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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31889-h.zip b/31889-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aecbd42 --- /dev/null +++ b/31889-h.zip diff --git a/31889-h/31889-h.htm b/31889-h/31889-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9396a1d --- /dev/null +++ b/31889-h/31889-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,808 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874: Its Extent, Duration and Effects, by Louis Alfred Wiltz. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874, by Louis A. Wiltz + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874 + Its Extent, Duration, and Effects + +Author: Louis A. Wiltz + +Release Date: April 5, 2010 [EBook #31889] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSISSIPPI FLOOD OF 1874 *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was +produced from scans of public domain works at the University +of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h3>THE GREAT</h3> +<h2>MISSISSIPPI FLOOD</h2> +<h3>OF 1874.</h3> +<h3>ITS EXTENT, DURATION AND EFFECTS.</h3> +<p> </p> + +<h4>A CIRCULAR FROM</h4> +<h3>MAYOR WILTZ, OF NEW ORLEANS,</h3> +<h5>TO THE</h5> +<h4>MAYORS OF AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS,</h4> +<h5>AND TO THE PHILANTHROPIC THROUGHOUT THE</h5> +<h5>REPUBLIC, IN BEHALF OF</h5> +<h3>SEVENTY THOUSAND SUFFERERS</h3> +<h4>IN LOUISIANA ALONE.</h4> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h5>NEW ORLEANS:<br />PICAYUNE STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINT, 66 CAMP STREET.<br />1874</h5> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h3>MAYORALTY OF NEW ORLEANS.</h3> + +<p class="right">NEW ORLEANS, <span class="smcap">May</span> 30th, 1874.</p> + +<p>On the 25th instant, the kind favor of the Western Union Telegraph Company +enabled me to send to the Mayors of thirty-four large American cities the +following dispatch:</p> + +<p>“By request of Relief Committee and leading citizens, I again call on +American <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'cites'">cities</ins> in behalf of fifty-four thousand victims of the great +flood, for such aid as your prosperity may permit or your philanthropy +prompt you to grant. Contributions in cash and provisions in thirty-five +days have been less than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. In +fifteen days our means will be exhausted. The demand for relief will +continue great and urgent for many weeks. Daily rations have been +distributed to about forty-five thousand—eight thousand furnished by the +Government. Painful anxiety as to the results is general.</p> + +<p>“Nothing but large increase of resources for relief can prevent the +horrors of famine and great loss of life. We need a million of dollars +more. Details will be given by mail.</p> + +<p class="right">LOUIS A. WILTZ,<br /> +Mayor and Treasurer of Relief Fund.”</p> + +<p> </p> +<p>To give the information promised, to extend the appeal to many other cites +and to towns and corporate institutions, to enlist the aid of +<ins class="correction" title="original reads 'philantrophic'">philanthropic</ins> journalists and to lay before the members of the national +legislature a statement of facts for their guidance, I issue this +circular, with the hope that the great and increasing distress and danger +in which the inhabitants of the overflowed regions now are may thus be +made more widely known and the situation better understood.</p> + +<p>The Mississippi River in average high water from Memphis to the Gulf is +confined by artificial banks or levees to a channel, varying from half a +mile to a mile in width. But for these embankments the unparalleled flood +of this year would have formed, for all this distance, a continuous lake, +covering the whole alluvial country, from twenty-five miles to one hundred +and seventy-five miles in width, and more than six hundred miles long. But +in spite of these levees, considerably more than one-half of this area has +been submerged. The levees could not withstand the Mississippi in its +mighty and ruthless violence, and they gave way in numerous crevasses, +varying from one hundred to five thousand feet in width, aggregating fully +six miles. Through these great chasms the flood has been pouring since the +15th April, in a stream seven feet in average depth and at the rate of +more than seven miles an hour. More water is even now flowing from the +great river over the farms and plantations of Arkansas, Mississippi and +Louisiana, than falls over Niagara. This outflow must continue until the +river recedes below its natural banks, an indefinite period. In some years +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>high water has lasted a long time. In 1858 the river remained at its +maximum 87 days and in 1859 at Vicksburg, 129 days. The flood of 1874, is +higher than either, or than any on record.