March 15, 2025 • 31 mins
The Mississippi flood of 1927 may be little remembered today but it left a tremendous impact on American history and American culture. Which is illustrated by the fact that some 50 Blues songs were written about the flood and its impact. Through this series I will use some of these Blues songs to illustrate life in this disaster. Yet first we have to examine the causes of this disaster which as it turns out are very much man made.
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Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
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Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
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Bluesky @distortedhistory.bsky.social
If you would like to support the podcast: ko-fi.com/distortedhistory
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/DistortedHistor
Bluesky @distortedhistory.bsky.social
If you would like to support the podcast: ko-fi.com/distortedhistory
Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory
Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: distortedhistorypod@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Her and program I don't give you Mary Nals and
Joy a blunder look. I'm raging. Unnoted the Arrah.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A long struggle for freedom. It really is a revolution
when the levy breaks as A song that at this
point is most well known as being the final track
off of led Zeppelin's most successful album, nineteen seventy one's
led Zeppelin four, A song famous for the tremendous sound
(00:49):
of John Bonham's drums that provide its unmistakable backbone, over
top of which is laid the slick but heavy sli
guitar work of Jimmy Page. He always sawid bass playing
of John Paul Jones, the power powerful vocals of singer
Robert Plant, and even an harmonica track that is played
in reverse. It's a powerful and heavy track that, in
my opinion, after going through the band's entire history for
(01:10):
an earlier sound Story series, is one of their best. Yet.
While many may know the song through led Zeppelin, they
may not be familiar with the original. A blue song
from nineteen twenty nine, which is credited to a wife
and husband duo Memphis. Many in Kansas, Jill McCoy. Fewer
still then are likely aware of the real world events
that inspired the song. A disaster, while little Remember Today,
(01:32):
still had a tremendous impact on American cultural history and
American history in general, an event that one bread Cross
publicist would call quote one of the most overwhelming tragedy's
natures ever enacted, in which the commercial Appeal out of
Memphis would characterize as the quote greatest disaster that ever
afflicted our country. I'm speaking, of course, of the nineteen
(01:52):
twenty seven Mississippi flood, which the Chicago Tribune described as
the quote most disastrous flood this country has ever had,
in which the New Iberia Enterprise at a Louisiana would
characterize se quote greatest of all floods since the days
of Noah. Yet, before I go any further into talking
about this tremendous disaster, first, like always, I want to
(02:12):
acknowledge my sources for this series, which include Richard M.
Mizzel Junior's Backward Are Blues, the Mississippi Flood of nineteen
twenty seven, in the African American imagination, John M. Berry's
Rising Tide, the Great Mississippi flood of nineteen twenty seven
and how it changed America and Susan Scott perishes the
flood year nineteen twenty seven a cultural history, and like always,
(02:34):
a full list of these and any other sources like
websites that I used, will be available on this podcast,
Blue Sky and CoFe pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't
want to be bothered skipping through commercials, there is always
an ad free feed available to subscribers at patreon dot
com slash Distorted History. And with all that being said,
let's begin. As we get started, I want to make
it clear that my attention with this series is to
(02:56):
at least in part, try to experience this flood through
the blues musicians who wrote about it, because, as historian
Richard Mazzell wrote, quote, the blues is more than simply
an art form. It is also a medium of helping
people both bear witness and kobe motionally and intellectually with
the experiences of blackness in America. Indeed, these simple affected
Over fifty blue songs were recorded about the nineteen twenty
(03:17):
seven flood, goes a long way to illustrate the degree
to which African Americans were affected by this disaster. Yet
before we can get to talking about the blue songs
that were written about the flood and the impact that
it had on the country and its culture, we first
have to talk about the flood itself. More than that, though,
we also have to talk about the hows and whys
it happened. Something with it selfle span several episodes, as
(03:39):
we can't really talk about the blue songs that discuss
the experiences of those affected by the flood until we
get to the flood itself. But the story of how
and why the flood happened is very much worth telling because,
as we will see, did not have to be as
bad as it was. As to be clear, this wasn't
your normal run of the mill flood. This was a
massive disaster that affected sins seven states, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi,
(04:04):
and Louisiana. In all, some eleven hundred square miles from Chiro,
Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico would be flooded, affecting
millions of people in the process. Indeed, when the aforementioned
Red Cross publicist viewed the flood first hand from a
Navy seaplane two thousand feet up in the air, he
beheld a vast floodplain dotted with quote unquote islands where
refugees crowded in alongside animals, And to be clear, the
(04:26):
Red Cross publicists beheld the scene from a plane that
was flying south from Memphis, meaning he was nowhere near
the ocean. Instead, the lands all around the Mississippi River
had become like a vast inland sea that was filled
with debris that ranged from the remains of wregged homes,
the bodies of dead animals, and likely the bodies of
dead people as well as While the Red Cross estimated
(04:47):
that around two hundred deaths had been caused by the flood,
the actual number is believed to have been significantly higher. That, however,
is just a taste of the death and destruction caused
by this flood. Now I will go into much greater
detail and later episodes, but again, before we get there,
we have to understand how and why the flood happened.
As I think it's quite important to understand that in
(05:07):
many ways, the nineteen twenty seven flood was a man
made disaster, granted unusually heavy and frequent rain throughout the country,
especially within the areas that fed into the Mississippi was
the immediate catalyst of the disaster. Yet make no mistake,
the reason why the flood was as bad as it
was comes down to the choices that Americans obeyed to
alter the environment. To understand how this happened, then you
(05:29):
first have to understand the size and scope of the
Mississippi River. As you see, the Mississippi River system is
both very large and very complex, as it effectively connects
forty percent of the United States environmentally, by which I
mean various river streams and tributaries from thirty one states
between the Rocky and Alleghany Mountains all feed into the
Mississippi River one way or another. The Mississippi River Valley
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then stretches from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada, while
a raging from New York State and North Carolina and
the east all the way west to Idaho and New Mexico,
which is important to understand because environmental changes in these
various states could potentially have an effect on the Mississippi
River itself and by extension, the land surrounding it. The
thing was, these efects could seem minor or inconsequential most
(06:12):
of the time until that is a certain combination of
factors and events created a disaster of unimaginable scope. The
first of the environmental alterations that would eventually lead to
the nineteen twenty seven flood started as far back as
eighteen oh five, when the lumber industry began to cut
down the white pine forest of New York and Pennsylvania. Then,
as those lands were cleared of trees, the lumber industry
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moved into the Upper Midwest, focusing on that region from
roughly eighteen fifty to eighteen ninety. The clear cutting of
forests here, in particular, would have a major impact on
the Mississippi River. Then, at the same time as the
lumber industry was webbing out the long standing forest in
the Upper Midwest, the white settlers in Ohio were also
clear cutting their lands as well. For a good example
of this process, I actually had to turn back to
(06:55):
my research on the Battle of the Little Bighorn and
Stephen E. Ambrose's book Crazy Horse and Custer, as within
it he describes the win in which the Ohio settlers
cleared their land. As you see, the vast, dense forests
that existed there were seen as nothing but a hindrance
to these white cellars. After all, the trees blocked out
the sun, keeping it from raging their crops, and their
roots used up the nutrients in the soil that these
(07:15):
settlers believed would be better used by their crops. Essentially,
then the process wents something like this. These settlers would
cut down and tear out all the bushes, scrubs, and
various undergrowth in the area they were clearing out, a
process that would reportedly take a good forehand sixteen days
to clear out an acre of land. Now when it
came to the big trees, Unlike the lumber industry, these settlers,
in their efforts to clear the land for their farms,
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cut down more trees than they could use. Sure, trees
were potential building material for all manner of things, from
homes to furniture, and at the very least it could
be used as fuel to keep homes warm. The thing,
whilst the Ohio settlers are cutting down so many trees,
there were simply more wood than they believe could ever
be used, so they often just burn the trees in
massive bonfires. Basically, they would chop the limbs the large
(08:00):
trees down into ten foot links that they would then
pile against the trunk and set on fire. Now, this
did not consume the tree, but instead kind of half
burned it, at which point the now half burned, dried
out lungs were piled together and then properly set a
blaze in massive bonfires that serve no other purpose then
to destroy the fallen trees. It's estimated that some ten
to fifteen acres of trees a day were consumed in
(08:22):
this manner in Ohio during the early to mid eighteen hundreds.
