The southern forces, "the Swamp Rats," used small boats to get around as well as their horses. These were a lot of local men who knew the swamps rather well from hunting and trapping before the war. The "Bootheel" population was mostly southern--and many of them are still conversant about their southern heritage.

The Union forces used Mississippi River steamboats under the employ of the U.S. to drop off cavalry who would then work their way across one end of the swamps to a garrison post on the other side. After a skirmish, they had to make slings between two horses or on the side of each horse to carry the badly wounded.

In other woods, both sides used horses to get around in the swamps. Not marines nor navy at least in the Missouri "Bootheel."

The swamps were drained by canalization in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and turned into excellent cotton and lately soybean cropland.

Bruce Nichols