</p> + +<p>The vast area of the overflow is estimated as follows by Wm. J. McCulloh, +Esq.: formerly and for many years United States Surveyor General for +Louisiana, a practical engineer and especially familiar with the inundated +districts.</p> + +<p>“I estimate the area submerged by crevasses, and overflow by high and back +water, to be in <i>Louisiana</i> about 8,065,000 acres, or 12,600 square miles. +It is impossible, in many places, to define the line of separation between +the crevasse and overflow water—the former soon reaching the flat land +mingles with the latter.</p> + +<p>“This overflow extents over all, or nearly all of each of the following +parishes: Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Concordia, Avoyelles, Point Coupee, +West Baton Rouge, Iberville, St. Martin, larger part of New Iberia and of +St. Mary, Terrebonne, larger part of Lafourche, Ascension, St. Charles, +St. John Baptiste, Jefferson, St. Bernard, part of Plaquemine, Morehouse, +Richland, Catahoula, Franklin, Caldwell, Ouachita, and St. Landry.</p> + +<p>“Were it not for the levees, the whole of the lands west of the +Mississippi river, with a belt say of 35 miles from the Arkansas line to +Red River—those west of the Atchafalaya, with a breadth of 15 miles from +Red River to the Gulf—all from Red River to the Gulf west of the +Mississippi river and east of the Atchafalaya—and all east of the river +from Baton Rouge to the sea—these including a large part of the cotton +region and very nearly all of the section cultivated in rice and sugar, +and embracing the city of New Orleans, <i>would be annually submerged</i>, +being about one sixth of the area of the State, and the most fertile and +valuable part of it.</p> + +<p>“In Mississippi the submerged district is about 2,500,000 acres, and with +the exception of a narrow depth of high land fronting the Mississippi +river has an average width of about 30 miles, and a length of 130 miles, +stretching from Alcorn’s landing, in Coahuma county, to Vicksburg, being +in that county; in Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Isaquena and Warren +counties, and comprising what is known as the Yazoo and Mississippi Delta, +bounded on the east by the Yazoo river, and the highlands, about 15 miles +east of the Sunflower river, in the very heart of the richest cotton +region of that State.</p> + +<p>“In Arkansas the overflow from opposite to Memphis to Helena (about 100 +miles direct) has an average width of 40 miles, being all of the county of +Crittenden, part of St. Francis and of Phillipps; and from Helena to the +Louisiana line, has an average width of 30 miles, being part of Arkansas +and Desha Counties, and all of Chicot. To the interior, it covers part of +Ouachita, Calhoun, and Union Counties, bordering on the Ouachita river, +and has on either side of the White and Arkansas rivers a width of 20 +miles. As nearly as I can estimate, the overflowed portion of Arkansas +would be about 2,000,000 acres.”</p> + +<p class="right">W. J. McCULLOH.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="acres"> +<tr><td>In Louisiana</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right">8,065,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>In Mississippi</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td>In Arkansas</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,000,000</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right">————</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right">12,565,060</td><td>acres.</td></tr></table> + +<p>The inundation, beginning two months ago, reached enormous and alarming +proportions by April 16th, continued spreading until May 15th, and only +began to show signs of receding about May 20th. Several weeks must pass +before now submerged lands become tillable, perhaps one-third by June +20th, one-third more by the 10th July, the remainder in some indefinite +time longer and too late for any crop this year.</p> + +<p>As to the condition in which the subsiding flood will leave the sufferers, +I quote from a recent published letter of the Hon. J. M. Sandidge, of our +Relief Committee, who hears or reads the appeals of the distressed and who +is well acquainted with the overflowed region and the situation of the +inhabitants.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The few mules, horses and cattle preserved from the flood will be +unfit for any immediate service, and must continue to live, if they +live at all, upon the leaves, moss and cane tops, until such time as +the grass can grow again.</p> + +<p>The people, with nothing now, will have no more when the water +subsides; and cannot have until the land can be made to yield its +fruits. How are they to be fed and supported until such time?</p> + +<p>Death by famine on the dry, but barren ground, would be quite as +terrible as to have been swallowed up in the waters!