Alphabet File page 25
Sailing-master Johnson , of the Seahorse, was supported in the fight by a shore battery of two 6-pounders, (untrue CHG) and after a sharp action of 30 minutes, the enemy drew off, with one boat damaged and several men killed or wounded. But it was necessary, at 7:30, to blow up the schooner, and burn the public shore house.
Early in the morning of the 14th Jones was compelled by a failure of wind to drop anchor "in the west end of the Malheureux island passage." At daylight the calm continued, and the British rowboats, anchored about nine miles distant, prepared to advance. Jones called his subordinates on board his flagship, gunboat No. 156, and gave orders. The boats took position in a close line across the channel, anchored by the stern with springs on the calbe, against the strong current of ebb tide.
"Thus we remained," he wrote in his report, "anxiously awaiting an attack from the advancing foe, whose force I now clearly distinguished to be 42 heavy launches and gun-barges, with three light gigs, manned with upwards of one thousand men and officers." He had, as stated, five gunboats, with 23 guns and 182 men , under the command of Lieutenants John D. Ferris, Isaac McKeever, Thomas A. C. Jones, Robert Spedden and George Ulrick. The sloop Alligator, 1 gun and 8 men, under Master R. S. Shepperd, was two miles away to the southwest, held by the calm. This boat was first captured by a detachment of Lockyer`s boats, after which the attacking force was united. "At 10:30," says Jones, "the enemy weighed, forming a line abreast in open order, and steering direct for our line, which was unfortunately in some degree broken by the force of the current, driving Nos. 156 and 163 about 100 yards in advance. As soon as the enemy came within reach of our shot, a deliberate fire from our long guns was opened upon him, but without much effect, the objects being of so small a size. At 10 minutes before 11, the enemy opened a fire from the whole of his line, when the action became general and destructive on both sides. About 11:49 the advance boats of the enemy, three in number, attempted to board No. 156, but were repulsed with the loss of nearly every officer killed and wounded, and two boats sunk. A second attempt to board was then made by four other boats, Which shared almost a similar fate. At this moment I received a severe wound in my left shoulder, which compelled me to quit the deck, leaving it in charge of Mr. George Parker, master's mate, who gallantly defended the vessel until he was severely wounded, when the enemy, by his superior numbers, succeeded in gaining possession of the deck about 10 minutes past 12 o'clock. The enemy immediately turned the guns of his prize on the other gunboats and fired several shot previous to striking the American colors. The action continued with unabating severity until 40 minutes past 12 o'clock, when it terminated with the surrender of No. 23, all the other vessels having previously fallen into the hands of the enemy. "Lieutenants Spedden and McKeever were also wounded, Spedden losing an arm, and a considerable number of men were killed and wounded. The British reports show 45 boats, with 43 cannon, engaged. Capt. Lockyer reported that on his barge, that fought Jones` boat, he was severely wounded, and most of his officers and crew were either killed or wounded. He succeeded only by the aid of the Tonnant's boats, under Lieut. Tatnall. The total British loss was 17 killed and 77 wounded, including the captain and 15 officers. For his victory Lockyer was promoted to command of the captured flotilla, and Montressor, in temporary command, at once made use of it to secure possession of Lake Borgne. (See Latour's Historical Memoir and appendix.)
..The advance guard of the infantry was landed on "Isle aux Pois, a small swampy spot at the mouth of the Pearl river," on December 16, and was joined there by Maj.-Gen. Keane and Admirals Cochrane and Codrington on the next day. During the remainder of the campaign Ship Island harbor was the station of the British fleet, under Vice Admiral Cochrane, whose flagship was the Tonnant, 80 guns, and Rear Admirals Codrington and Malcolm, the latter of whom carried his flag on the Royal Oak, a seventy-four. There were three other "seventy-fours" in this Mississippi harbor, the Norge, Bedford, Raminies, and Asia; the Dictator of sixty-four, Diomede of fifty, Gordon of forty-four, and eleven ships whose guns were in the thirties, besides ten others of inferior armament. Some of these great men-of-war were then of afterwards famous in the annals of sea fighting. (Encyclopedia of Mississippi by Dunbar Rowland, LL. D., Vol. II, 1907)
Battle of Pass Christian - BAY ST. LOUIS - The Bay of St. Louis was the scene of the misnamed Battle of Pass Christian in 1814. British Vice Admiral Cochrane was following Andrew Jackson from Pensacola, Florida while Jackson was rushing to defend New Orleans. In an effort to delay Cochrane`s Fleet and prevent his forcing a passage through the Mississippi Sound, the American Flotilla consisting of five gunboats and Commanded by Lt. Catesby Jones, was stationed in the shallow bay where the enemy`s heavier ships could not follow. On December 14, the five American vessels were attacked by fort¬five British ships and with in an hour each American vessel was either captured or sunk.
The casualties included 80 Americans and 300 British. At the time of the battle the town of Bay St. Louis was known as Shieldsboro, for Thomas Shields who had obtained a Spanish Land Grant in 1789. Bienville had explored the bay in 1699 naming it St. Louis for King Louis IX. In 1720, John Law, Mississippi Land Bubble promoter had given the land around the bay to Madame de Mezieres, but the stability of each of these colonation efforts was uncertain. The French-Canadians who lived about the bay area intermarried with the Indians, Spaniards, and Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia, forming the blood strains sometimes incorrectly called Creole. In the shuttling of sovereignties of the Eighteenth Century, the people living around the bay were ignored by anything that resembled government. Yet when the British defeated Lt. Jones in 1814, Shieldsboro was an established summer retreat for wealthy Natchez Planters. Because land titles in this section were based on claims that involved twenty-three types of tenure, including claims of the State of Georgia, some of the best lawyers in the profession were drawn here. By 1825 Shieldsboro rivaled Pearlington as the seat of Hancock County Courts, and the Military Road that Andrew Jackson had cut through the pine woods into Shieldsboro was bringing the town a substantial part of the back country.
