Williams' Canal – 1862

In June 1862, Union troops began digging a one and a half mile canal across the foot of DeSoto Point to let the river adopt a new channel so Federal shipping could bypass Vicksburg instead of attacking the Confederate stronghold directly. Work began on June 27 under Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams, and to speed the effort the Federals pressed more than 1,200 blacks from area plantations into service alongside the soldiers. For a month, laborers and soldiers toiled but were reduced by sickness and hampered by falling water levels; sun stroke, diarrhea, and malaria afflicted both groups, and hundreds died. On July 24, with more than half the work force incapacitated, Williams abandoned the project. Most of the canal lay just beyond the effective range of the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, but the Confederates built new batteries to fire on the canal's mouth below the city, so even if the canal had been completed, artillery fire would have made its use extremely hazardous. Williams died at the battle of Baton Rouge on August 5, 1862, only weeks after abandoning the canal project.

Delta, Louisiana · United States