The water was falling, and in a few days there would not be depth enough to use boats; nor would the land be dry enough to march over.

McClernand had already found a new route from Smith's plantation where the crevasse occurred, to Perkins' plantation, eight to twelve miles below New Carthage.

This increased the march from Milliken's Bend from twenty-seven to nearly forty miles.

Four bridges had to be built across bayous, two of them each over six hundred feet long, making about two thousand feet of bridging in all.

The river falling made the current in these bayous very rapid, increasing the difficulty of building and permanently fastening these bridges; but the ingenuity of the "Yankee soldier" was equal to any emergency.