dig a canal that would reroute the river from the Beulah bend. He obtained the idea when he noticed the floodwaters near Beulah Bend made the distance feasible. The tactic (Grant's Canal) had failed miserably at the Siege of Vicksburg but Selfridge put his men to work on digging a canal only a few hundred yards long. It didn't take long. In just a single day the water had made a raging torrent cut into the earth and carried even large trees. The next morning Selfridge couldn't wait. He opened up the new canal at full speed in the Conestonga, estimating the current to be at 12 knots and surprised transport ship that had seen them behind them the day prior. Admiral Porter was impressed. He wrote the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles on April 16, 1863 saying, "I have the honor to enclose a letter from Lieutenant-Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, which is interesting from the fact that it shows how easily cut-offs are made in the Mississippi when conducted with ordinary intelligence. I send a diagram which will explain the operation. We have been threatened for some time past with an attack from the Arkansas rebels in steamers. Every provision was made to meet it. Lieutenant-Commander Selfridge saw the difficulty in defending the mouths of White and Arkansas rivers while kept so far apart by a useless neck of land and proposed to me to cut it. I ordered him to do so, and he passed through with his vessel twenty- four hours after he cut the bend, this saving a distance of over 10 miles. The mouths of Arkansas and White River are now brought close together, and a small force can defend both. One of the worst points for guerrillas is also cut off, as these pests of the human race could, from the isthmus, attack a vessel on one side and be ready to meet her on the other as she came around; the distance being 10 miles around and half a mile across." Abandonment and destruction Though the cut had improved river traffic, the cut hastened the end of Napoleon. The Mississippi's water was soon eroding the banks of the town. Ten years after the canal was dug the town would be gone. Napoleon after the war was practically a ghost town. Although several families returned, most didn't. A Newspaper in Napoleon (The Napoleon