Inasmuch as the soil in the neck
was wholly alluvial, the current cut its new channel with exceedingly
great rapidity, soon clearing it out a mile in width and more than one
hundred feet in depth. The water rushed through the channel with such
a velocity that steamboats could not breast its flow for many weeks,
while the roaring of its flood could be heard many miles away. The
influence of the cut-off was felt both above and below Vicksburg for
several years after. The rate of erosion has been perceptibly
increased above Vicksburg: and it is not unlikely that the cut-off
which occurred a few years later at Commerce, about thirty miles below
Memphis, was a result of Davis' Cut. Other recent cut-offs have
occurred near Arkansas City, below Greenville, near Duncansby, below
Lake Providence at Vicksburg, and at Kienstra. The latter place is
below Natchez; all the others are between Natchez and Memphis. A
double cut-off is strongly threatened at Greenville.]
In 1863 the city of Vicksburg was situated on the outer curve of such
a loop. At that time General Grant and his army were on the opposite
side of the river, and the whole power of the Federal government was
directed upon devising how the army might cross it and capture the
long-beleagured city.
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