More Praise for Rising Tide “The best book I’ve read in years.” —James Carville, Salon “Not only does Barry provide a marvelous chronicle of the world’s greatest flood since Noah, he also meticulously mines the residue of its wake for both the relics of a society washed away and the roots of a new one spawned….[A] rich deposit of passion and truth.” —Jim Squires, Los Angeles Times “John M Barry’s Rising Tide is a highly original and absorbing book, which I found fascinating His account of the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 brilliantly recaptures the panic, the desperation, and the suffering of one of the greatest natural disasters in American history.” —David Herbert Donald, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln “The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 had great consequences for a region and a nation, and served as a catalyst with respect to significant changes regarding race, class, power, politics and social structure… A superb account of the disaster and its impact on American society… Engrossing.” —Allen J Share, Louisville Courier-Journal “Extraordinary… Barry’s account is panoramic and reads like a novel.” —Steven Harvey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution “To that hypothetical list of books you intend to have when you are marooned on the desert island, please add Rising Tide.” —Larry D Woods, Nashville Banner “John Barry’s Rising Tide sweeps his reader along like the Mississippi itself It is absorbing American history about hubris, nobility, decadence, and race served up in prose that complements the grandeur of the great river.” —David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W E B Du Bois “Barry’s brilliant new book, Rising Tide, is a timely, disturbing and fascinating look at the Mississippi during its most powerful self-assertion… Barry is adroit at drawing his reader into complex political and scientific issues and rendering them with perfect clarity… After reading this book, you’ll never look at the river the same way again.” —Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune “Rising Tide is a marvel—a tense, alarming narrative… A wonderful book.” —Harry Merritt, Lexington Herald-Leader “Who could imagine that so much of the American story could be told through the story of the great flood of 1927—and be told so dramatically? John Barry’s masterful account of the last uncontrolled rampage of the Mississippi River shows how a natural disaster can sometimes disclose a society’s fragile workings, even while it alters them forever.” —Jay Tolson, editor of The Wilson Quarterly “There are many stories in here, all well told—excellent history—stories from that of an effete poet to those of abused sharecroppers And always there is the river… Barry’s prose is capable of cracking like a whip.” —Bill Roorbach, Newsday “Like the river, John M Barry’s history is broad-shouldered and violent and fascinating… The Mississippi cannot be placated or conquered I was not sure it could be captured in words, either, but I am thrilled to report that John M Barry and Rising Tide have proven me wrong.” —Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune “John Barry’s Rising Tide takes us into the heart of one of America’s greatest natural disasters, but his compelling account is more than a description of nature’s devastation, it is a window into the end of one era and the beginning of another.” —Dan T Carter, author of The Politics of Rage “Rising Tide is a fascinating tale of the South’s greatest natural disaster John Barry effectively uses the Great Mississippi Flood as a backdrop for the grim drama of class and race relations along the river.” —William Ferris, Director, Center for the Study of Southern Culture “A vastly entertaining book.” —Wendy Smith, Civilizations “Barry’s epic treatment of the flood is rich in detail and draws the reader along with the power of the river itself… It is a story rich in drama, and makes a significant point for our own time.” —Bill Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle “Gripping… An extraordinary tale of greed, power politics, racial conflict and bureaucratic incompetence… [A] momentous chronicle, which revises our understanding of the shaping of modern America.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A devastating flood is both the protagonist and the backdrop of this brilliantly narrated epic story of the misuse of engineering in thrall to politics.