Want to get to New Orleans in the 19 th cent Ship Island, about 12 miles offshore from Biloxi, was the only natural > harbor in this part of the Gulf Coast. While one way of getting to New > Orleans was up the Mississippi, the sinuous river route was quite long. > So the best and fastest route into New Orleans was to the natural harbor > at Ship Island, then via boat through the Mississippi Sound, through the > Rigolets or Chef Mentour Pass, into Lake Pontchartrain, up Bayou St. John > through the back swamps, and then by portage 2miles over a natural ridge > to the riverfront. This was literally the back door into New Orleans, but > was the preferred route from the Gulf, and in fact the existence of the > route was Iberville's reason for founding New Orleans on its present site. > Through the 1700s and 1800s the Coast was nearly totally cut off from the > mainland by swamps nearly impassable pine forest laced with rivers and > bayous, so the MS Gulf Coast had much tighter ties to New Orleans, and > N.O. to Biloxi, than to the hinterlands. Incidentally, Mobile never > amounted to much as a port at this time because of the massive oyster > reefs blocking access to Mobile Bay (a channel was eventually cut). > > In the War of 1812 the Brits tried to get into N.O. via the back route but > locals from near Bay St. Louis refused to show them the route, and they > were forced to go up the river to defeat at Chalmette. It was only > possible for the Federals to take N.O. so quickly during the Civil War > because the Confederates had left the Mississippi Coast essentially > undefended. The Feds seized Ship Island barely 5 months after the start > of War, to be used as its base of operations against New Orleans and the > rest of the Gulf Coast. New Orleans fell to the Federals about seven > months later. > > In the late 1800s the NO & Mobile railroad (now the CSX) was actually a > passenger line with extra trains on Fridays and Sundays to move crowds > between N.O. and the MS Coast. The cultural connection was still vibrant > when my family moved to the Coast in 1967. Our news, television, and > radio came out of N.O., and when New Orleanians wanted to go to the beach, > they came here.to Mississippi as did Louis Sullivan (excerpt) > to some