1852A.L.Shotwell made the run in 5421852Eclipse ""5421854Sultana ""4511860Atlantic ""5111860Gen.Quitman ""561865Ruth ""4431870R.E.Lee ""459FROM NEW ORLEANS TO ST.LOUIS--1,218MILES
D.H.M.
1844J.M.White made the run in 32391849Missouri ""4191869Dexter ""491870Natchez ""321581870R.E.Lee ""31814FROM LOUISVILLE TO CINCINNATI--141MILES
D.H.M.
1819Gen.Pike made the run in 1161819Paragon ""114201822Wheeling Packet ""1101837Moselle ""121843Duke of Orleans ""121843Congress ""12201846Ben Franklin (No.6)"11451852Alleghaney ""10381852Pittsburgh ""10231853Telegraph No.3""952FROM LOUISVILLE TO ST.LOUIS-750--MILES
D.H.M.
1843Congress made the run in 211854Pike ""1231854Northerner ""122301855Southemer ""119FROM CINCINNATI TO PITTSBURGH--490MILES
D.H.
1850Telegraph No.2made the run in 1171851Buckeye State ""1161852Pittsburgh ""115FROM ST.LOUIS TO ALTON--30MILES
D.H
1853Altona made the run in 1351876Golden Eagle ""1371876War Eagle ""137MISCELLANEOUS RUNS
In June,1859,the St.Louis and Keokuk Packet,City of Louisiana,made the run from St.Louis to Keokuk (214miles)in 16hours and 20minutes,the best time on record.
In 1868the steamer Hawkeye State,of the Northern Packet Company,made the run from St.Louis to St.Paul (800miles)in 2days and 20hours.
Never was beaten.
In 1853the steamer Polar Star made the run from St.Louis to St.Joseph,on the Missouri River,in 64hours.In July,1856,the steamer Jas.
H.Lucas,Andy Wineland,Master,made the same run in 60hours and 57minutes.The distance between the ports is 600miles,and when the difficulties of navigating the turbulent Missouri are taken into consideration,the performance of the Lucas deserves especial mention.
THE RUN OF THE ROBERT E.LEE
The time made by the R.E.Lee from New Orleans to St.Louis in 1870,in her famous race with the Natchez,is the best on record,and,inasmuch as the race created a national interest,we give below her time table from port to port.
Left New Orleans,Thursday,June 30th,1870,at 4o'clock and 55minutes,p.m.;reached D.H.M.
Carrollton 27
Harry Hills 100
Red Church 139
Bonnet Carre 238
College Point 350
Donaldsonville 459
Plaquemine 705
Baton Rouge 825
Bayou Sara 1026
Red River 1256
Stamps 1356
Bryaro 1551
Hinderson's 1629
Natchez 1711
Cole's Creek 1921
Waterproof 1853
Rodney 2045
St.Joseph 2102
Grand Gulf 2206
Hard Times 2218
Half Mile below Warrenton 1
Vicksburg 138
Milliken's Bend 1237
Bailey's 1348
Lake Providence 1547
Greenville 11055
Napoleon 11622
White River 11656
Australia 119
Helena 12325
Half Mile Below St.Francis 2
Memphis 269
Foot of Island 3729
Foot of Island 2621330
Tow-head,Island 1421723
New Madrid 21950
Dry Bar No.1022037
Foot of Island 822125
Upper Tow-head--Lucas Bend 3
Cairo 31
St.Louis 31814
The Lee landed at St.Louis at 11.25A.M.,on July 4th,1870--6hours and 36minutes ahead of the Natchez.The officers of the Natchez claimed 7hours and 1minute stoppage on account of fog and repairing machinery.
The R.E.Lee was commanded by Captain John W.Cannon,and the Natchez was in charge of that veteran Southern boatman,Captain Thomas P.Leathers.
Chapter 17
Cut-offs and Stephen THESE dry details are of importance in one particular.
They give me an opportunity of introducing one of the Mississippi's oddest peculiarities,--that of shortening its length from time to time.
If you will throw a long,pliant apple-paring over your shoulder,it will pretty fairly shape itself into an average section of the Mississippi River;that is,the nine or ten hundred miles stretching from Cairo,Illinois,southward to New Orleans,the same being wonderfully crooked,with a brief straight bit here and there at wide intervals.The two hundred-mile stretch from Cairo northward to St.Louis is by no means so crooked,that being a rocky country which the river cannot cut much.
The water cuts the alluvial banks of the 'lower'river into deep horseshoe curves;so deep,indeed,that in some places if you were to get ashore at one extremity of the horseshoe and walk across the neck,half or three quarters of a mile,you could sit down and rest a couple of hours while your steamer was coming around the long elbow,at a speed of ten miles an hour,to take you aboard again.
When the river is rising fast,some scoundrel whose plantation is back in the country,and therefore of inferior value,has only to watch his chance,cut a little gutter across the narrow neck of land some dark night,and turn the water into it,and in a wonderfully short time a miracle has happened:to wit,the whole Mississippi has taken possession of that little ditch,and placed the countryman's plantation on its bank (quadrupling its value),and that other party's formerly valuable plantation finds itself away out yonder on a big island;the old watercourse around it will soon shoal up,boats cannot approach within ten miles of it,and down goes its value to a fourth of its former worth.
Watches are kept on those narrow necks,at needful times,and if a man happens to be caught cutting a ditch across them,the chances are all against his ever having another opportunity to cut a ditch.
Pray observe some of the effects of this ditching business.
Once there was a neck opposite Port Hudson,Louisiana,which was only half a mile across,in its narrowest place.You could walk across there in fifteen minutes;but if you made the journey around the cape on a raft,you traveled thirty-five miles to accomplish the same thing.
In 1722the river darted through that neck,deserted its old bed,and thus shortened itself thirty-five miles.In the same way it shortened itself twenty-five miles at Black Hawk Point in 1699.
Below Red River Landing,Raccourci cut-off was made (forty or fifty years ago,I think).This shortened the river twenty-eight miles.