</p> + +<p>The Relief Committee see and understand all this, and it is a source +of the most sickening anxiety to know that they will be impotent to +avert what seems inevitable. The people, as rapidly as possible, and +under whatever circumstances, hardships and sacrifices, must begin +quickly to make arrangements for themselves by engaging for food and +raiment alone, to work, wherever work on such terms can be had; and +if not to be had in their present neighborhoods, to seek it in more +distant places, if able to reach them. It is true that a great part +of the most helpless and destitute would be, by such policy, left +where they are, to live upon public charities, or perish in the +swamps.</p> + +<p>Nothing less than $1,000,000 in supplies will enable these people to +re-commence and continue to labor where they are, until the earliest +products of the soil can give subsistence, and if not sustained to +that extent who shall say what crimes may not be committed, if crime +it could be called, in the desperation of these starving thousands, +thrown upon communities, now barely self-supporting? This is a gloomy +picture truly, but it is best always to look dangers straight in the +face, and see them in their full proportions, if they are to be +averted. However generous the people of the country, and of the +cities and towns might be, adequate relief from such quarters, could +not be depended on; there can be no sufficient aid extended, except +through the bounty of the General Government. </p></div> + +<p>The contributions in money to our relief fund amount to about one hundred +and fifty thousand dollars. Donations in provisions from Western cities +received before May 29th were, 585 barrels of flour, 218 sacks flour, 54 +barrels crackers, 13 half-barrels crackers, 239 barrels meal, 41 boxes +crackers, 79 barrels pork, 74,631 pounds bacon, 23 barrels beef, 76 +barrels beans, 41 barrels potatoes, together with a shipment from +Lexington<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>, Kentucky, of 25 barrels flour, 29 barrels of meal, 900 pounds +bacon, 14 sacks of potatoes, 2 barrels sugar, 2 bales and 1 box +merchandize, 2 boxes shoes, 1 box clothing. The list of donations includes +many valuable articles not above given, consisting of garden seeds, cotton +seed, seed corn, clothing, &c. Extensive shipments of provisions have also +been announced from Cincinnati, making the total value of donations for +relief, not cash, about thirty-five thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>Up to May 22nd, there had been received from the U. S. Commissary, 608 +barrels pork, 1864 barrels army bread, 112 barrels beans, 658 barrels +meal, and 87,092 pounds bacon. From this source are obtained 8000 daily +rations, which will be continued until June 15th, or longer.</p> + +<p>Our total shipments to May 29th, were:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="shipments"> +<tr><td align="right">1,767</td><td>barrels</td><td>pork</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right">411,260</td><td>rations.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">201,132</td><td>pounds</td><td>bacon</td><td> </td><td align="right">361,509</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">7,512</td><td>barrels</td><td>meal</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,201,920</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">3,782</td><td align="center">"</td><td>crackers</td><td> </td><td align="right">321,470</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">922</td><td align="center">"</td><td>flour</td><td> </td><td align="right">163,194</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">279</td><td align="center">"</td><td>beans</td><td> </td><td align="right">418,500</td><td align="center">"</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">59</td><td align="center">"</td><td colspan="4">seed potatoes—175 sacks of salt.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">470</td><td colspan="5">sacks cotton seed—700 sacks seed corn.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">19</td><td colspan="5">cases garden seeds—16 cases drugs and sundries.</td></tr></table> + +<p>Our committee have been shipping supplies thirty days, ending May 29th, +averaging 56,219 rations daily which have subsisted at least 70,000 +people, the local agents of distribution having been instructed to reduce +their <i>per capita</i> issues. With this economy we cannot continue relief to +the above numbers with only our present resources beyond the 15th of June.</p> + +<p>Be not deceived by the falls which may take place in the Mississippi, and +be reported from time to time. The waters of the overflow do not drain off +by the river’s channel nor return to it, but flow to the Gulf of Mexico +along the great lake above described. The cultivated lands in the Ouachita +and Atchafalaya valleys or basins are from five to fifteen feet below the +level of the natural banks of the Mississippi. When the river has fallen +ten feet the corresponding fall of the flood waters is not ten inches. The +great inundation will subside not faster than one or two inches each day, +uncovering the land by degrees so slow and tedious as to weary the hopes +and sicken the hearts of the owners and tillers of the soil.