While the lumber industry did not get in on this
and instead allow the lumber and firewood to simply be destroyed,
I don't really know, as again, the lumber industry was
already a thing, as by eighteen fifty lumber was the
main industry in Minnesota. Indeed, the trees harvested in the
Upper Midwest region would be the primary source of wood
(08:43):
for the United States until eighteen ninety. Now, regardless of
whether these trees were actually used for something or simply
cut down and destroyed to clear farmland, the fact remains
that during this period the massive fares had once been
a part of the American landscape board, disappearing. The clear
cutting of so many trees would sure to have a
tremendous impact on the environment in general, but for our purposes,
(09:04):
this all had a direct impact on the Mississippi River
and its ability to flood. Forest dou see naturally absorb water,
as not only do the trees and plants took up
the water through their roots, but the miscellaneous detritis like twigs, leaves,
fallen logs, and the varioushrubs and grasses within the forest
ensure that the water stays in place long enough so
it can be absorbed into the soil where the plants
(09:25):
and their roots can subsequently make use of it. Without
these farests, then all the water that would have been
retained in places like Ohio and the Upper Midwest had
no place to go, but the various brooks and streams
that fed into the larger rivers then in turn eventually
fed into the Mississippi itself. Meanwhile, the replacement of the
natural prairie grasses with farms and ranches would also have
a similar effect. This process started in the eighteen sixties
(09:48):
with the destruction of large swass of the prairie grassland
via a large scale cannel ranching which took off during
that time. Then starting around the eighteen eighties, even more
swass of the prairie grassland were transformed into far growing
wheat and corn, a process that accelerated even further when
the demand for wheat during the First World War combined
with new mechanical technology to transform the former grasslands into
(10:10):
large scale industrial farms, a transformation which light the destruction
of the forest also severely depleted that area's ability to
absorb in store water. As you see, the prairie grasses,
especially the tall ones, had roots that stretched six feet
down into the soil, which helped to absorb and trap water. Meanwhile,
as those upstream more effectively, if unintentionally, increasing the amount
(10:31):
of water that was flowing down the Mississippi, those further
down the river were also altering the environment in their region.
In doing so, they were ensuring that when the floodwaters
invariably came, the natural processes that would normally absorb such
access were removed. You see, over time, through the normal
process of depositing soil, bends in the river were created. Eventually, though,
(10:52):
these bends would grow so extreme that the river just
naturally started cutting through them. This process would leave behind
areas full of ridges and rich soil in which dense
hardwood forest took root features, which, when the floodwaters came,
would naturally work to contain and dissipate the floods of
phex Southerners, however, with the admitted help of Northern and
English capitalists, would allow these forests to also be destroyed.
(11:15):
As you see, after the lumber industry had exhausted the
trees in the Upper Midwest, they had turned their attention south.
As a result, by the turn of the century, the
South had become the largest producer of lumber, as the
region was responsible for thirty two percent of the national whole.
Soon then the thick, dense forest of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana,
and Mississippi, which in the past had helped to absorb
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the river's floodwaters, were consumed. Indeed, one observer would compare
the sit of these clear cut forest to the battles
guarred fields of France after the First World War. At
the same time as the lover was being harvested from
these forests, Southern planters and investors were looking to turn
that same land into cotton growing territory, which, unlike the
forest that once stood there, would do little to contain
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the floodwaters. This also so to put more people in
harm's way, as the homes of the people who would
now work this land were being built in places that
had once served to absorb the floodwaters, people who were
more often than non poor black sharecroppers and nichue that
we'll definitely talk about more in subsequent episodes. In all, then,
drastic changes were being made to the environment all along
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the river that both increased the amount of water that
would be flowing into it and also removing the ability
of the land around the river to absorb it. Making
this even worse was the fact that all these changes
were more and less taking place in the same general
space and time, meaning that the effect of all these
changes would be felt simultaneously, compounding the size and scope
all the disaster. As the areas around the Mississippi were
(13:07):
becoming more populated, there was an increase in demand for
the federal government to do something about the river in
terms of navigating it and controlling its tendency to flood.
As you see the Mississippi rivers both very large and
very complex. You might think that rivers are simple things.
What is just constantly moving in one direction to the sea.
But it's more complicated than that. The Mississippi's currents, for example,
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are not uniform throughout. There is not one singular current
or velocity at which the river flows. Indeed, in just
a singular section on the river, there are potentially multiple
currents moving in different directions, not to mention multiple depths
on the riverbed, all of which can be challenging and
often navigate when the river is moving in a relatively
straight line. But when you reach a bend, especially the
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more extreme ones, the collision between the river and its
earthen banks create quite a bit of disturbance than What's
worse is the fact that these problems magnify whenever the
river floods, as more water means more problems, all of
which is important as people wanted to use the river
not just to travel, but is an easy way to
transport goods, which is why they called upon the government
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to do something to make navigating the river easier. Now.
One of the main people who would play a role
in the government's attempts to try and tame and control
the mighty Mississippi was Andrew Atkinson Humphries. Andrew had been
born in Philadelphia in eighteen ten as the only child
of a family of some wealth and status. Then Andrew would,
age sixteen, would enter West Point, the Army's officer training
(14:31):
school and a place they claimed to provide the best
education in the country. Yet, as I noted in my
series on the Battle of the Little Baykhorn, this was
not necessarily the case, as West Points education mainly consisted
of rote memorization over actually understanding and applying the knowledge.
That being said, the academy did have an engineering program
that was second to none in the country at the time. Indeed,
(14:53):
Andrew Humphreys particularly enjoyed these engineering courses and the challenges
they presented. He also very much craved Yet when he
finally got some win in eighteen thirty six he was
sent off to fight these seminoles in Florida, he got sick. Now,
this was not an uncommon issue, as we saw in
my series on the Seminole Wars. Humphrey's illness, though, was
particularly bad as he was forced to resign from the Army.