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “This is a book that I suspect will be recalled as one of the best books of the decade.” —Keith Runyon, Louisville Courier-Journal ALSO BY JOHN M BARRY The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer (with Dr Steven Rosenberg) SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 1997 by John Barry All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form SIMON & SCHUSTER PAPERBACKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster edition as follows: Barry, John M Rising tide: the great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America / John M Barry p cm Includes bibliographical references (p 481) Floods—Mississippi River Valley—History—20th Century Flood control—Mississippi River—History Mississippi River Valley—History—1865-4 Humphreys, A A (Andrew Atkinson), 1810-1883 Eads, James Buchanan, 1820-1887 I Title F354.B47 1997 977'.03—dc21 96-40077 CIP ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6332-7 ISBN-10: 1-4165-6332-6 Visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.SimonSays.com For Anne and Rose and Jane Contents Prologue Part One: THE ENGINEERS Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Part Two: SENATOR P ERCY Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Part Three: THE RIVER Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Part Four: THE CLUB Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Part Five: THE GREAT HUMANITARIAN Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Part Six: THE SON Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Part Seven: THE CLUB Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Part Eight: THE GREAT HUMANITARIAN Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Part Nine: THE LEAVING OF THE WATERS Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Appendix: The River Today Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments and Methodology Redfern, Ron The Making of a Continent New York: Times Books, 1983 Reynolds, George Machine Politics in New Orleans: 1897-1926 New York: AMS Press, 1968 Reynolds, Terry, ed The Engineer in America Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991 Roberts, B S On a Plan for Reclaiming the Waste Lands of the Mississippi River Washington, D.C., 1870 Rogers, John The Murders of Mer Rouge St Louis: Security Publishing, 1923 Rouse, Hunter, and Simon Ince History of Hydraulics New York: Dover, 1957 Rowland, Dunbar History of Mississippi: The Heart of the South Chicago: S J Clarke Publishing, 1925 Sandburg, Carl The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1919 Saxon, Lyle Father Mississippi New York: Century Co., 1927 Scharf, J Thomas, History of St Louis City and County St Louis, 1883 Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-1933 Boston: Little, Brown, 1957 Schriftgiesser, Karl This Was Normalcy Boston: Little, Brown, 1948 Schubert, Frank Vanguard of Expansion: Army Engineers in the Trans-Mississippi West, 18191879 Washington, D.C.: U.S Army Corps of Engineers, 1980 Shallat, Todd Structures in the Stream Austin: University of Texas, 1994 Sillers, Florence History of Bolivar County Jackson, Miss.: Behrman Bros., 1946 Sindler, Allan Huey Long’s Louisiana: State Politics 1920-1952 Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1966 Sitterson, J Carlyle Sugar Country: The Cane Industry in the South, 1873-1950 Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1953 Smith, Clarke Survey for Spillways At or Near New Orleans Pamphlet Mississippi River Commission, 1914 Smith, Richard An Uncommon Man New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984 Souchon, Edmond Reminiscences of Captain James B Eads of Jetties Fame Pamphlet New Orleans, 1915 Southern Alluvial Land Association The Call of the Alluvial Empire Pamphlet Jackson: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1919 Stackpole, Edward The Fredericksburg Campaign Harrisburg, Pa.: Military Service Publishers, 1957 Starr, S Frederick New Orleans Unmasqued New Orleans: Dedeaux, 1985 —— Southern Comfort Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989 Stearn, Colin, et al Geological Evolution of North America New York: Ronald Press, 1979 Steinman, David, and Sharon Watson Bridges and Their Builders New York: Dover, 1957 Stone, Alfred Studies in American Race Relations New York: Doubleday, 1908 Sullivan, Mark Our Times: The United States 1900-1925 vols New York: Scribners, 1932-35 Tallant, Robert Mardi Gras as It Was Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing, 1989 —— Romantic New Orleans New York: Dutton, 1950 Tatum, Elbert The Changed Political Thought of the Negro, 1915-1940 1951 