</p> + +<p>I have given and described, as nearly as reasonable limits will permit, +the cause, the nature, the extent, the consequences and the probable +duration of the flood. I will let this statement have what effect it may +upon the moral sense, the philanthropy and the magnanimity of the American +people. I could give details and incidents, a few out of thousands of the +same nature that world produce emotions of pity and horror. Such is not my +purpose. I show you what is needed to prevent intense misery, famine and +death; I leave the rest to your honor as men, to your pride as Americans +and to your sense of duty as Christians. While there are such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> fruits of +prosperity and such stores of accumulated riches, you cannot afford to let +it be recorded in our common history that thousands of people in 1874 +<span class="smcaplc">STARVED TO DEATH</span> on the borders of the Mississippi, for the want of one +fifty thousandth part of the aggregate wealth of their countrymen.</p> + +<p>I append an interesting letter of Hon. Henry G. Crowell, Commissioner of +Relief from Boston, for further information and in testimony of the +faithful, systematic, vigorous and effectual operations of our Committees +of Relief.</p> + +<p class="right">LOUIS A. WILTZ, Mayor,<br /> +Chairman of General Relief Committee and Treasurer of Relief Fund.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p class="right">LETTER OF HON. HENRY G. CROWELL,<br /> +New Orleans, May 16th, 1874.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hon. Louis A. Wiltz, Mayor:</span></p> + +<p>Dear Sir—I arrived here on the 11th instant, bearing credentials as +Commissioner of the Mayor of Boston and of the Boston Committee in charge +of subscription for the relief of sufferers in Louisiana by the flood. I +came for the purpose of ascertaining what further assistance the citizens +of Boston can render towards alleviating the necessities of the suffering, +and restoring your ancient prosperity. I was immediately put in +communication with the members of the General Committee of Relief, +appointed by you, with those of the several subsidiary committees, and +with many intelligent citizens, from whom and from eminent professional +engineers made diligent enquiry as to the area of the country overflowed, +the number of people made destitute by this stupendous calamity, the +extent of damage to crops and live stock, the probable continuance of the +inundation, the nature and amount of relief absolutely necessary to +prevent loss of life by famine, and as to the plan of relief adopted here.</p> + +<p>I am grieved to find the overflow to be wider in extent, more disastrous +in effect, and causing distress and destitution to far greater extent than +represented by you in your first appeal for aid from the chief cities of +the Union—greater than is generally believed and greater than can be +conceived of by those not familiar with the nature of the vast flat +alluvial region which the waters of the Mississippi and its lower branches +now cover. The calamity surpasses in extent and ruinous consequences any +that has occurred from fire, storm or flood on this continent during the +current century.</p> + +<p>To see for myself the nature of the great inundation, I went to Brashear, +eighty miles west of New Orleans—the last twenty-three miles through an +unbroken flood which pours from the distant crevasses on the Mississippi, +and devastates an immense region. I shall not here relate what I saw, but +it was sufficient to give me a realizing sense of the magnitude and +destructiveness of the great flood, and of the reasons why the suffering, +destitution and danger caused by it, must continue for a long time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>I have made careful examination of the workings of your committees of +relief, which I am pleased to find composed of citizens of high character +and distinguished ability, who labor zealously and constantly in the noble +work to which you have called them. Their method of purchasing and +forwarding supplies, and their rules and regulations for the distribution +of relief met my approval in all respects. By the system adopted the +donations of the charitable are sure to do the most good to those who are +made destitute by the flood. Wise precaution is taken to avoid the +encouragement of idleness by strictly <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'witholding'">withholding</ins> relief from such as find +work on lands not overflowed, and who refuse to labor; a precaution which +I commend and approve. Careful, systematic economy is employed in all +relief measures.</p> + +<p>At their request and yours, I have examined your accounts as Treasurer of +the relief fund and the accounts and vouchers of the committees, finding +all correct and in order. By a well organized system everything received +is properly accounted for and promptly applied. I am pleased to say that +you and the members of your committees have shown much executive and +administrative ability, and that the disposition of contributions has been +so careful and so judicious as to merit entire confidence.