The Duckport Canal was constructed by Union forces during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Ordered built in late March 1863 by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the canal stretched from the Mississippi River near Duckport, Louisiana, to New Carthage, Louisiana, and utilized a series of bayous for much of its path. It was intended to provide a water-based supply route for a southward movement against Confederate- held Vicksburg, Mississippi (area map shown), as high water levels made overland travel difficult. The digging was done by 3,500 soldiers from Grant's army and was finished on April 12. The next day, the levee separating the canal cut and the river was breached, and water flowed into the canal. Trees in the bayous and water levels as low as 6 inches (15 cm) hampered the use of the canal, and the project was abandoned on May 4. Only one vessel ever passed from the river to New Carthage through the canal. After a lengthy siege, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4. (Full article...).
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckport_Canal> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1968: Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lima_Site_85> 1977: Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory discovered a faint ring system around Uranus. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus> 2008: The New York Times revealed that Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, had patronized a prostitution ring. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer_prostitution_scandal> 2019: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after take- off from Addis Ababa International Airport due to a fault within the software of the plane, resulting in the deaths of all 157 people on board. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_302> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: telephone: 1. (transitive) 2. To convey (information, a message, news, etc.) using a telephone (noun sense 1). 3. To (attempt to) contact (someone) using a telephone. 4. (obsolete) 5. To provide (a place) with a telephone system. 6. To transmit (sounds) over a distance. 7. (intransitive) To (attempt to) contact someone using a telephone; to make a telephone call. 8. About Word of the Day 9. Nominate a word 10. Leave feedback <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/telephone> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Do not waste your faith and love on the political world, but, in the divine world of science and art, offer up your inmost being in a fiery stream of eternal creation. --Friedrich Schlegel <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schlegel> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
