Given the apparent impossibility of taking Vicksburg by a
gunboat attack alone, the Union generals took another approach;
it was thought that a canal could be cut across the tight bend
in the Mississippi opposite Vicksburg. This would leave
Vicksburg miles from the river, rendering its guns ineffective
against Union river transport. The New York Times viewed the
project with some bemusement. Apparently the editor was
imagining that possession of Vicksburg was the goal in itself,
rather than opening the Mississippi to shipping. Blue-Gray
Review posted on this topic the other day; as is pointed out
there, the project was ultimately a failure. For one thing, the
current was against the opposite bank at the top of the canal,
so it never really scoured out the cut as expected. Turning the
Flank on Vicksburgh Gen. BUTLER, having straightened up things
generally in New-Orleans, has, it seems, set to straightening
the Mississippi River. It was ALPHONSO, of Castile, we believe,
who thought he could have given Providen