</p> + +<p>You have done and, I am sure, will continue to do all that can be done for +the sufferers with the means which the <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'philantropic'">philanthropic</ins> put in your hands. I +can suggest no improvement in your method.</p> + +<p>I cannot close without advising you to renew your appeal for help. Your +resources for the required relief are altogether insufficient. Put before +the people of America the leading facts relating to this unprecedented and +enormous visitation of calamity. A true knowledge of the great danger and +suffering of your afflicted people will awaken wealthy and prosperous +States, cities, churches and associations to an active sense of their +duty. While there is such prosperity and abundance of means everywhere +else, these poor victims of the flood must not be left to starve.</p> + +<p>Please accept for yourself, and extend to all others whom I have met here, +my thanks for the very many courtesies and kind attentions which I have +received at your hands and theirs.</p> + +<p>Hoping to visit you under more prosperous auspices. I remain</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Yours very respectfully,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">HENRY G. CROWELL.</span></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874, by +Louis A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874 + Its Extent, Duration, and Effects + +Author: Louis A. Wiltz + +Release Date: April 5, 2010 [EBook #31889] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSISSIPPI FLOOD OF 1874 *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was +produced from scans of public domain works at the University +of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + + + + + + THE GREAT + MISSISSIPPI FLOOD + OF 1874. + ITS EXTENT, DURATION AND EFFECTS. + + + A CIRCULAR FROM + MAYOR WILTZ, OF NEW ORLEANS, + + + TO THE + MAYORS OF AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS, + AND TO THE PHILANTHROPIC THROUGHOUT THE + REPUBLIC, IN BEHALF OF + SEVENTY THOUSAND SUFFERERS + IN LOUISIANA ALONE. + + + + NEW ORLEANS: + PICAYUNE STEAM BOOK AND JOB PRINT, 66 CAMP STREET. + 1874 + + + + +MAYORALTY OF NEW ORLEANS. + +NEW ORLEANS, MAY 30th, 1874. + +On the 25th instant, the kind favor of the Western Union Telegraph Company +enabled me to send to the Mayors of thirty-four large American cities the +following dispatch: + +"By request of Relief Committee and leading citizens, I again call on +American cities in behalf of fifty-four thousand victims of the great +flood, for such aid as your prosperity may permit or your philanthropy +prompt you to grant. Contributions in cash and provisions in thirty-five +days have been less than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. In +fifteen days our means will be exhausted. The demand for relief will +continue great and urgent for many weeks. Daily rations have been +distributed to about forty-five thousand--eight thousand furnished by the +Government. Painful anxiety as to the results is general. + +"Nothing but large increase of resources for relief can prevent the +horrors of famine and great loss of life. We need a million of dollars +more. Details will be given by mail. + + LOUIS A. WILTZ, + Mayor and Treasurer of Relief Fund." + + +To give the information promised, to extend the appeal to many other +cities and to towns and corporate institutions, to enlist the aid of +philanthropic journalists and to lay before the members of the national +legislature a statement of facts for their guidance, I issue this +circular, with the hope that the great and increasing distress and danger +in which the inhabitants of the overflowed regions now are may thus be +made more widely known and the situation better understood. + +The Mississippi River in average high water from Memphis to the Gulf is +confined by artificial banks or levees to a channel, varying from half a +mile to a mile in width. But for these embankments the unparalleled flood +of this year would have formed, for all this distance, a continuous lake, +covering the whole alluvial country, from twenty-five miles to one hundred +and seventy-five miles in width, and more than six hundred miles long. But +in spite of these levees, considerably more than one-half of this area has +been submerged. The levees could not withstand the Mississippi in its +mighty and ruthless violence, and they gave way in numerous crevasses, +varying from one hundred to five thousand feet in width, aggregating fully +six miles. Through these great chasms the flood has been pouring since the +15th April, in a stream seven feet in average depth and at the rate of +more than seven miles an hour. More water is even now flowing from the +great river over the farms and plantations of Arkansas, Mississippi and +Louisiana, than