Reprint, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974 Tindall, George The Emergence of the New South, 1913-1945 Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967 Tolson, Jay Pilgrim in the Ruins New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992 Townsend, Col C McD Flood Control of the Mississippi River Pamphlet St Louis, 1913 —— The Flow of Sediment in the Mississippi River and Its Influence on the Slope and Discharge Pamphlet St Louis, 1914 Turwitz, Leo, and Turwitz, Evelyn Jews in Early Mississippi Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1983 Tuttle, William Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919 New York: Atheneum, 1970 Twain, Mark Life on the Mississippi New York: Harper, 1903 Underwood, Felix Health Progress Among Mississippi Negroes Pamphlet Jackson, Miss., 1939 U.S Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 Pt U.S House Committee on Flood Control House Flood Control Committee Hearings vols 70th Cong., 1st sess van Ravensway, Charles St Louis: An Informal History of the City and Its People, 1764-1865 St Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1991 Vance, Rupert Human Geography of the South Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935 Wade, Wyn Craig The Fiery Cross New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987 Ware, Caroline Greenwich Village, 1920-1930 Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1935 Waskow, Arthur From Race Riot to Sit-In: 1919 and the 1960s Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967 Weiss, Nancy Farewell to the Party of Lincoln: Black Politics in the Age of FDR Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983 Wharton, Vernon The Negro in Mississippi, 1865-1890 Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947 Wheeler, Richard Witness to Gettysburg New York: Harper & Row, 1987 Whipple, A W Explorations and Surveys, 1853-54 Extract from the Preliminary Report for a Railway Route Near the 35th Parallel from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean Vol Washington, D.C.: U.S Army Corps of Engineers White, Walter A Man Called White: The Autobiogrpahy of Walter White London: Victor Gollancz, 1948 —— Rope and Faggot Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1968 White, William Allen A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge New York: Macmillan, 1938 Williams, T Harry Huey Long New York: Knopf, 1969 Wilson, Carol Herbert Hoover: A Challenge for Today New York: Evans Publishing, 1968 Wilson, Joan Hoff Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive Boston: Little, Brown, 1974 Wilson, Tippy Pool In the Bend of the River New Orleans: Pelican, Gretna, La., 1984 Wolfe, Harold Herbert Hoover: Public Servant and Leader of the Loyal Opposition New York: Exposition Press, 1956 Woodman, Harold King Cotton and His Retainers: Financing and Marketing the Cotton Crop of the South, 1800-1925 Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1968 Woodson, Carter A Century of Negro Migration New York: Russell & Russell, 1969 Woodward, C Vann Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951 —— The Strange Career of Jim Crow New York: Oxford University Press, 1965 —— Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel New York: Macmillan, 1938 Woodward, Calvin M History of the St Louis Bridge St Louis: G I Jones & Co., 1881 Wright, Gavin Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War New York: Basic Books, 1986 Wright, Richard Eight Men Cleveland: World Publishing, 1961 —— 12 Million Black Voices New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1988 —— Uncle Tom’s Children New York: Harper, 1938 Wyatt-Brown, Bertram The House of Percy New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 Yeo, Herbert Canadian River Investigation Pamphlet Santa Fe, 1928 Young, Perry The Mistick Krewe New Orleans: Carnival Press, 1931 ARTICLES Adams, Holmes “Writers of Greenville.” Journal of Mississippi History 32 (August 1970) Berthoff, Rowland “Southern Attittudes Toward Immigration, 1865-1914.” Journal of Southern History 17 (August 1951) Best, Gary “The Hoover-for-President Boom.” MidAmerica 53 (October 1971) Brandfon, Robert “The End of Immigration to the Cotton Fields.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50 (March 1964) Cohn, David “Eighteenth Century Chevalier.” Virginia Quarterly Review 31 (Fall 1955) —— “How the South Feels.” Atlantic Monthly 177 (January 1944) —— “I Kept My Name.” Atlantic Monthly 181 (April 1948) —— “The River I Knew.” Virginia Quarterly Review 35 (Spring 1959) Condit, Carl “Sullivan’s Skyscrapers as the Expression of Nineteenth Century Technology.” Technology and Culture (April 1959) Creel, George “The Carnival of Corruption in Mississippi.” Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1911 De Peyster, John Watts “A A Humphreys.” Magazine of American History 16 (October 1886) Drumm, S M “Robert E Lee and the Improvement of the Mississippi River.” Missouri Historical Society Collections, 1929 Frazier, Arthur “Daniel Farrand Henry’s Cup Type ‘Telegraphic’ River Current Meter.” Technology and Culture (Fall 1964) Ginzl, David “Lily Whites versus Black and Tans: Mississippi Republicans During the Hoover Administration.” Journal of Mississippi History 42 (August 1980) Godfrey, Stuart “Notes from a Mississippi Flood Diary.” Military Engineer, November-December 1927 Hamilton, C Horace “The Negro Leaves the South.” Demography (1964) Harrison, Robert “Formative Years of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee District.” Journal of Mississippi History 13 (March 1952) Hartley, C W S “Sir Charles Hartley and the Mouth of the Mississippi.” Louisiana History 24, no (Summer 1983) Hofstadter, Richard “Herbert Hoover and the Crisis of American Individualism.” In The American Political Tradition New York: Knopf, 1949 Holmes, William “Vardaman.” Journal of Mississippi History, 1969 —— “Whitecapping in Mississippi.” Journal of Southern History 35 (May 1969) —— “William Alexander Percy and the Bourbon Era in Mississippi Politics.” Mississippi Quarterly 26 (Winter 1972-1973) Kazin, Michael “The Grass-Roots Right: New Histories of U.S Conservatism in the Twentieth Century.” American Historical Review 97 (February 1992) Kelley, Arthell “Levee Building and the Settlement of the Yazoo Basin.” Southern Quarterly (July 1963) Kirby, Jack Temple “The Southern Exodus, 1910-1960: A Primer for Historians.” Journal of Southern History 49 (November 1983) Kouwenhoven, John “The Designing of the Eads Bridge.” Technology and Culture 23 (October 1982) —— “The Eads Bridge: The Celebration.” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, April 1974 —— “Downtown St Louis as James Eads Knew It.” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, April 1977 —— “James Buchanan Eads: The Engineer as Entrepreneur.” In Carroll Pursell, eds., Technology in America: A History of Individuals and Ideas Lee, John “A Flood Year on the Mississippi.” Military Engineer, July-August 1928 Lohof, Bruce “Herbert Hoover, Spokesman for Human Efficiency: The Mississippi Flood of 1927.” American Quarterly 22 (Fall 1970) —— “Herbert Hoover’s Mississippi Valley Land Reform Memorandum.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 24 (Summer 1970) May, Henry F “Shifting Perspectives on the 1920s.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 63 (December 1956) McMillen, Neil “Perry Howard, Boss of Black-and-Tan Republicanism in Mississippi, 1924-1960.” Journal of Southern History 48 (May 1981) “Memoir of James B Eads.” Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 17 (March 1887) Mills, Gary “New Life for the River of Death: Development of the Yazoo River Basin, 1873-1977.” Journal of Mississippi History 41 (November 1979) Mollison, Irvin “Negro Lawyers in Mississippi.” Journal of Negro History 15 (January 1930) Moore, Leonard “Historical Interpretations of the 1920s Klan.” Journal of Social History 24 (Winter 1990) Mowry, George “The South and the Progressive Lily White Party of 1912.” Journal of Southern History (1940) Murfree, W L “The Levees of the Mississippi.” Scribner’s Magazine, July 1881 “Negro Common School in Miss., The.” Crisis 32 (December 1926) “Negro Migration from Mississippi.” In Negro Migration 1916-1917 Reports Washington, D.C.: U.S Department of Labor, 1919 Olson, James “The End of Voluntarism.” Annals of Iowa 41 (Fall 1972) Osborn, George “John Sharp Williams Becomes a United States Senator.” Journal of Southern History (May 1940) Percy, LeRoy “A Southern View of Negro Education.” Outlook 86 (August 3, 1907) Rable, George “The South and the Politics of Anti-Lynching Legislation, 1920-1940.” Journal of Southern History (May 1985) Rainwater, P L “The Autobiography of Benjamin G Humphreys, 1808-1882.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 1934 Reuss, Martin “Politics and Technology in the Army Corps of Engineers.” Technology and Culture 26 (January 1985) Roberts, O A., Jr “The Elaine Race Riots of 1919.