Chuck

You said "If there was enough water to navigate the Arkansas then there would have been enough water to cross over to the White", by the use of Smith's cutoff.

That is true EXCEPT that the PONCHARTRAIN couldn't really navigate the Lower Arkansas River unless the River was in a high water stage. The PONCHARTRAIN needed 11 feet of free draft water to navigate the Arkansas River. This was 5 feet deeper that the amount of water required by the Eads Class Union Gunboat such as the USS MOUND CITY and USS CAIRO which only require 6 feet of water to navigate.

That is a depth that is not even maintained by the US Army Corp of Engineers even today in the navigation channel of the Arkansas River. As has recently been proven, as you are well aware, by the episode of the USS RAZORBACK submarine being brought to Little Rock this last month.

2nd Smith's Cutoff was a hazardous Channel and dangerous to navigate because of the shifting currents within that channel caused by the differences in water levels between the two rivers, the Arkansas and the White. Those shifting currents quite regularly moved sandbars and snags causing the channel charactor to change in a matter of just a few minutes or hours in some cases.

Another factor that you are well aware of in your research, is that after the spring rains of 1862 Arkansas suffered from a noticable enough of a drought during the late spring summer and fall of 1862 that forage was so scarce that many regiments of cavalry were dismounted and converted into Infantry because of the inability to feed the animals.

Part of the problem was in the method of construct of the PONCHARTRAIN. When it was constructed as the ELIZA SIMMONS it was primarily intended for use in the deeper waters and the stronger currents of the Mississippi River. Therefore it was built with her boilers and engine below her main deck. This construction method thereby resulted in freeing the main deck for more cargo such as bales of cotton. This main deck being open and clear made it ideal for the placement of large artillery when she was converted to a Gunboat. However, the boilers and engines being place below the main deck made her a deep draft vessel than normal steamboats.

So was your channel a sure bet that it could be navigated by the Ponchartrain? I doubt it. The only way that the PONCHARTRAIN got to Little Rock over the shoals of the Lower Arkansas River in the first place was because of the higher than normal water levels of late May and early June 1862, which had fallen by Mid-June.