falls over Niagara. This outflow must continue until the +river recedes below its natural banks, an indefinite period. In some years +high water has lasted a long time. In 1858 the river remained at its +maximum 87 days and in 1859 at Vicksburg, 129 days. The flood of 1874, is +higher than either, or than any on record. + +The vast area of the overflow is estimated as follows by Wm. J. McCulloh, +Esq.: formerly and for many years United States Surveyor General for +Louisiana, a practical engineer and especially familiar with the inundated +districts. + +"I estimate the area submerged by crevasses, and overflow by high and back +water, to be in _Louisiana_ about 8,065,000 acres, or 12,600 square miles. +It is impossible, in many places, to define the line of separation between +the crevasse and overflow water--the former soon reaching the flat land +mingles with the latter. + +"This overflow extents over all, or nearly all of each of the following +parishes: Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Concordia, Avoyelles, Point Coupee, +West Baton Rouge, Iberville, St. Martin, larger part of New Iberia and of +St. Mary, Terrebonne, larger part of Lafourche, Ascension, St. Charles, +St. John Baptiste, Jefferson, St. Bernard, part of Plaquemine, Morehouse, +Richland, Catahoula, Franklin, Caldwell, Ouachita, and St. Landry. + +"Were it not for the levees, the whole of the lands west of the +Mississippi river, with a belt say of 35 miles from the Arkansas line to +Red River--those west of the Atchafalaya, with a breadth of 15 miles from +Red River to the Gulf--all from Red River to the Gulf west of the +Mississippi river and east of the Atchafalaya--and all east of the river +from Baton Rouge to the sea--these including a large part of the cotton +region and very nearly all of the section cultivated in rice and sugar, +and embracing the city of New Orleans, _would be annually submerged_, +being about one sixth of the area of the State, and the most fertile and +valuable part of it. + +"In Mississippi the submerged district is about 2,500,000 acres, and with +the exception of a narrow depth of high land fronting the Mississippi +river has an average width of about 30 miles, and a length of 130 miles, +stretching from Alcorn's landing, in Coahuma county, to Vicksburg, being +in that county; in Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Isaquena and Warren +counties, and comprising what is known as the Yazoo and Mississippi Delta, +bounded on the east by the Yazoo river, and the highlands, about 15 miles +east of the Sunflower river, in the very heart of the richest cotton +region of that State. + +"In Arkansas the overflow from opposite to Memphis to Helena (about 100 +miles direct) has an average width of 40 miles, being all of the county of +Crittenden, part of St. Francis and of Phillipps; and from Helena to the +Louisiana line, has an average width of 30 miles, being part of Arkansas +and Desha Counties, and all of Chicot. To the interior, it covers part of +Ouachita, Calhoun, and Union Counties, bordering on the Ouachita river, +and has on either side of the White and Arkansas rivers a width of 20 +miles. As nearly as I can estimate, the overflowed portion of Arkansas +would be about 2,000,000 acres." + +W. J. McCULLOH. + + + In Louisiana 8,065,000 + In Mississippi 2,500,000 + In Arkansas 2,000,000 + --------- + 12,565,060 acres. + +The inundation, beginning two months ago, reached enormous and alarming +proportions by April 16th, continued spreading until May 15th, and only +began to show signs of receding about May 20th. Several weeks must pass +before now submerged lands become tillable, perhaps one-third by June +20th, one-third more by the 10th July, the remainder in some indefinite +time longer and too late for any crop this year. + +As to the condition in which the subsiding flood will leave the sufferers, +I quote from a recent published letter of the Hon. J. M. Sandidge, of our +Relief Committee, who hears or reads the appeals of the distressed and who +is well acquainted with the overflowed region and the situation of the +inhabitants. + + The few mules, horses and cattle preserved from the flood will be + unfit for any immediate service, and must continue to live, if they + live at all, upon the leaves, moss and cane tops, until such time as + the grass can grow again. + + The people, with nothing now, will have no more when the water + subsides; and cannot have until the land can be made to yield its + fruits. How are they to be fed and supported until such time? + + Death by famine on the dry, but barren ground, would be quite as + terrible as to have been swallowed up in the waters! + + The Relief Committee see and understand all this, and it is a source + of the most sickening anxiety to know that they will be impotent to + avert what seems inevitable. The people, as rapidly as possible, and + under whatever circumstances, hardships and sacrifices, must begin + quickly to make arrangements for themselves by engaging for food and + raiment alone, to