TinCan
Captain
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2011
- Location
- Transplanted Texan
On the 26th of April 1876 the Mississippi River did what General Grant and his entire army failed to do. The river cut across the De Soto peninsula (not far from where Grant had dug is canal trying for the same effect) and left the city of Vicksburg high and dry (see map).
Many little towns along the river had suffered the same fate over the years with the Mississippi changing it's course. However, the size and importance of Vicksburg required that something should be done to get the river back. In 1902 the US Army Corps of Engineers began the Yazoo River Diversion Canal to return the waterfront to Vicksburg. The canal was completed in 1905 by diverting the Yazoo river into the old bed of the Mississippi and giving Vicksburg it's waterfront. Technically this makes Vicksburg a town on the Yazoo instead of the Mississippi.