(15:15):
All was not lost, though, as he found work as
an engineer and even eventually returned to the Army as
a first lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical engineers. Meanwhile,
as a part of the federal government's attempts to better
understand and control the Mississippi Congress would authorize a survey
of the lower section on the river, hoping to figure
out how to do just that, a survey that Humphreys
very much wanted to lead. Humphreys, you see, was incredibly ambitious. Indeed,
(15:40):
Humphreys had already proven himself to be an apt politician,
skilled and playing games behind the scenes. For example, once
he had a rival accused of conduct unbecoming of an officer,
basically just to ensure that his rival did not get
a good appointment. Additionally, Humphreys at one point also managed
to maneuver himself into taking over the duties of his
own superior who when he realized what had and then
(16:00):
tried to respond, Humphreys was protected by the frenzied made
in high places. Humphrey's skills as a political animal are
important to note because even though the army supported as
candidacy to conduct this survey, he was not the only
one up for the job. As you see, at this
time there was a burden in conflict between the By now,
while established military engineers like Humphreys and the upstart but
(16:21):
growing civil engineer profession you see as mentioned earlier. For
some time, West Point had really been the only true
school for engineers in the United States. By the eighteen fifties,
though a number of institutes for higher learning had developed
their own engineering programs, programs that were more flexible and
adaptable to new technology and knowledge than the more old
school regimented military engineering training, and so the Army's Corps
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of Engineers are being challenged for supremacy in the field,
and this survey of the Lower Mississippi was seen as
a prime opportunity to show what civil engineers could do.
So while the Army pushed for Humphries to get the job,
civil engineers and their supporters wanted Congress to give the
job to Charles Ellett Junior. Ellett was seemingly a natural
rival for the ambitious Humphreys, as the two men were
(17:06):
basically the exact same age. So while Humphreys had risen
high in the Army Corps of Engineers, Ellett had become
the most renowned civil engineer in the US at the time.
Faced with such a crossroads, President Millard Fillmore opted to
choose both, as he appropriated fifty thousand dollars for the survey,
money that was to be divided equally between the two
men so they could each conduct their own, independent and
(17:28):
separate surveys. Now, one of the crucial questions they hoped
to answer through this project was the best way to
deal with the Mississippi when it started to flood. You see,
there are two basic ways of dealing with a flooding river,
levees and outlets. To put it simply, levees work to
hold the flood water's back, while outlets gave the waters
some place to go, both essentially being adaptations of natural processes.
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As you see, the Mississippi could effectively create its own
levees when it deposited sediment after it overflowed its normal confines. Similarly,
the river naturally had its own outlets where acxis could go,
with such natural outlets oftentimes being areas that have been
carved out by prior funds. Now outlets were a popular solution.
After all, it was easy to understand because there's similar
(18:11):
in concept of pulling the plug from a bathtub. Basically,
if you want the wood to stop rising near where
people lived, give it someplace else to go. Many at
the time then liked this simple idea. Indeed, as far
back as eighteen sixteen, there had been proposals to create
artificial spillways so as to drain excess floodwater from the
Mississippi into Lake Pontitrain and or Lake Bourne, both of
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which emptied into the sea. That being said, not everyone
was behind this idea, and instead not only supported the
construction of levees, but believed that levees alone were the solution.
This so called levee's only concept was based upon a
theory first proposed by an Italian engineer in the seventeenth century.
You see, this engineer believe that rivers always carried the
(18:52):
maximum amount of sediment possible. Furthermore, the fast the river's current,
the larger the amount of sediment it could carry. Therefore,
or as the theory went, if you increased the flow
of the river by say, preventing it from draining all
through outlets and only using levees to restream the river,
it would naturally pick up more sediment, sediment which would
naturally come from the river bed itself, meaning that by
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increasing the flow, the river would naturally carve out its
own riverbed, making the river itself deeper and thus make
it so more water could flow without risk of flooding. Indeed,
according to believers in this theory, by allowing the water
to escape in the outlets, you slowed the flow of
the river, which in turn caused it to a deposit sediment,
thereby raising the riverbed, which would make flooding more likely.
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Now this was just a theory, but one that had
its focal supporters. Therefore, one of the main goals of
these surveys was to figure out whether this theory held
water or not. Now, despite the rivalry between the civil
and military engineers, the two men selected to carry out
the survey did not see this mission as having the
same import For Humphres, this was his moment. This was
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the opportunity of his lifetime. This survey offered him the
chance to earn a reputation that was second to none.
The thing was, while this survey was the work of
Humphrey's life, the thing that could make him For Elliot,
he already had his reputation. He was recognized as the
best civil engineer in the country. Ellen then was essentially
being used upon in this contest between civil and military engineers.
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As such, this was basically just another job. The thing
that has to be made clear at this point, though,
is the fact that this survey was not going to
be some easy task. To properly study the river, one
had to almost constantly be out on the water in
the spring and summer in the deep South, a time
when the heat and humidity was at its worst. Still,
despite these crushing conditions, Humphreys threw himself into his work
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studying the river in depth to learn about how it
worked and how to best deal with its flooding. As
Humphrey said about his work, testing all the popular theories,
he couldn't help but come to the conclusion that the
levees only theory was extremely flawed. To begin with, the
Italian engineer's assertion that rivers had to carry the maximum
amount of sediment possible was very much not true based
(21:04):
upon his observations of the Mississippi. Also, in contrast to
the levees only theory, the fast of the current move
did not necessarily mean it carried more sediment. Therefore, the
prospect of the river, if restrained by levies, naturally carving
out its own bottom seemed highly unlikely. Indeed, if anything,
it seemed that outlets were far and away the better
option when it came to flood control. This research, however,
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it came in a price. Humphries, you see, was so
obsessed with his work that he even stopped writing to
his wife as he saw it as too much of
a distraction. Meanwhile, he also became so suspicious that Ellett
would try and steal his glory he took to yelling
at his assistance if they dared to speak with outsiders. Eventually,
then Humphries's single minded obsessiveness and the harsh conditions they
(21:47):
were working in proved to be too much, as he
reportedly collapsed as a result of some kind of nervous
breakdown that forced him to return home to Philadelphia to
rest and recover. As Humphries was laid up in bed, though,
Ali continued to work and would officially submit his report
in October eighteen fifty one. In it, Ellett warned that
the river was sure to have increasingly high floods due
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to the growth of communities around the upper portion of
the river and the reasons previously covered. He also completely
rejected the Levee's only theory, concluding that if anything following
such a path would only make the problem worse, all
the while giving people a false sense of security. As such,
Ellett proposed a more all encompassing approach. Yes, he suggested
(22:28):
that levee should indeed be improved and built stronger in
response to the increasing dangers of floods. At the same time, though,
he concluded it was just as if not even more important,
to enlarge the already existing outlets of the Mississippi while
also adding additional artificial ones and reservoirs so as to
deal with the excess water. Ellen's plan then would essentially
be both protecting communities by using levees to hold back
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the wooter, while also reducing the fed and strained onset
levees by allowing the wooded to safely drain off elsewhere.