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19 (Summer 1960) Round, Harold “A A Humphreys.” Civil War Times Illustrated (February 1966) Satchfield, Lamar “Those Famous Bobo Bear Hunts.” Delta Scene Magazine 1, no (Spring 1974) Schofield, Kent “The Public Image of Herbert Hoover in the 1928 Campaign.” MidAmerica 51 (October 1969) Schuyler, George “Freedom of the Press in Mississippi.” Crisis, October 1936 Shallat, Todd “Andrew Atkinson Humphreys.” APWA Reporter 49, no (January 1982) Shideler, James H “Herbert Hoover and the Federal Farm Board Project, 1921-25.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 41 (March 1956) Sillers, Walter “Flood Control in Bolivar County, 1883-1924.” Journal of Mississippi History, 1947 “Sketch of James B Eads.” Popular Science Monthly 28 (October 1884), pp 544-552 Smith, John David “Alfred Holt Stone: Mississippi Planter and Archivist/ Historian of Slavery.” Journal of Mississippi History 45 (November 1983) Snyder, Howard “Negro Migration and the Cotton Crop.” North American Review 219 (January 1924) —— “Plantation Pictures.” Atlantic Monthly, February 1921 Stone, Alfred “The Negro Farmer in the Mississippi Delta.” Southern Workman, October 1903 —— “The Negro in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta.” Publications of the American Economic Association, 3rd series, vol New York, 1902 —— “A Plantation Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 19 (February 1905) Thoburn, James “The Naming of the Canadian River.” Chronicles of Oklahoma (December 1928) Thomson, T P “The Story of the Canal Bank, 1831-1915.” Baton Rouge: Louisiana Historical Society Publications, vol 7, 1924 Williams, Mentor “The Background of the Chicago River and Harbor Convention.” MidAmerica, October 1948 Zipser, Andy “Hidden Value in the Bayou.” Barron’s, October 4, 1993 DISSERTATIONS AND THESES Balsamo, Larry “Theodore Bilbo and Mississippi Politics, 1874-1932.” Ph.D diss., University of Missouri, 1967 Dileanis, Leonard “Herbert Hoover’s Use of Public Relations in the U.S Food Administration, 1917-1919.” M.A thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1969 Garcia, George “Herbert Hoover’s Southern Strategy and the Black Reaction.” M.A thesis, University of Iowa, 1972 Harrell, Kenneth “The Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana, 1920-1930.” Ph.D thesis, Louisiana State University, 1966 Hathorn, Guy “The Political Career of C Bascom Slemp.” Ph.D diss., Duke University, 1950 Jones, Mina “The Jewish Community in New Orleans: A Study of Social Organization.” B.A thesis, Tulane University, 1925 Lohof, Bruce “Herbert Hoover and the 1927 Mississippi Flood Disaster.” Ph.D diss., Syracuse University, 1968 Lowrey, Walter “Navigational Problems at the Mouth of the Mississippi River, 1698-1880.” Ph.D diss., Vanderbilt University, 1956 Raabe, Phyllis “Status and Its Impact: New Orleans Carnival, the Social Upper Class, and Upper Class Power.” Ph.D diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1972 Ryan, Gary “War Department Topographical Bureau, 1831-1863.” Ph.D diss., American University, 1968 Sallis, William “The Life and Times of LeRoy Percy.” M.A thesis, Mississippi State University, 1957 Schott, Matthew “John M Parker of Louisiana.” Ph.D diss., Vanderbilt University, 1969 Sherman, Audry “A History of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange.” M.A thesis, Tulane University, 1934 Ware, Hester “A Study of the Life and Works of William Alexander Percy.” M.A thesis, Mississippi State University, 1950 White, John “The Port of New Orleans Since 1850.” M.A thesis, Tulane University, 1924 Williams, Robert “Martin Behrman.” M.A thesis, Tulane University, 1952 Willis, John C “On the New South Frontier: Life on the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta 1865-1920.” Ph.D diss., University of Virginia, 1991 Wrighton, Fred “Negro Migration and Income in Mississippi.” Ph.D diss., Mississippi State University, 1972 Acknowledgments and Methodology THIS BOOK began twenty years ago, in 1977 At the time I was living in New Orleans and writing a column for The Vieux Carre Courier , a weekly owned by Phil Carter, who was also involved in his family’s paper in Greenville, Mississippi That April, Phil ran a special issue on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1927 flood I grew up in Rhode Island and had never heard of it before, but it added to a fascination I already had with the Mississippi River I remember reading about the flood, then walking a few hundred yards from the paper on Decatur Street to the levee and watching the river roll past Ever since I have wanted to write something about the flood Five years ago I finally decided to so and began working full-time on it