
 fore, may be discharged through the artificial 
 openings leading to the sea, without affecting 
 the area of the channel below ; for it does 
 not now, and never did, flow through the 
 channel, and can have, therefore, no influence 
 whatever on its condition. 
 
 In consequence of the extension of the levees 
 above, the volume discharged by the floods of 
 the Lower Mississippi will be annually in- 
 creased. 
 
 In opening outlets below Red river sufficient 
 to give passage to this increased supply as it 
 comes, the efficiency of the channel can not 
 possibly be impaired, for this increased dis- 
 charge has had no part in the creation or 
 maintenance of the present channel. 
 
 To the extent then, in the first place, of dis- 
 charging the waters of overflow, or the crevasse 
 water ; and to the further extent of providing 
 for the increased discharge which the new 
 levees will occasion, artificial outlets may be 
 employed without the least apprehension that 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 129 
 
 the present area of the river will be diminished 
 by success. 
 
 About eleven miles below the city of New 
 Orleans, and one hundred above its mouth, 
 the Mississippi approaches within five miles of 
 the Gulf of Mexico. The ground between the 
 river and the gulf, here known as Lake Borgne, 
 is a plane sloping from the river back to the 
 sea. The first three thousand feet from the 
 river is cleared and highly cultivated land ; but 
 the residue of the distance is swamp, always 
 wet, and sometimes completely overflowed by 
 the high water of the gulf. 
 
 When the Mississippi is in flood, its surface 
 stands six feet above the level of the adjacent 
 soil, and at this point the levee is about six feet 
 high. 
 
 At the distance of half a mile back from the 
 levee, the surface of the- ground is 9^ feet be- 
 low the high-water surface of the river. At 
 the distance of a mile, it is 10^2 feet, and so 
 continues, almost a perfect level from that 
 point back to the borders of the lake, where 
 the surface of the swamp or prairie is 10^ feet 
 below the high water of the Mississippi, as it 
 stood in April, 1851. 
 
 The average fall of the surface, from the 
 river back to the level of the gulf, was found 
 to be 2} feet per mile. The velocity of the 
 
130 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 surface current would be 5 feet per second (if 
 the opening were made suddenly). If the levee 
 were removed along a space of 5,000 lineal 
 feet, the area of the outflowing column would 
 be 52,500 square feet, and the discharge, con- 
 sequently, about 210,000 cubic feet per 
 second. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that it would be 
 practicable to form a vent at this point that 
 would in a short time obtain an average depth 
 nearly or quite equal to the difference between 
 the high-water level of the river and the bot- 
 tom of Lake Borgne near the shore, or about 
 14 feet, and that such an outlet would produce 
 a reduction of the surface of the Mississippi 
 at high-water, of not less than four feet, suffi- 
 cient to secure the protection of New Orleans 
 and the whole coast below the city ; and to 
 some considerable distance above, for a very 
 long period. 
 
 All the water that is drawn off at this point, 
 and all the reduction of surface that can be ef- 
 fected by this outlet will be productive of good. 
 There is here no interest to be injured but 
 that of the few individual proprietors whose 
 estates would have to be appropriated, and to 
 whom, of course, compensation would have to 
 be made. 
 
 As to increasing the bars at the mouths of 
 
• Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 131 
 
 the Mississippi by the withdrawal of a large 
 volume of water from any part of the channel, 
 it was clearly shown in a report to the War 
 Department, by Mr. Ellet, that these bars are 
 not produced by the destruction of the velocity 
 of the river, where the fresh water meets 
 the sea, but by the refluent under-current \ 
 which is set in motion by the outpouring floods 
 of the Mississippi. That the bars at the em- 
 bouchures of the passes, can not be reduced in 
 height by increasing the velocity of the river 
 over them, and will not be increased in height 
 by reducing the velocity. On the contrary, if 
 the river could be made to discharge a large 
 portion of its burden by some other channel, 
 the depth upon the bars would be increased by 
 the action of the sea, which would then set 
 higher up, and if the river could be turned off 
 entirely, and let into Lake Borgne, the bars 
 which are thrown out by the Mississippi, and 
 maintained in the deep water of the gulf by 
 its power, would be swept off by the waves, 
 when a heavy sea would set into the mouth of 
 the river, unresisted by a descending flood. 
 
 The Bayou Plaquemine should be enlarged, 
 and the x^tchafalaya should be made the drain- 
 age course for the waters of Red river. Next 
 to the Lake Borgne outlet, the Atchafalaya 
 would be the most important, because it would 
 
132 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 draw off the waters at the highest accessible 
 point on the river. 
 