Ellett then had essentially won the competition due to the
fact that he was the only one to submit his report,
what with Humphreys still laid up in bed. Despite this reality,
though Humphreys remained determined to finish his survey. The first
up in this process of claiming the glory that was
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rightfully his involved showing that the man whom he now
saw as his rival and thus his enemy. To do
this Humphreys used his political connections to conduct an eighteen
month study of European rivers, during which time he also
readily met with leading European hydraulic engineers, learning what he
could from them. The product of this year and a
half of work was a self published pamphlet that was
(23:34):
designed explicitly to attack Elli's methodology and conclusions. With this done,
even though Humphreys was officially tasked with overseeing surveys for
the Transcontinental Railroad project, he still continued to politic behind
the scenes to have the Mississippi Survey reopened, something which
he finally accomplished in eighteen fifty seven, at which poont
he sent a young lieutenant named Henry Abbott to finish
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the work of taking the various necessary measurements of the
river in his current, while Humphreys himself saw to his
other duties. When that work was finished in eighteen sixties,
Humphries paid little attention to how this country was fracturing
and falling apart, as his focus was purely on running
his long overdue report. Then, even as the war was
getting under way. Despite being an officer in the military,
(24:18):
Humphries was not given a combin assignment right away due
to the fact that he was known to be friends
with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As a result, he was
able to continue to work on his report. When he
was finally done, Humphreys would deliver the product of his
work to the Secretary at War. However, Mikely, figuring that
the Secretary of War had greater concerns at the moment,
Humphries also made sure to have an additional one thousand
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copies printed up, a number which were dispatched to Europe,
where his report was praised, even as it made no
real impact in the States just yet. With this done,
Humphreys too became preoccupied by the war, as he rapidly
became a brigadier general and a commander of a combat
infantry division. Humphreys would very much be thrown into the fire,
as his first combat experience would be in the Battle
(25:00):
at Fredericksburg. As such, he was a part of one
of the ill advised and ultimately pointless charges on les
and trenched positions. Indeed, by Humphreys out a mission quote
in ten or fifteen minutes, I lost more than one
thousand officers and men. This was more than twenty percent
of his command. Yet as disastrous as his battle on
these charges were, Humphries would describe this experience as quote
(25:22):
unquote sublime. Indeed, he would declare excitedly, quote the division
has made such a reputation as will make the fortunes
of many of its officers. Now say what you will
about his lack of concern about the casualties, but at
the very least Humphreys did not seem the shy away
from danger. In fact, he was also in the thick
of things at Gettysburg, as one of his fellow officers
would state that, quote the space occupied by the division
(25:45):
of Humphreys was a vortex of a cultron of fire,
the creator of a volcano of destruction. Humphreys was apparently
drawn to the excitement of battle, and thus was disappointed
when he became another officer in General Grant staff, although
by the end of the war he was put back
in command of troops as he became one of Grant's
core commanders who were charged with chasing down the fleeing
(26:05):
Savor and trader Robert E. Lee. Come the end of
the war, humphreys success in the battlefield only serve to
increase his influence as to the belated recognition of his
survey of the Mississippi, which was finally starting to gain traction.
In fact, virtually every major scientific society in the country
would vote to make Humphrey a member of their group.
Humphreys star was clearly on the rise. Indeeda's report on
(26:27):
the Mississippi would become the most influential document written about
the river, and in doing so far outshined his rival,
Allott's earlier survey, doing so in March part because it
was much more in depth and farer than Alets had been,
as the civil engineers simply had not conducted nearly the
amount of observations and measurements that went into Humphrey's report,
a fact that Humphrey's major to emphasize in his own
(26:49):
report as he criticized Ellott for theorizing without sufficient data
or the exactness of measurements necessary. Indeed, according to Humphrey's report,
Allott had not even made the attempt to get the
necessary infat Humphreys would even go so far as to
assert that the rival survey was so poorly done that
the only reason why they'd gotten any kind of notice
was purely due to Alex's prior reputation, as he argued
(27:11):
that had so obscure a writer published such a report
and would have been ignored. Indeed, in Humphrey's own estimation,
Elli's conclusions had been quote most erroneous and most mischievous.
Now you may be thinking this all seems a bit petty.
Surely none of this was truly necessary. If Humphrey's work
was as superior as he claimed it to be, he
could have just allowed his report to stand on its
(27:33):
own merits, rather than take so many shots at his rival,
to which I say, you don't know how petty he
was being, as I haven't told you one important detail.
Luc was no longer thret in any way to Humphreys. Indeed,
there was no way for these civil engineer to respond
to these various shots of his character and the quality
of his work because he had died during the war.
(27:53):
Humphreys then was kicking dirt on a dead man's grave,
simply because he had dared to allow himself to be
seen as Humphrey's rival. That all being said, Humphreys pretty
much came to the same conclusion that Altt had when
it came to the question of the levee's only theory,
as during the course of his report, Humphreys would repeatedly
dismiss the levee's only approach, warning that should advocates of
such an approach get their way by closing off the
(28:15):
Mississippi's natural outlets, then quote disastrous consequences would result. At
the same time, though Humphries apparently could not allow himself
to fully come to the same conclusions that Allott had
in what Humphreys insisted was a far inferior survey. As such,
he would not recommend outlets as being the best possible
solution to the river's flooding problem. In doing so, he
(28:36):
put forth a suggestion that outlets risked altering the main
course of the river, an idea that notably, the man
Heffries had put in charge of gathering the additional measurements
that he based his report on, had rejected as a
groundless fear, meaning that basically, the man largely responsible for
gathering all the data that made his report superior to
Allot's had concluded based upon said research that this wasn't
(28:57):
a worry, and yet Humfrey still put it forward. Meanwhile,
he also concluded that the costs of constructing additional artificial
outlets would be too expensive In doing so, though, Humphreys
failed to calculate that the rapidly rising value of the
land around the river that would be destroyed in a
flood would likely justify such an expense before too long.
In the end, then, the only government funded projects that
(29:19):
he supported in the name of controlling the Mississippi's flooding
was the construction of levees, which was a stark change
from Alex's conclusion that supported the construction and strengthening of
levees in addition to the expansion of outlets to give
the excess wordre someplace to go. So, while Humphries had
also very much rejected the levee's only theory, as both
his and Ellant's survey both agreed that the Mississippi was
(29:40):
not going to dredge out its own riverbed, he would
only support the construction of levees to control a flood.