I would like to explain my methodology, particularly where I quote conversations that occurred nearly three-quarters of a century ago I was remarkably lucky to discover detailed minutes and even exact transcripts of many of these conversations In this regard, an extraordinarily rich source was the Harry B Caplan Papers at the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans I have also used quotes based on either contemporaneous notes, memoranda, and letters written by participants, and, in the case of some public meetings, newspaper accounts In addition, I interviewed approximately 125 people My thanks go to all of them Most of these people supplied background information about the characters important to this book or about a place and time, but a few of those interviewed also recalled comments made by the people in the book in particularly memorable situations I did use these quotes I would like to give special thanks to the late Herman Kohlmeyer and Frank Hall They both exerted considerable effort to help me, and both combined intelligence with intimate knowledge of events and personalities Their assistance made this book better than it would otherwise have been Next I would like to thank Phil Carter, who has been extremely helpful and gracious in the course of my working on this book Neither he nor anyone else is responsible for anything in the book If there are any mistakes, they are mine If there is offense given, I have given it This is not simply a pro forma disclaimer To the contrary, when Phil realized that I was headed down one particular path he objected But that was the way my research, and I believe the truth, took me Nonetheless, I wish to thank him and everyone else who helped me In Washington, my good friend Bob Dawson (an old Tulane football connection) introduced me to the right people to get me started Martin Reuss, a historian with the Army Corps of Engineers, was exceptionally helpful—both personally and through his writings Pete Daniel at the Smithsonian Institution, author of Deep’n as It Come, which is also about the 1927 flood, generously shared with me information, photographs, and taped interviews he conducted In Vicksburg, Michael Robinson, now with the Mississippi River Commission, showed me around and taught me much Bertram WyattBrown of the University of Florida shared with me his research for his book House of Percy John K Brown of the University of Virginia spent much time going through papers assembled by the late John Kouwenhoven about James Buchanan Eads for me I look forward to his biography of Eads At the University of Southwestern Louisiana, I Bruce Turner was exceptionally helpful In St Louis at the Missouri Historical Society, I much appreciate the efforts of Ms Wendi Perry, who went through many papers for me At the Hoover Library in West Branch, Iowa, Pat Wildenberg deserves special mention for guiding me through the collection and responding to telephone queries later In New Orleans, Betty Werlein Carter helped me to understand that city as well as Greenville, Mississippi Dorothy Benge took me under her wing and led me through St Bernard Parish Exceptionally helpful also were city archivist Wayne Evarad at the New Orleans Public Library; also there I thank Irene Wainwright and Andrea Ducros At Tulane University’s Howard-Tilton Library, Joan Caldwell has become a friend At the Orleans Levee Board, Gary Benoit put out special effort At the Earl Long Library of the University of New Orleans, Clive Hardy and Marie Window did likewise Laura Bayon shared family lore and photographs Robert Brown at the district office of the Army Corps of Engineers and Captain Edward Morehouse, commander of the U.S Dredge Wheeler, escorted me on a trip down to the mouth of the Mississippi and the remains of Port Eads The late Stephen Lemann, whom I remember with great fondness, offered me cooperaton and guidance At the Louisiana State Museum, director James Sefcik was extremely kind In Greenville, many thanks to Clint Bagley and Bern and Frankie Keating, and also special thanks to the Washington County Library system for use of its excellent oral history collection Most important, Sylvia Jackson took me by the hand and introduced me to people who would not have spoken openly without her endorsement of me Newman Bolls and his son Patrick Bolls gave generously of their time and knowledge In Jackson, Mississippi, at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, I appreciate the support of Hank Holmes and the entire research staff, along with the permissions they gave for use