Grant's Canal – 1863

In January 1863, laborers and troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant resumed work on a canal begun in June 1862 as the second Union effort to bypass Vicksburg. They worked to create a ditch 60 feet wide and six feet deep, large enough to accommodate most Union boats, hoping it would force the river to change channels and bypass the city. Though the canal filled with water, it did not catch the scouring effect of the current and began to fill with sediment. High water flooded Union camps, illness afflicted soldiers and laborers, and Confederate guns at Vicksburg eventually drove away the Union dredges, ending the project after only a few weeks. More than 500 blacks labored on the excavation, though fewer than had been pressed into service there the previous year. At Grant’s approach, area planters fled with their families and the strongest of their slaves, leaving behind many who were old, sickly, or house servants. Even so, black labor on the canal signaled increasing importance to the Union war effort, while Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman admitted the canal “don’t amount to much.”

Delta, Louisiana · United States