The thing, though, was despite ellen and Humphries both saying
that the levees only theory wouldn't work. Humphries threw his
actions here, and when dealing with yet another rival, would
set the stage with the levee's only approach to become
the US government's official policy concidering the mississ. Detail of
(30:01):
how that happened and the many consequences that would result
from that turn of events, however, will have to for
now remain a story for another time. Thank you for
listening to Distorted History. If you would like to help out,
please rate and review the podcasts and tell your friends
if you think they'll be interested. If you would like
(30:23):
ad free in early episodes, I set up such a
feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History. By
paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access to
these special ad free feed available on Spotify or likely
through your podcast app as long as it uses an
RSS feed. I will continue to post sources on kofe
and Twitter, though, as it's just a convenient place to
go to access that information. Regardless, once again, thank you
(30:47):
for listening and until next time. La
My name is Eric Gaskell and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Her and program I don't give you Mary Nals and
Joy a blunder look. I'm raging. Unnoted the Arrah.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A long struggle for freedom. It really is a revolution
when the levy breaks as A song that at this
point is most well known as being the final track
off of led Zeppelin's most successful album, nineteen seventy one's
led Zeppelin four, A song famous for the tremendous sound
(00:49):
of John Bonham's drums that provide its unmistakable backbone, over
top of which is laid the slick but heavy sli
guitar work of Jimmy Page. He always sawid bass playing
of John Paul Jones, the power powerful vocals of singer
Robert Plant, and even an harmonica track that is played
in reverse. It's a powerful and heavy track that, in
my opinion, after going through the band's entire history for
(01:10):
an earlier sound Story series, is one of their best. Yet.
While many may know the song through led Zeppelin, they
may not be familiar with the original. A blue song
from nineteen twenty nine, which is credited to a wife
and husband duo Memphis. Many in Kansas, Jill McCoy. Fewer
still then are likely aware of the real world events
that inspired the song. A disaster, while little Remember Today,
(01:32):
still had a tremendous impact on American cultural history and
American history in general, an event that one bread Cross
publicist would call quote one of the most overwhelming tragedy's
natures ever enacted, in which the commercial Appeal out of
Memphis would characterize as the quote greatest disaster that ever
afflicted our country. I'm speaking, of course, of the nineteen
(01:52):
twenty seven Mississippi flood, which the Chicago Tribune described as
the quote most disastrous flood this country has ever had,
in which the New Iberia Enterprise at a Louisiana would
characterize se quote greatest of all floods since the days
of Noah. Yet, before I go any further into talking
about this tremendous disaster, first, like always, I want to
(02:12):
acknowledge my sources for this series, which include Richard M.
Mizzel Junior's Backward Are Blues, the Mississippi Flood of nineteen
twenty seven, in the African American imagination, John M. Berry's
Rising Tide, the Great Mississippi flood of nineteen twenty seven
and how it changed America and Susan Scott perishes the
flood year nineteen twenty seven a cultural history, and like always,
(02:34):
a full list of these and any other sources like
websites that I used, will be available on this podcast,
Blue Sky and CoFe pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't
want to be bothered skipping through commercials, there is always
an ad free feed available to subscribers at patreon dot
com slash Distorted History. And with all that being said,
let's begin. As we get started, I want to make
it clear that my attention with this series is to
(02:56):
at least in part, try to experience this flood through
the blues musicians who wrote about it, because, as historian
Richard Mazzell wrote, quote, the blues is more than simply
an art form. It is also a medium of helping
people both bear witness and kobe motionally and intellectually with
the experiences of blackness in America. Indeed, these simple affected
Over fifty blue songs were recorded about the nineteen twenty
(03:17):
seven flood, goes a long way to illustrate the degree
to which African Americans were affected by this disaster. Yet
before we can get to talking about the blue songs
that were written about the flood and the impact that
it had on the country and its culture, we first
have to talk about the flood itself. More than that, though,
we also have to talk about the hows and whys
it happened. Something with it selfle span several episodes, as
(03:39):
we can't really talk about the blue songs that discuss
the experiences of those affected by the flood until we
get to the flood itself. But the story of how
and why the flood happened is very much worth telling because,
as we will see, did not have to be as
bad as it was. As to be clear, this wasn't
your normal run of the mill flood. This was a
massive disaster that affected sins seven states, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi,
(04:04):
and Louisiana. In all, some eleven hundred square miles from Chiro,
Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico would be flooded, affecting
millions of people in the process. Indeed, when the aforementioned
Red Cross publicist viewed the flood first hand from a
Navy seaplane two thousand feet up in the air, he
beheld a vast floodplain dotted with quote unquote islands where
refugees crowded in alongside animals, And to be clear, the
(04:26):
Red Cross publicists beheld the scene from a plane that
was flying south from Memphis, meaning he was nowhere near
the ocean. Instead, the lands all around the Mississippi River
had become like a vast inland sea that was filled
with debris that ranged from the remains of wregged homes,
the bodies of dead animals, and likely the bodies of
dead people as well as While the Red Cross estimated
(04:47):
that around two hundred deaths had been caused by the flood,
the actual number is believed to have been significantly higher. That, however,
is just a taste of the death and destruction caused
by this flood. Now I will go into much greater
detail and later episodes, but again, before we get there,
we have to understand how and why the flood happened.
As I think it's quite important to understand that in
(05:07):
many ways, the nineteen twenty seven flood was a man
made disaster, granted unusually heavy and frequent rain throughout the country,
especially within the areas that fed into the Mississippi was
the immediate catalyst of the disaster. Yet make no mistake,
the reason why the flood was as bad as it
was comes down to the choices that Americans obeyed to
alter the environment. To understand how this happened, then you
(05:29):
first have to understand the size and scope of the
Mississippi River. As you see, the Mississippi River system is
both very large and very complex, as it effectively connects
forty percent of the United States environmentally, by which I
mean various river streams and tributaries from thirty one states
between the Rocky and Alleghany Mountains all feed into the
Mississippi River one way or another. The Mississippi River Valley
(05:51):
then stretches from the Gulf of Mexico into Canada, while
a raging from New York State and North Carolina and
the east all the way west to Idaho and New Mexico,
which is important to understand because environmental changes in these
various states could potentially have an effect on the Mississippi
River itself and by extension, the land surrounding it. The
thing was, these efects could seem minor or inconsequential most
(06:12):
of the time until that is a certain combination of
factors and events created a disaster of unimaginable scope. The
first of the environmental alterations that would eventually lead to
the nineteen twenty seven flood started as far back as
eighteen oh five, when the lumber industry began to cut
down the white pine forest of New York and Pennsylvania. Then,
as those lands were cleared of trees, the lumber industry
(06:33):
moved into the Upper Midwest, focusing on that region from
roughly eighteen fifty to eighteen ninety. The clear cutting of
forests here, in particular, would have a major impact on
the Mississippi River. Then, at the same time as the
lumber industry was webbing out the long standing forest in
the Upper Midwest, the white settlers in Ohio were also
clear cutting their lands as well. For a good example
of this process, I actually had to turn back to
(06:55):
my research on the Battle of the Little Bighorn and
Stephen E. Ambrose's book Crazy Horse and Custer, as within
it he describes the win in which the Ohio settlers
cleared their land. As you see, the vast, dense forests
that existed there were seen as nothing but a hindrance
to these white cellars. After all, the trees blocked out
the sun, keeping it from raging their crops, and their
roots used up the nutrients in the soil that these
(07:15):
settlers believed would be better used by their crops. Essentially,
then the process wents something like this. These settlers would
cut down and tear out all the bushes, scrubs, and
various undergrowth in the area they were clearing out, a
process that would reportedly take a good forehand sixteen days
to clear out an acre of land. Now when it
came to the big trees, Unlike the lumber industry, these settlers,
in their efforts to clear the land for their farms,
(07:37):
cut down more trees than they could use. Sure, trees
were potential building material for all manner of things, from
homes to furniture, and at the very least it could
be used as fuel to keep homes warm. The thing,
whilst the Ohio settlers are cutting down so many trees,
there were simply more wood than they believe could ever
be used, so they often just burn the trees in
massive bonfires. Basically, they would chop the limbs the large
(08:00):
trees down into ten foot links that they would then
pile against the trunk and set on fire. Now, this
did not consume the tree, but instead kind of half
burned it, at which point the now half burned, dried
out lungs were piled together and then properly set a
blaze in massive bonfires that serve no other purpose then
to destroy the fallen trees. It's estimated that some ten
to fifteen acres of trees a day were consumed in
(08:22):
this manner in Ohio during the early to mid eighteen hundreds.