of material in their collections My agent Raphael Sagalyn did an outstanding job in finding the best editor for this book, and I also appreciate his willingness to accommodate some of my more unusual requests At Simon & Schuster, I am sincerely grateful to my editor, Alice Mayhew She did more than what even a good editor does From my first contact with her, I was more than just impressed with her grasp of what I was trying to in this book In fact, she sometimes saw it more clearly than I did, and kept me on track Elizabeth Stein, whose title now may be only associate editor but who clearly will be someone of consequence in publishing, lent her considerable talents to my cause Her suggestions were universally well thought out And I want to thank my wife, Margaret Anne Hudgins Every day she went through archival material with me, and her tenacity in tracking down details exceeded my own (I hope she forgives me for not including anything about the Santa Fund.) Her insight into character and general sense of the workings of the world added dimensions that would have escaped me otherwise Anne, thank you (So.) Finally, I want to acknowledge the cousins—Rose Fulford Hudgins and Jane Fulford Warren— whose love and support was always there for me —JOHN M BARRY New Orleans January, 1997 * Louisiana received 9.5 million acres, Arkansas 7.7 million, Missouri 3.4 million, and Mississippi 3.3 million * The Corps soon took credit for the jetties, saying as early as 1886, “The present successful results might have been obtained years before Mr Eads took hold of the work if Congress had not handicapped the Corps… It is certainly unjust to blame the Engineer Corps because its recommendations were not followed.” In 1924 the chief of engineers officially informed the secretary of war: “The Army Engineers did not oppose the jetties As a matter of fact, the plan for the construction of the jetties was originated by the Corps of Engineers, and Captain Eads merely carried out plans which had been previously discussed.” It also soon became clear that, as Eads had predicted, South Pass was too small to accommodate heavy shipping traffic and that the larger Southwest Pass had to be opened In 1893, Eads’ former assistant Corthell offered to the work on the same terms as had Eads: he would receive nothing unless successful This time the Corps outmaneuvered Corthell and was given the task, but twenty-one years later the channel was still only 27 feet deep “The plan did not prove to be successful,” conceded Major General Lansing Beach, chief of engineers *A Washington Post cartoonist portrayed the president refusing to shoot a cute bear cub It became “Teddy’s bear.” A German toy manufacturer sent dozens of small stuffed bears to the White House and launched a product that is still selling * Walker Percy and his two brothers were children of LeRoy’s nephew; they were orphaned, and Will adopted them * Zero on river gauges originally marked low water, without reference to river depth; a 50-foot reading meant the river was 50 feet above the low-water mark * Only in Memphis did blacks vote in large enough numbers—often 5,000 black votes were cast—to determine election outcomes There the white political boss Edward Crump, whose brother had run LeRoy Percy’s Senate campaign, cooperated with a black machine run by Robert Church * In one St Bernard election eight Long-backed candidates, running for national, statewide, and local office, received a combined 25,216 votes to none for their opponents Earlier Doc Meraux had predicted each of those opponents would get two votes When Long asked him, “What happened to those two votes?” Meraux replied, “They changed their mind at the last minute.” In another election Long called Meraux to ask the result; Meraux replied, “We’re still voting.” Long began yelling at him, “We’ve already won! For God’s sake, stop counting!” And Plaquemines leader Leander Perez helped Long survive an impeachment attempt ... sunken steamboat of water with centrifugal pumps of his design, then raise the entire ship from the bottom From the great sandbars that formed at the river’s mouth in the Gulf of Mexico north... the river’s mouth So on September 30, 1850, Congress authorized a survey of the lower Mississippi, from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico The aim was to discover the laws governing the Mississippi... stretches the slope drops below inches a mile The Mississippi, and even more so the lower Mississippi, runs through some of the flattest land in the world This gentle slope that moves the tremendous