The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1901-09-21
THE FORT AT
SHIP ISLAND,


| Across from Biloxi, shining in
the sun and enveloped in a ten der
haze when the shadows of evening
Ilengthen, ,tortuous as a snake when
the wind is blowing the sand, ris-
ing just above the waters edge
for all the world like the distance
outlines of a heavily laden vessel
when the sky Ia clear, lies a place
OF unpleasant memory, where the
horrors of war were forever i'm
planted in hearts of men and wo-
men, aud from which went shafts
of suffering, which reached and
scared lives far distant from It's
circumscribed boundaries. For
Ship Island has been place Of
sorrow,. and not unacquainted
! with grief, a place Of death, and
some have declared It has been a
place of cruelty almost approach
ing the degree Of torture.
1t has been there for long
time. It was there when Lafltto
and his rollicking crew used to
swagger through the streets of all
the coast towns and tell of the
shIpathey had plundered and of the
good, yellow gold they had taken
from the prizes. They say Lafit-
to made this one Of his rendezvous
and when pursued by the feet
ships of the government or the
armed merchantmen, he found
here an asylum and a refuge from
the heavy draft boats. A meeting
place for all the freebooters this
was a common clearing house for
all the robbers of the sea, where
they met and exchanged notes and
exchanged goods, and told won
derfnl stories which are not to be
found many books,and got drunk
sometimes, and for want Of some
body else to fight, fought among
themselves, and when the dead
were counted, their share of the
plumber was divided among the
survivors.
The English stopped here on
the way to New Orleans, the ships
with banners flying, and the men
high with hope of victory. They
stopped here for one day, cr may
be two days, to give the men a
rest and in a measure prepare
them for the work of taking the
city. And the English feet stop
ped here on the way back. this
time for a rest also. They stop
ped 10 attend to the wants of the
wounded, to see how many brave
fellows had. gone to tleath from
the fire of Jackson's guns, to take
stock of provisions andas prepare
themselves for, the sorrowful and
long journey home.
And through all the perilous
times after that, through all the
story of the Central and South
American filibustering expedi-
tioHs, this little oblong spot Of
shining sand has somehow or
other been found a place in. the
stories. Perhaps because it is SO
conveniently placed, perhaps be-
cause it is so easy to get away
from, anyway, all the bold iad-
venturers ,of land and sea have
traced their footsteps on this
shore, and something of the fic-
kleness Of the fortune which, per-
sued themshas founda q permanent
place in the shifting shores and
the drifting dunes" For here the
coastline ia never the same. The
water comes and goes, 1t adds to
the south side and takes away
from the, north side. it slices off
the east end and lengthens the
west end, and no one of all the old
marines who sail these waters
know what is going to happen
next. rA
Old Fort Massachusetts,, the
place Of execrable recollection to
many men and many women of
New Orleans and other Southern
towns, the place where many
souls left the body on the longest
pilgrimageof all, and the place
where there are many gravesa The
locationlof the graves has been
obliterated by the Christening wa
ters of the sea, and the names of
some of the victims are lost.
ShipIsland was one of the few
| fortified places on the Southern
coast which the Confederates did
not get possession of. When the
war broke out the government
was engaged in the construction
of a fort there. The Confedera-
tes made two or three Intellectual
I offo,sx.,fc n M y,ftrpa tlxalttiala n1