While the lumber industry did not get in on this
and instead allow the lumber and firewood to simply be destroyed,
I don't really know, as again, the lumber industry was
already a thing, as by eighteen fifty lumber was the
main industry in Minnesota. Indeed, the trees harvested in the
Upper Midwest region would be the primary source of wood
(08:43):
for the United States until eighteen ninety. Now, regardless of
whether these trees were actually used for something or simply
cut down and destroyed to clear farmland, the fact remains
that during this period the massive fares had once been
a part of the American landscape board, disappearing. The clear
cutting of so many trees would sure to have a
tremendous impact on the environment in general, but for our purposes,
(09:04):
this all had a direct impact on the Mississippi River
and its ability to flood. Forest dou see naturally absorb water,
as not only do the trees and plants took up
the water through their roots, but the miscellaneous detritis like twigs, leaves,
fallen logs, and the varioushrubs and grasses within the forest
ensure that the water stays in place long enough so
it can be absorbed into the soil where the plants
(09:25):
and their roots can subsequently make use of it. Without
these farests, then all the water that would have been
retained in places like Ohio and the Upper Midwest had
no place to go, but the various brooks and streams
that fed into the larger rivers then in turn eventually
fed into the Mississippi itself. Meanwhile, the replacement of the
natural prairie grasses with farms and ranches would also have
a similar effect. This process started in the eighteen sixties
(09:48):
with the destruction of large swass of the prairie grassland
via a large scale cannel ranching which took off during
that time. Then starting around the eighteen eighties, even more
swass of the prairie grassland were transformed into far growing
wheat and corn, a process that accelerated even further when
the demand for wheat during the First World War combined
with new mechanical technology to transform the former grasslands into
(10:10):
large scale industrial farms, a transformation which light the destruction
of the forest also severely depleted that area's ability to
absorb in store water. As you see, the prairie grasses,
especially the tall ones, had roots that stretched six feet
down into the soil, which helped to absorb and trap water. Meanwhile,
as those upstream more effectively, if unintentionally, increasing the amount
(10:31):
of water that was flowing down the Mississippi, those further
down the river were also altering the environment in their region.
In doing so, they were ensuring that when the floodwaters
invariably came, the natural processes that would normally absorb such
access were removed. You see, over time, through the normal
process of depositing soil, bends in the river were created. Eventually, though,
(10:52):
these bends would grow so extreme that the river just
naturally started cutting through them. This process would leave behind
areas full of ridges and rich soil in which dense
hardwood forest took root features, which, when the floodwaters came,
would naturally work to contain and dissipate the floods of
phex Southerners, however, with the admitted help of Northern and
English capitalists, would allow these forests to also be destroyed.
(11:15):
As you see, after the lumber industry had exhausted the
trees in the Upper Midwest, they had turned their attention south.
As a result, by the turn of the century, the
South had become the largest producer of lumber, as the
region was responsible for thirty two percent of the national whole.
Soon then the thick, dense forest of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana,
and Mississippi, which in the past had helped to absorb
(11:36):
the river's floodwaters, were consumed. Indeed, one observer would compare
the sit of these clear cut forest to the battles
guarred fields of France after the First World War. At
the same time as the lover was being harvested from
these forests, Southern planters and investors were looking to turn
that same land into cotton growing territory, which, unlike the
forest that once stood there, would do little to contain
(11:57):
the floodwaters. This also so to put more people in
harm's way, as the homes of the people who would
now work this land were being built in places that
had once served to absorb the floodwaters, people who were
more often than non poor black sharecroppers and nichue that
we'll definitely talk about more in subsequent episodes. In all, then,
drastic changes were being made to the environment all along
(12:19):
the river that both increased the amount of water that
would be flowing into it and also removing the ability
of the land around the river to absorb it. Making
this even worse was the fact that all these changes
were more and less taking place in the same general
space and time, meaning that the effect of all these
changes would be felt simultaneously, compounding the size and scope
all the disaster. As the areas around the Mississippi were
(13:07):
becoming more populated, there was an increase in demand for
the federal government to do something about the river in
terms of navigating it and controlling its tendency to flood.
As you see the Mississippi rivers both very large and
very complex. You might think that rivers are simple things.
What is just constantly moving in one direction to the sea.
But it's more complicated than that. The Mississippi's currents, for example,
(13:28):
are not uniform throughout. There is not one singular current
or velocity at which the river flows. Indeed, in just
a singular section on the river, there are potentially multiple
currents moving in different directions, not to mention multiple depths
on the riverbed, all of which can be challenging and
often navigate when the river is moving in a relatively
straight line. But when you reach a bend, especially the
(13:49):
more extreme ones, the collision between the river and its
earthen banks create quite a bit of disturbance than What's
worse is the fact that these problems magnify whenever the
river floods, as more water means more problems, all of
which is important as people wanted to use the river
not just to travel, but is an easy way to
transport goods, which is why they called upon the government
(14:10):
to do something to make navigating the river easier. Now.
One of the main people who would play a role
in the government's attempts to try and tame and control
the mighty Mississippi was Andrew Atkinson Humphries. Andrew had been
born in Philadelphia in eighteen ten as the only child
of a family of some wealth and status. Then Andrew would,
age sixteen, would enter West Point, the Army's officer training
(14:31):
school and a place they claimed to provide the best
education in the country. Yet, as I noted in my
series on the Battle of the Little Baykhorn, this was
not necessarily the case, as West Points education mainly consisted
of rote memorization over actually understanding and applying the knowledge.
That being said, the academy did have an engineering program
that was second to none in the country at the time. Indeed,
(14:53):
Andrew Humphreys particularly enjoyed these engineering courses and the challenges
they presented. He also very much craved Yet when he
finally got some win in eighteen thirty six he was
sent off to fight these seminoles in Florida, he got sick. Now,
this was not an uncommon issue, as we saw in
my series on the Seminole Wars. Humphrey's illness, though, was
particularly bad as he was forced to resign from the Army.