 I have quoted, at some length, from Charles 
 Ellet, one of the most scientific, practical and 
 distinguished civil engineers of his day. The 
 above extracts, from his great work on the 
 Mississippi river — published in 1853 — are es- 
 sentially verbatim ; and it is right that they 
 should be so made, as no one has ever more 
 intelligently investigated the Great River prob- 
 lem, or published views respecting it, more lu- 
 cidly or more logically. 
 
 The book is commended to those who rely 
 on the levee or jetty system alone for the re- 
 clamation of the delta lands from overflow. 
 
 Mr. Ellet does not attack the levee system. 
 It is one of the means that must be used, in 
 connection with the outlets, for a partial pres- 
 ervation of the low lands from inundation by 
 the floods of the river. 
 
 I quote further from this eminent engineer, 
 who, after suggesting various plans necessary 
 to be adopted, concludes as follows : 
 
 " But, while recommending these prompt 
 and vigorous measures, it is the duty of the 
 writer to express his conviction that, after all 
 these means of relief — carried as far as pru- 
 dence and a proper regard to economy and the 
 interests upon which this excess of water will 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 133 
 
 be turned — have been exhausted, they will be 
 found insufficient to secure even the State of 
 Louisiana against the floods which, at no dis- 
 tant day, will be poured down the Mississippi ; 
 while the great area, subject to inundation, in 
 the States of Arkansas and Mississippi, can 
 receive no sensible relief from any of these ex- 
 pedients but that of levees. 
 
 " To secure the whole delta it will be necessary" 
 to commence promptly and press vigorously the 
 great work of retaining the water in the mount- 
 ains. 
 
 " We come then to the question which is to 
 be decided by the enterprising men and reflect- 
 ing minds destined hereafter to cope with this 
 vast subject. Shall the upper states go on to 
 construct their levees, and raise them higher 
 and higher, as the water is found to rise in con- 
 sequence of their construction — endeavoring to 
 overco7ne by levees the difficulties mainly produced 
 by levees — doing work, daily, which will inevit- 
 ably lead to the necessity of more work to 
 render that work secure — or shall they begin 
 to adopt, in connection with that which pro- 
 duces so much incidental damage, a system of 
 protection which, at every step, will do some 
 good service to every interest ? Shall it con- 
 tinue to be the policy — the favored and exclu- 
 sive policy — to make whole provinces and 
 
134 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 counties depend for their salvation on the per- 
 fection of every part of several hundred miles 
 of embankment ; and to force every individual 
 to seek to protect himself against the efforts 
 of every interest above him? Shall this sys- 
 tem continue until the artificial banks of the 
 Mississppi shall rise in height with those of the 
 Po, and the populations in the low lands, be- 
 hind the intrenchments, along a coast of more 
 than a thousand miles, shall be in hourly 
 dread of crevasses of which the force will then 
 be irresistible ? In short, shall the aid of Con- 
 gress continue to be invoked, and the legisla- 
 tion of states to be directed, to the indefinite 
 prosecution of a scheme which adds to the 
 present distress at every step of its progress, 
 when the same results may be ultimately ob- 
 tained by a process which harmonises every in- 
 terest and does good to all, which will, at the 
 same time, protect the entire coasts of the Mis- 
 sissippi and the banks of its tributaries ; re- 
 claim the swamps of the whole delta, and im- 
 prove the navigation of every river of which 
 the floods are received by the Mississippi. 
 
 " But it may be asked when is this work to 
 be commenced, and how is it to be prosecuted, 
 to accomplish visible results over a field so im- 
 mense, in any reasonable time ? The public 
 mind has yet to be convinced that it is even 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 135 
 
 practicable to retain a sufficient volume of wa- 
 ter in the mountains to reduce the floods in 
 the Mississippi any sensible amount. It has, 
 it may be added, yet even to be persuaded to 
 reflect upon the practicability of the sugges- 
 tion. In the view of those accustomed to ad- 
 vocate and conduct difficult enterprises, it is 
 precisely the persuasion and conviction of the 
 public mind of the feasibility of a measure, 
 that constitutes its difficulty. When men re- 
 flect on any thing which has a solid basis of 
 truth, they have arrived near the point of con- 
 viction. 
 
 "It is not difficult to show that, to reduce 
 the floods of the Mississippi one foot, we must 
 draw off, or retain in reservoirs, about 20,000,- 
 000,000 cubic feet per week ; and that, to re- 
 tain this volume, will require a reservoir 1 10 
 feet deep and covering seven square miles. 
 Consequently it would not be difficult to show, 
 that, to reduce the floods twelve inches for a 
 space of sixty tlays, would require that nine 
 such reservoirs should be applied to that pur- 
 pose. It would not be difficult to show that 
 these reservoirs would retain water enough to 
 maintain the navigation of as many of the 
 most valuable rivers that flow into the Missis- 
 sippi from the east ; but, to bring the proof in 
 detail, will require surveys ; and to obtain such 
 
136 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 surveys, will require the confidence and action 
 of Congress. 
 