The building of the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga railroad, which was completed in 1869 did much for the development of the town as a summer resort and less of a rural center. The Shieldsboro Post Office was established on October 11, 1819 with John B. Toulme as postmaster. The name was changed to Bay St. Louis on April 27, 1875. In 1969 Bay St. Louis suffered tremendous losses when a hurricane devastated almost the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast. (Hometown Mississippi by James F. Brieger)
Battle of Pass Christian. - Bedsheet Surrender - Life was hard but not so hard as it might have been for Mississippi Coast Residents during the Civil War. The Union naval blockade certainly caused food and material shortages, but the blood and destruction that spread through Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri and South Carolina mercifully was not to happen along the Coast. Suffering was worse in upper and middle Mississippi where battles were brutal around Corinth, Tuka and of course, Vicksburg. But in April of 1862, there was a sharp action that culminated in the "Battle of Pass Christian." In fact, it was more a skirmish than a battle when compared with the savage conflagration two days later and 380 miles to the north at Shiloh, Tenn. Some 17,500 men died or were seriously wounded there.
The rescue of a 4-year-old New Orleans girl set off the fighting at Pass Christian. Her name was Alma Peniston, and she had been rescued from a foundering packet on the stormtossed Gulf by one of the U.S. Navy’s roving blockade ships, which brought her to Ship island for disposition. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler had arrived on Ship Island on march 20, so the Navy turned over young Alma to the Army. Butler was informed that her parents more than likely had perished in the storm that sank the packet, and the general decided that the girl must be sent to whatever relatives she had in New Orleans. He dispatched his chief of staff, Maj. George Strong to the little town of Biloxi where Strong was to have authorities get in touch with the child's next of kin and send her to them. April 1, 1862, and the stage was set for the sharpest military action on the Gulf Coast during the Civil War. Strong arrived off Biloxi in a small schooner and ran up a white flag of truce. The local citizens thanked the young officer and asked him to convey their gratitude to the federal authority at Ship Island. The trouble started when Strong warped out of anchorage and ran aground on a sand bar off Deer Island. Before the sailors could move the small schooner off the bar, shots were fired at the stranded vessel. It is no secret that loyalties among Coast residents were divided during the Civil War. There were many Union as well as Confederate sympathizers. In each group was a surly minority too afraid to join the army but not above hurting the helpless. Some local toughs took it upon themselves to fire on the hated and stranded "Yankees". It is certain they were not Confederate soldiers. Soldiers had a more honorable notion of murder; allow your enemy to defend himself and never fire on a white flag. After firing on Strong's schooner, the toughs commandeered a small boat and sailed out to demand the Yankees' surrender. They had assumed correctly that the schooner was unarmed; however, they had been incorrect in assuming that Strong was stupid. As the boat neared, Strong began to yell "Detail, attention! Prepare to repel boarders". The toughs withdrew. General Butler, being a passionate, volatile and emotional man, flew into a rage when Strong reported the dishonorable attempt on his small ship. (Butler's temper would cause him and the city of New Orleans much trouble over the next year.) The general sent two gun boats and a screw-sloop to escort to Biloxi a transport that carried the 9th Connecticut Infantry. The Connecticut regiment was charged with chastising Biloxi and getting an apology in writing for what Butler deemed cowardly conduct. On the evening of April 2, the Federal troops arrived in Biloxi. When the mayor refused an interview, his daughter was taken hostage. Mayor Fewell complied with Butler's demands. Federal troops looted the store of a man whom local Union sympathizers pointed out as one of the toughs who had fired on Strong. Major Caghill, who commanded the 9th Connecticut, ordered the telegraph line cut. He invited local slaves to escape to Ship Island and freedom, and he informed Fewell that another such incident would bring about Biloxi's destruction. Still mistakenly assuming that the 3rd Mississippi Infantry, then stationed at Pass Christian, had fired on the Federal forces, the transport sailed down to Mississippi City to procure their apology. During the night, Confederate naval and army units galvanized for defense. Seven companies of the 3rd Mississippi began a forced march eastward to "save" Biloxi. The other three companies followed somewhat later. The small Confederate naval force on the Gulf, three small gunboats, quietly sailed in among the anchored Union vessels, and an hour before dawn, they opened fire. For two hours, the ships blazed away at one another. After dawn, the Confederates disengaged and steamed to the west and the Rigolets. Their small draft allowed the to escape into shallow water that the deep-draft Union vessels could not negotiate. The Confederate guard detachment at Pass Christian sighted the Union ships in the Mississippi Sound on the morning of April 4. Surprised, the guards immediately set fire to bales of hay on the wharves in the hope of preventing Union capture. Union gunboats, thinking the smoke was cannon fired, moved in and began to shell the small city of Pass Christian. Fleeing under the hail of shot and shell , the citizenry left the town and the Confederate camp empty. The three companies of the 3rd Mississippi, which were down the road near present-day Long Beach, correctly determined that it was Pass Christian and not Biloxi that was under attack. Doing an about-face, they headed back toward their camp.