(15:15):
All was not lost, though, as he found work as
an engineer and even eventually returned to the Army as
a first lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical engineers. Meanwhile,
as a part of the federal government's attempts to better
understand and control the Mississippi Congress would authorize a survey
of the lower section on the river, hoping to figure
out how to do just that, a survey that Humphreys
very much wanted to lead. Humphreys, you see, was incredibly ambitious. Indeed,
(15:40):
Humphreys had already proven himself to be an apt politician,
skilled and playing games behind the scenes. For example, once
he had a rival accused of conduct unbecoming of an officer,
basically just to ensure that his rival did not get
a good appointment. Additionally, Humphreys at one point also managed
to maneuver himself into taking over the duties of his
own superior who when he realized what had and then
(16:00):
tried to respond, Humphreys was protected by the frenzied made
in high places. Humphrey's skills as a political animal are
important to note because even though the army supported as
candidacy to conduct this survey, he was not the only
one up for the job. As you see, at this
time there was a burden in conflict between the By now,
while established military engineers like Humphreys and the upstart but
(16:21):
growing civil engineer profession you see as mentioned earlier. For
some time, West Point had really been the only true
school for engineers in the United States. By the eighteen fifties,
though a number of institutes for higher learning had developed
their own engineering programs, programs that were more flexible and
adaptable to new technology and knowledge than the more old
school regimented military engineering training, and so the Army's Corps
(16:44):
of Engineers are being challenged for supremacy in the field,
and this survey of the Lower Mississippi was seen as
a prime opportunity to show what civil engineers could do.
So while the Army pushed for Humphries to get the job,
civil engineers and their supporters wanted Congress to give the
job to Charles Ellett Junior. Ellett was seemingly a natural
rival for the ambitious Humphreys, as the two men were
(17:06):
basically the exact same age. So while Humphreys had risen
high in the Army Corps of Engineers, Ellett had become
the most renowned civil engineer in the US at the time.
Faced with such a crossroads, President Millard Fillmore opted to
choose both, as he appropriated fifty thousand dollars for the survey,
money that was to be divided equally between the two
men so they could each conduct their own, independent and
(17:28):
separate surveys. Now, one of the crucial questions they hoped
to answer through this project was the best way to
deal with the Mississippi when it started to flood. You see,
there are two basic ways of dealing with a flooding river,
levees and outlets. To put it simply, levees work to
hold the flood water's back, while outlets gave the waters
some place to go, both essentially being adaptations of natural processes.
(17:49):
As you see, the Mississippi could effectively create its own
levees when it deposited sediment after it overflowed its normal confines. Similarly,
the river naturally had its own outlets where acxis could go,
with such natural outlets oftentimes being areas that have been
carved out by prior funds. Now outlets were a popular solution.
After all, it was easy to understand because there's similar
(18:11):
in concept of pulling the plug from a bathtub. Basically,
if you want the wood to stop rising near where
people lived, give it someplace else to go. Many at
the time then liked this simple idea. Indeed, as far
back as eighteen sixteen, there had been proposals to create
artificial spillways so as to drain excess floodwater from the
Mississippi into Lake Pontitrain and or Lake Bourne, both of
(18:32):
which emptied into the sea. That being said, not everyone
was behind this idea, and instead not only supported the
construction of levees, but believed that levees alone were the solution.
This so called levee's only concept was based upon a
theory first proposed by an Italian engineer in the seventeenth century.
You see, this engineer believe that rivers always carried the
(18:52):
maximum amount of sediment possible. Furthermore, the fast the river's current,
the larger the amount of sediment it could carry. Therefore,
or as the theory went, if you increased the flow
of the river by say, preventing it from draining all
through outlets and only using levees to restream the river,
it would naturally pick up more sediment, sediment which would
naturally come from the river bed itself, meaning that by
(19:13):
increasing the flow, the river would naturally carve out its
own riverbed, making the river itself deeper and thus make
it so more water could flow without risk of flooding. Indeed,
according to believers in this theory, by allowing the water
to escape in the outlets, you slowed the flow of
the river, which in turn caused it to a deposit sediment,
thereby raising the riverbed, which would make flooding more likely.
(19:35):
Now this was just a theory, but one that had
its focal supporters. Therefore, one of the main goals of
these surveys was to figure out whether this theory held
water or not. Now, despite the rivalry between the civil
and military engineers, the two men selected to carry out
the survey did not see this mission as having the
same import For Humphres, this was his moment. This was
(19:57):
the opportunity of his lifetime. This survey offered him the
chance to earn a reputation that was second to none.
The thing was, while this survey was the work of
Humphrey's life, the thing that could make him For Elliot,
he already had his reputation. He was recognized as the
best civil engineer in the country. Ellen then was essentially
being used upon in this contest between civil and military engineers.
(20:20):
As such, this was basically just another job. The thing
that has to be made clear at this point, though,
is the fact that this survey was not going to
be some easy task. To properly study the river, one
had to almost constantly be out on the water in
the spring and summer in the deep South, a time
when the heat and humidity was at its worst. Still,
despite these crushing conditions, Humphreys threw himself into his work
(20:43):
studying the river in depth to learn about how it
worked and how to best deal with its flooding. As
Humphrey said about his work, testing all the popular theories,
he couldn't help but come to the conclusion that the
levees only theory was extremely flawed. To begin with, the
Italian engineer's assertion that rivers had to carry the maximum
amount of sediment possible was very much not true based
(21:04):
upon his observations of the Mississippi. Also, in contrast to
the levees only theory, the fast of the current move
did not necessarily mean it carried more sediment. Therefore, the
prospect of the river, if restrained by levies, naturally carving
out its own bottom seemed highly unlikely. Indeed, if anything,
it seemed that outlets were far and away the better
option when it came to flood control. This research, however,
(21:27):
it came in a price. Humphries, you see, was so
obsessed with his work that he even stopped writing to
his wife as he saw it as too much of
a distraction. Meanwhile, he also became so suspicious that Ellett
would try and steal his glory he took to yelling
at his assistance if they dared to speak with outsiders. Eventually,
then Humphries's single minded obsessiveness and the harsh conditions they
(21:47):
were working in proved to be too much, as he
reportedly collapsed as a result of some kind of nervous
breakdown that forced him to return home to Philadelphia to
rest and recover. As Humphries was laid up in bed, though,
Ali continued to work and would officially submit his report
in October eighteen fifty one. In it, Ellett warned that
the river was sure to have increasingly high floods due
(22:07):
to the growth of communities around the upper portion of
the river and the reasons previously covered. He also completely
rejected the Levee's only theory, concluding that if anything following
such a path would only make the problem worse, all
the while giving people a false sense of security. As such,
Ellett proposed a more all encompassing approach. Yes, he suggested
(22:28):
that levee should indeed be improved and built stronger in
response to the increasing dangers of floods. At the same time, though,
he concluded it was just as if not even more important,
to enlarge the already existing outlets of the Mississippi while
also adding additional artificial ones and reservoirs so as to
deal with the excess water. Ellen's plan then would essentially
be both protecting communities by using levees to hold back
(22:50):
the wooter, while also reducing the fed and strained onset
levees by allowing the wooded to safely drain off elsewhere.
