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DEDICATION OF THE MARKER FOR THE BATTLE OF THE BAY OF SAINT LOUIS December 13th and 14th, 1814
BAY SAINT LOUIS, MISSISSIPPI 2:00 P.M., December 13th, 1987
NATIONAL ANTHEM
SINGER: ______________________	- _________________________________#
SPEAKER:	It was two O'clock in the afternoon of the 12th of
December, 1814 and an important and decisive naval battle was about to begin.
SHIPS BELL:	ding, ding ------ding,	ding.
For weeks the British	fleet	had been	gathering in	the
Gulf Of Mexico preparing	for an attack	on	the	city of	New
Orleans. Commodore Daniel T. Patterson commanding the meager American Naval force from the New Orleans Station knew that he would be unable to mount a successful operation in the open sea against the huge forces of the enemy, so to this end, preparations were made to defend the city from forts in the Rigolets and along the Mississippi River. He dispatched Captain Thomas Ap Catesby Jones with a small fleet of five gunboats and two schooners, the Seahorse and the Aligator, to defend the entrance to the Rigolets.
Commodore Patterson's orders to Captain Jones were to "sink the enemy or be sunk" and, all else failing, to delay the British arrival in the city as along as possible to allow General Andrew Jackson as much time as possible for preparations for battle at Chalmette. The British fleet advanced to Ship Island on the 11th of December and