work, wherever work on such terms can be had; and + if not to be had in their present neighborhoods, to seek it in more + distant places, if able to reach them. It is true that a great part + of the most helpless and destitute would be, by such policy, left + where they are, to live upon public charities, or perish in the + swamps. + + Nothing less than $1,000,000 in supplies will enable these people to + re-commence and continue to labor where they are, until the earliest + products of the soil can give subsistence, and if not sustained to + that extent who shall say what crimes may not be committed, if crime + it could be called, in the desperation of these starving thousands, + thrown upon communities, now barely self-supporting? This is a gloomy + picture truly, but it is best always to look dangers straight in the + face, and see them in their full proportions, if they are to be + averted. However generous the people of the country, and of the + cities and towns might be, adequate relief from such quarters, could + not be depended on; there can be no sufficient aid extended, except + through the bounty of the General Government. + +The contributions in money to our relief fund amount to about one hundred +and fifty thousand dollars. Donations in provisions from Western cities +received before May 29th were, 585 barrels of flour, 218 sacks flour, 54 +barrels crackers, 13 half-barrels crackers, 239 barrels meal, 41 boxes +crackers, 79 barrels pork, 74,631 pounds bacon, 23 barrels beef, 76 +barrels beans, 41 barrels potatoes, together with a shipment from +Lexington, Kentucky, of 25 barrels flour, 29 barrels of meal, 900 pounds +bacon, 14 sacks of potatoes, 2 barrels sugar, 2 bales and 1 box +merchandize, 2 boxes shoes, 1 box clothing. The list of donations includes +many valuable articles not above given, consisting of garden seeds, cotton +seed, seed corn, clothing, &c. Extensive shipments of provisions have also +been announced from Cincinnati, making the total value of donations for +relief, not cash, about thirty-five thousand dollars. + +Up to May 22nd, there had been received from the U. S. Commissary, 608 +barrels pork, 1864 barrels army bread, 112 barrels beans, 658 barrels +meal, and 87,092 pounds bacon. From this source are obtained 8000 daily +rations, which will be continued until June 15th, or longer. + +Our total shipments to May 29th, were: + + 1,767 barrels pork 411,260 rations. + 201,132 pounds bacon 361,509 " + 7,512 barrels meal 1,201,920 " + 3,782 " crackers 321,470 " + 922 " flour 163,194 " + 279 " beans 418,500 " + 59 " seed potatoes--175 sacks of salt. + 470 sacks cotton seed--700 sacks seed corn. + 19 cases garden seeds--16 cases drugs and sundries. + +Our committee have been shipping supplies thirty days, ending May 29th, +averaging 56,219 rations daily which have subsisted at least 70,000 +people, the local agents of distribution having been instructed to reduce +their _per capita_ issues. With this economy we cannot continue relief to +the above numbers with only our present resources beyond the 15th of June. + +Be not deceived by the falls which may take place in the Mississippi, and +be reported from time to time. The waters of the overflow do not drain off +by the river's channel nor return to it, but flow to the Gulf of Mexico +along the great lake above described. The cultivated lands in the Ouachita +and Atchafalaya valleys or basins are from five to fifteen feet below the +level of the natural banks of the Mississippi. When the river has fallen +ten feet the corresponding fall of the flood waters is not ten inches. The +great inundation will subside not faster than one or two inches each day, +uncovering the land by degrees so slow and tedious as to weary the hopes +and sicken the hearts of the owners and tillers of the soil. + +I have given and described, as nearly as reasonable limits will permit, +the cause, the nature, the extent, the consequences and the probable +duration of the flood. I will let this statement have what effect it may +upon the moral sense, the philanthropy and the magnanimity of the American +people. I could give details and incidents, a few out of thousands of the +same nature that world produce emotions of pity and horror. Such is not my +purpose. I show you what is needed to prevent intense misery, famine and +death; I leave the rest to your honor as men, to your pride as Americans +and to your sense of duty as Christians. While there are such fruits of +prosperity and such stores of accumulated riches, you cannot afford to let +it be recorded in our common history that thousands of people in 1874 +STARVED TO DEATH on the borders of the Mississippi, for the want of one +fifty thousandth part of the aggregate wealth of their countrymen. + +I append an interesting letter of Hon. Henry G. Crowell, Commissioner of +Relief from Boston, for further information and in testimony of the +faithful, systematic, vigorous and effectual operations of our Committees +of Relief. + + LOUIS A. WILTZ, Mayor, + Chairman of General