Captain W. W. Withenbury's 1838–1842 "Red River Reminiscences"

15. To Red River

The Reminiscences  93 none of my fellow steamboatmen have had a like experience, then I must ask the soldiers who served in the Southern swamps, in the late war, to draw upon their memories, and I know they can fill up the picture; and many a poor “dark skin” will be remembered as having, like the “Good Samaritan,” poured oil upon his wounds while lingering and suffering by the wayside, and in his truly humane heart blessed God that he had been enabled to lighten the sorrows and add to the comforts of at least one OUTSIDER. Notes 1. At the downstream end of the third large bluff above Shreveport. 2. A small cake of cornmeal that has been baked or fried hard. 3. This is the last mention of Bails as a participant in the trip of the Relief, although he obviously went back to the Relief with the party. He had left the Relief by Letter 20. 15  To Red River • Withenbury does not describe how Ross or the party of which Withenbury was a member got back to Erwin’s Bluff; but this letter finds Black Bayou rising and the Relief setting off for Red River. Most of the letter is devoted to a description of Caddo Prairie planters and ends with the Relief reaching Red River.  94  Red River Reminiscences O n the morning of December 28, 1841, new life was infused into all hands by the cheering words, “the Bayou is rising,” and from mouth to mouth these words flew until everybody was alive to the importance of making a start. Accordingly, we commenced taking down the bridge, and Colonel Erwin, true to his promise, sent us all the help we needed. The presence of his negro carpenter was very essential, and he was on hand early. We found him an ingenious and practical mechanic, and although not a professional “Hydraulic Engineer,” he had evinced a good degree of common sense in the planning and construction of this bridge, which common sense, some whom I wot1 of about these parts, of the “hydraulic” persuasion, I fear are sadly deficient in.2 Before our dinner was announced, the bridge was taken down and the boat pulled above it and made fast, and immediately after dinner all hands went to work and in about three hours the bridge was in place again “as good as new;” and then as we began to get up steam, for the first time in fifteen days, every moment was suggestive of a parting scene, and by the time the engine’s “ready bell” had begun its merry jingling, the neighbors all, and some of the boat’s company, were in a “mellow mood,” and Captain Ross thought it was a little uncertain where the hand-shaking commenced or where was the place to leave it off. (Captain Ross never signed the pledge). By dint of hard work on the part of everybody, we got through Sewell’s canal a little before dark, notwithstanding we had to contend an hour or so with the remains of two of Captain Crooks’ dams, which he had built the previous season; and we lay at the foot of Stumpy Falls until morning. Here several of the neighbors visited us to take a parting drink and help us to while away a few The Reminiscences  95 leisure hours before lying down to be lulled to sleep by the music of the tumbling waters. And now, as my “scribblings” at Erwin’s Bluff and Caddo Prairie are about drawing to a close, I must take a parting look at the habitués of that particular locality, and review in as charitable manner as possible their manner of living, their peculiar tastes and their social relations to each other. So far I have made mention of only two persons among the “white folks”—Colonel Leander Erwin and his son Albertus—and now I must mention the fact that the Erwins were from Kentucky, and reported themselves related to that illustrious statesman, Henry Clay. The Caddo Prairie plantation belonged to James Erwin, Esq., a brother of Leander. He owned, also, a large plantation on the Mississippi River, but bought the Caddo Prairie place because of its fertility and its seclusion, or rather isolation, from the outer world.3 It was a good place on which to reform unruly negroes , for, as will have been discovered from my...