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Capt. Jones removed his boats from Biloxi to the entrance to Lake Borgne where he stationed them across the channel in a line between Malheureux Island and Point Clear where the southwest shore of the Bay of St. Louis turns west toward the Rigolets.
During the night of the December 12th, Captain Lockyer moved the 42 barges carrying over 1000 British troops, through the pass between Ship and Cat Islands and then westward along the Mississippi Coast to anchor on the morning the 13th at a point off Pass Christian while waiting for the afternoon high tide before proceeding. Capt. Jones realized that some of the British boats were aground in the shallow waters and sent the schooner, SEAHORSE, under the command of Sailing Master William Johnson, into the Bay of St. Louis to remove ammunition and stores from a warehouse located on this bluff at Shieldsboro. Three British barges immediately moved to capture the Seahorse.
In his later writings, J. F. H. Claiborne told the story that at that time, an aunt of his who was visiting from Natchez had come to the beach along with the crowd of townspeople to watch the spectacle of the approaching British. The few soldiers guarding the storehouse feared an imminent landing of the enemy and were preparing to retreat when Miss Claiborne took a cigar from John B. Toulme and ignited the fuse of one of the two cannon mounted on the bluff.