 " But when the minds of men are directed 
 to the fact that floods are increased by the de- 
 struction of the natural reservoirs of the delta, 
 it will not, perhaps, be difficult for them to ap- 
 preciate that they may also be reduced by the 
 creation of artificial and better reservoirs to re- 
 place those that are destroyed. 
 
 Under the operation of the causes which 
 have been explained, the course of nature has 
 been disturbed, and floods once regarded as 
 exceptions to the usual order of things, are 
 now of almost annual occurrence. Under the 
 operation of human agency, and nothing else, 
 the waters have been and are still being di- 
 verted from their course, and concentrated in 
 the great rivers ; and it is now proposed to 
 counteract the hurtful effects of this diversion, 
 by works of art, calculated first to restore, and 
 ultimately to improve, the natural regimen of 
 streams. 
 
 It is proposed, in short, to construct new 
 reservoirs to receive the increased drainage 
 produced by the plow, and to compensate for 
 those reservoirs which have been and are 
 about to be destroyed by the spade ; to sub- 
 stitute for the swamps, which have already re- 
 ceived the water oi overflow, capacious lakes 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 137 
 
 in the rock-bound valleys of the Allegany 
 and Rocky Mountains. It would seem to be 
 useless to demonstrate that such reservoirs 
 will be cheaper and more efficient than the 
 reservoir which has been formed by the river 
 itself, by the levees, and which can only be 
 made secure, by the maintenance of from two 
 to three thousand miles of embankment, reared 
 on a soil always liable to slip and to be under- 
 mined by the action of the pent-up water. 
 
 "Every effort should be made, while new 
 vents are being opened and guard levees con- 
 structed below, to retain the surplus water in 
 the lakes at the sources of the Mississippi and 
 Missouri, and along the course of Red river ; 
 while proper sites for reservoirs should be 
 sought in all the appropriate valleys of the 
 Alleghany, and ultimately those of the Rocky 
 Mountains. Surveys should be promptly insti- 
 tuted at the sources of the Monongahela, Alle- 
 ghany, Kanawha, Cumberland, and Tennessee, 
 and other tributaries of the Ohio, for the pur- 
 pose of ascertaining the most advantageous 
 sites for great reservoirs that will discharge 
 through their respective channels. That, in 
 the selection of these sites, regard be had pri- 
 marily to the supplying of the Ohio and the 
 greatest of its navigable tributaries with water 
 in the summer months; using the reservoirs 
 
138 Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 
 
 for the double purpose of withholding the 
 flood-water from the Mississippi when that 
 river is overflowing its banks, and supplying 
 the water so withheld to the Ohio itself, and 
 its navigable arms, when their navigation is 
 impeded by droughts. 
 
 "That these surveys be extended promptly 
 to Red river and its tributaries, for the twofold 
 purpose of applying the great lakes with which 
 that valley abounds to keeping back the 
 floods, and relieving summer navigation from 
 obstruction, by allowing the surplus so retained 
 to pass down in the season of low water. The 
 lakes in the valley of Red river may be turned 
 to good account in the prosecution of this 
 plan ; and the valleys of its tributary streams 
 are understood to afford remarkable opportun- 
 ities for the creation of great artificial reser- 
 voirs. 
 
 "The flood of 1849, by the destruction of 
 the cotton crop of Red river alone, was pro- 
 ductive of damage to the amount of five or six 
 millions of dollars, while less than half of this 
 sum would probably have sufficed to create 
 reservoirs sufficient for the permanent protec- 
 tion of all its valley, and the great relief of the 
 Mississippi delta from the mouth of Red river 
 to the sea. 
 
 " It is recommended that attention be first 
 
Life and Times of a Civil Engineer. 139 
 
 given to the control of the great navigable 
 tributaries which pass through the most highly 
 cultivated portions of the valley of the Missis- 
 sippi, because on these a double service can be 
 performed — the navigation can be improved 
 while the floods are arrested. But it is to be 
 recollected that, while this motive prompts us 
 to look to the distant arms, it is particularly 
 those streams which, like the Washita and the 
 Cumberland, discharge' nearest the point of 
 suffering, that add most injuriously to the 
 height of the floods of the Mississippi. 
 
 " It is not at all necessary to keep watch 
 upon the reservoirs to see that they perform 
 properly. It is perfectly practicable so to ad- 
 just their apertures that they may discharge 
 constantly and almost uniformly ; filling up 
 when the flood comes down and the supply is 
 in excess, and falling again when the sources 
 of supply begin to fail. The system, when 
 fully carried out, will be almost self-regulating." 
 
3/ 
 
 ~^ 
 
 
••