Try this- I had an ancestor in that war.

On the way to Destin several years ago, I stopped to stay in Gulfport, Ms. We took a ferry out to Ft Massachusetts which is on West Ship Island. It was on this trip that I learned that the Island was the staging point for the British attempt to capture New Orleans in 1812 50 British ships and 10,000 soldiers were there.

In a twist of history, the fort and island was also the staging point for the Union Army campaign to capture New Orleans in 1862

It is mind boggling to think what it was like to be on that island with that many men....