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EZI 00174
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by the Choctaws, Chickasavs, Alibamons, and other Indian tribes as a summer health resort, and it was even visited by the remote .Natchez tribe.
In the territorial days of Mississippi it vas frequented by the planters of Adams, Jefferson, and Claiborne counties, vho visited it by overland roadways and bridle paths.
The first important settlement was located at the extremity of the point, between the waters of the Bay and those of the Sound, the present site of the town.
Cannon Used Against British in 181^-
In I8lb the village was threatened by Cochrane's British flotill
The lamented and learned historian, Claiborne of Mississippi, when here a few years ago, related an amusing incident of this attack The place was defended by three small cannon (at least small for these days) and a weak garrison, vho were for beating a hasty retreat when they saw the overwhelming force of men in boats approaching the shore.
An aunt of Colonel Claiborne, then residing here, had visited the shore to vatch the coming of the distant British. When she heard that the garrison had determined to evacuate the place, she snatched a lighted cigar from the hands of an officer and touched off one of the guns. Finding the place defended by respectable-sized cannon, the British retired.
The American schooner Seahorse was sent to defend the settlement until the military sttores collected there could be brought off. The British flotilla attempted twice to capture this vessel but failed. Returning a third time in great force they would have succeeded, but the commander of the Seahorse blew up his vessel, burned the stores, and spiked the guns, which were bored out after the VJar of 1812.
During theCivil War the Federal forces threw two of the cannon into the Bound.
The more famous piece was hidden away in the back part of the town. Mr. Ulman, a prominent citi7en of the town, says the last salute it fired was four years ago on the Fourth of July by the hand of Colonel J. F. H. Claiborne, who begged the honor of firing a gun with which a woman had scared a British fleet.
The gun, with broken carriage and rusted barrel, is now lying near the railroad track.
Shieldsboro
vjhen the little settlement grew in^o a town it was called, after an officer in the old United Stater ArmyY'Shieldsboro,'1 a name which it bore until recent years, when it wfas rechartered under the name of "Bay St. Louis."