Relief Committee and Treasurer of Relief Fund. + + + LETTER OF HON. HENRY G. CROWELL, } + New Orleans, May 16th, 1874. } + +HON. LOUIS A. WILTZ, MAYOR: + +Dear Sir--I arrived here on the 11th instant, bearing credentials as +Commissioner of the Mayor of Boston and of the Boston Committee in charge +of subscription for the relief of sufferers in Louisiana by the flood. I +came for the purpose of ascertaining what further assistance the citizens +of Boston can render towards alleviating the necessities of the suffering, +and restoring your ancient prosperity. I was immediately put in +communication with the members of the General Committee of Relief, +appointed by you, with those of the several subsidiary committees, and +with many intelligent citizens, from whom and from eminent professional +engineers made diligent enquiry as to the area of the country overflowed, +the number of people made destitute by this stupendous calamity, the +extent of damage to crops and live stock, the probable continuance of the +inundation, the nature and amount of relief absolutely necessary to +prevent loss of life by famine, and as to the plan of relief adopted here. + +I am grieved to find the overflow to be wider in extent, more disastrous +in effect, and causing distress and destitution to far greater extent than +represented by you in your first appeal for aid from the chief cities of +the Union--greater than is generally believed and greater than can be +conceived of by those not familiar with the nature of the vast flat +alluvial region which the waters of the Mississippi and its lower branches +now cover. The calamity surpasses in extent and ruinous consequences any +that has occurred from fire, storm or flood on this continent during the +current century. + +To see for myself the nature of the great inundation, I went to Brashear, +eighty miles west of New Orleans--the last twenty-three miles through an +unbroken flood which pours from the distant crevasses on the Mississippi, +and devastates an immense region. I shall not here relate what I saw, but +it was sufficient to give me a realizing sense of the magnitude and +destructiveness of the great flood, and of the reasons why the suffering, +destitution and danger caused by it, must continue for a long time. + +I have made careful examination of the workings of your committees of +relief, which I am pleased to find composed of citizens of high character +and distinguished ability, who labor zealously and constantly in the noble +work to which you have called them. Their method of purchasing and +forwarding supplies, and their rules and regulations for the distribution +of relief met my approval in all respects. By the system adopted the +donations of the charitable are sure to do the most good to those who are +made destitute by the flood. Wise precaution is taken to avoid the +encouragement of idleness by strictly withholding relief from such as find +work on lands not overflowed, and who refuse to labor; a precaution which +I commend and approve. Careful, systematic economy is employed in all +relief measures. + +At their request and yours, I have examined your accounts as Treasurer of +the relief fund and the accounts and vouchers of the committees, finding +all correct and in order. By a well organized system everything received +is properly accounted for and promptly applied. I am pleased to say that +you and the members of your committees have shown much executive and +administrative ability, and that the disposition of contributions has been +so careful and so judicious as to merit entire confidence. + +You have done and, I am sure, will continue to do all that can be done for +the sufferers with the means which the philanthropic put in your hands. I +can suggest no improvement in your method. + +I cannot close without advising you to renew your appeal for help. Your +resources for the required relief are altogether insufficient. Put before +the people of America the leading facts relating to this unprecedented and +enormous visitation of calamity. A true knowledge of the great danger and +suffering of your afflicted people will awaken wealthy and prosperous +States, cities, churches and associations to an active sense of their +duty. While there is such prosperity and abundance of means everywhere +else, these poor victims of the flood must not be left to starve. + +Please accept for yourself, and extend to all others whom I have met here, +my thanks for the very many courtesies and kind attentions which I have +received at your hands and theirs. + +Hoping to visit you under more prosperous auspices. I remain + + Yours very respectfully, + HENRY G. CROWELL. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "cites" corrected to "cities" (page 3) + "philantrophic" corrected to "philanthropic" (page 3) + "witholding" corrected to "withholding" (page 8) + "philantropic" corrected to "philanthropic" (page 8) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874, by +Louis A. 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