Ellett then had essentially won the competition due to the
fact that he was the only one to submit his report,
what with Humphreys still laid up in bed. Despite this reality,
though Humphreys remained determined to finish his survey. The first
up in this process of claiming the glory that was
(23:12):
rightfully his involved showing that the man whom he now
saw as his rival and thus his enemy. To do
this Humphreys used his political connections to conduct an eighteen
month study of European rivers, during which time he also
readily met with leading European hydraulic engineers, learning what he
could from them. The product of this year and a
half of work was a self published pamphlet that was
(23:34):
designed explicitly to attack Elli's methodology and conclusions. With this done,
even though Humphreys was officially tasked with overseeing surveys for
the Transcontinental Railroad project, he still continued to politic behind
the scenes to have the Mississippi Survey reopened, something which
he finally accomplished in eighteen fifty seven, at which poont
he sent a young lieutenant named Henry Abbott to finish
(23:57):
the work of taking the various necessary measurements of the
river in his current, while Humphreys himself saw to his
other duties. When that work was finished in eighteen sixties,
Humphries paid little attention to how this country was fracturing
and falling apart, as his focus was purely on running
his long overdue report. Then, even as the war was
getting under way. Despite being an officer in the military,
(24:18):
Humphries was not given a combin assignment right away due
to the fact that he was known to be friends
with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As a result, he was
able to continue to work on his report. When he
was finally done, Humphreys would deliver the product of his
work to the Secretary at War. However, Mikely, figuring that
the Secretary of War had greater concerns at the moment,
Humphries also made sure to have an additional one thousand
(24:40):
copies printed up, a number which were dispatched to Europe,
where his report was praised, even as it made no
real impact in the States just yet. With this done,
Humphreys too became preoccupied by the war, as he rapidly
became a brigadier general and a commander of a combat
infantry division. Humphreys would very much be thrown into the fire,
as his first combat experience would be in the Battle
(25:00):
at Fredericksburg. As such, he was a part of one
of the ill advised and ultimately pointless charges on les
and trenched positions. Indeed, by Humphreys out a mission quote
in ten or fifteen minutes, I lost more than one
thousand officers and men. This was more than twenty percent
of his command. Yet as disastrous as his battle on
these charges were, Humphries would describe this experience as quote
(25:22):
unquote sublime. Indeed, he would declare excitedly, quote the division
has made such a reputation as will make the fortunes
of many of its officers. Now say what you will
about his lack of concern about the casualties, but at
the very least Humphreys did not seem the shy away
from danger. In fact, he was also in the thick
of things at Gettysburg, as one of his fellow officers
would state that, quote the space occupied by the division
(25:45):
of Humphreys was a vortex of a cultron of fire,
the creator of a volcano of destruction. Humphreys was apparently
drawn to the excitement of battle, and thus was disappointed
when he became another officer in General Grant staff, although
by the end of the war he was put back
in command of troops as he became one of Grant's
core commanders who were charged with chasing down the fleeing
(26:05):
Savor and trader Robert E. Lee. Come the end of
the war, humphreys success in the battlefield only serve to
increase his influence as to the belated recognition of his
survey of the Mississippi, which was finally starting to gain traction.
In fact, virtually every major scientific society in the country
would vote to make Humphrey a member of their group.
Humphreys star was clearly on the rise. Indeeda's report on
(26:27):
the Mississippi would become the most influential document written about
the river, and in doing so far outshined his rival,
Allott's earlier survey, doing so in March part because it
was much more in depth and farer than Alets had been,
as the civil engineers simply had not conducted nearly the
amount of observations and measurements that went into Humphrey's report,
a fact that Humphrey's major to emphasize in his own
(26:49):
report as he criticized Ellott for theorizing without sufficient data
or the exactness of measurements necessary. Indeed, according to Humphrey's report,
Allott had not even made the attempt to get the
necessary infat Humphreys would even go so far as to
assert that the rival survey was so poorly done that
the only reason why they'd gotten any kind of notice
was purely due to Alex's prior reputation, as he argued
(27:11):
that had so obscure a writer published such a report
and would have been ignored. Indeed, in Humphrey's own estimation,
Elli's conclusions had been quote most erroneous and most mischievous.
Now you may be thinking this all seems a bit petty.
Surely none of this was truly necessary. If Humphrey's work
was as superior as he claimed it to be, he
could have just allowed his report to stand on its
(27:33):
own merits, rather than take so many shots at his rival,
to which I say, you don't know how petty he
was being, as I haven't told you one important detail.
Luc was no longer thret in any way to Humphreys. Indeed,
there was no way for these civil engineer to respond
to these various shots of his character and the quality
of his work because he had died during the war.
(27:53):
Humphreys then was kicking dirt on a dead man's grave,
simply because he had dared to allow himself to be
seen as Humphrey's rival. That all being said, Humphreys pretty
much came to the same conclusion that Altt had when
it came to the question of the levee's only theory,
as during the course of his report, Humphreys would repeatedly
dismiss the levee's only approach, warning that should advocates of
such an approach get their way by closing off the
(28:15):
Mississippi's natural outlets, then quote disastrous consequences would result. At
the same time, though Humphries apparently could not allow himself
to fully come to the same conclusions that Allott had
in what Humphreys insisted was a far inferior survey. As such,
he would not recommend outlets as being the best possible
solution to the river's flooding problem. In doing so, he
(28:36):
put forth a suggestion that outlets risked altering the main
course of the river, an idea that notably, the man
Heffries had put in charge of gathering the additional measurements
that he based his report on, had rejected as a
groundless fear, meaning that basically, the man largely responsible for
gathering all the data that made his report superior to
Allot's had concluded based upon said research that this wasn't
(28:57):
a worry, and yet Humfrey still put it forward. Meanwhile,
he also concluded that the costs of constructing additional artificial
outlets would be too expensive In doing so, though, Humphreys
failed to calculate that the rapidly rising value of the
land around the river that would be destroyed in a
flood would likely justify such an expense before too long.
In the end, then, the only government funded projects that
(29:19):
he supported in the name of controlling the Mississippi's flooding
was the construction of levees, which was a stark change
from Alex's conclusion that supported the construction and strengthening of
levees in addition to the expansion of outlets to give
the excess wordre someplace to go. So, while Humphries had
also very much rejected the levee's only theory, as both
his and Ellant's survey both agreed that the Mississippi was
(29:40):
not going to dredge out its own riverbed, he would
only support the construction of levees to control a flood.
The thing, though, was despite ellen and Humphries both saying
that the levees only theory wouldn't work. Humphries threw his
actions here, and when dealing with yet another rival, would
set the stage with the levee's only approach to become
the US government's official policy concidering the mississ. Detail of
(30:01):
how that happened and the many consequences that would result
from that turn of events, however, will have to for
now remain a story for another time. Thank you for
listening to Distorted History. If you would like to help out,
please rate and review the podcasts and tell your friends
if you think they'll be interested. If you would like
(30:23):
ad free in early episodes, I set up such a
feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History. By
paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access to
these special ad free feed available on Spotify or likely
through your podcast app as long as it uses an
RSS feed. I will continue to post sources on kofe
and Twitter, though, as it's just a convenient place to
go to access that information. Regardless, once again, thank you
(30:47):
for listening and until next time. La
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