Free Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast by Edmond Boudreaux Jr. Page B

number of regimental officers and about 2,000 men. In fact, it had the effect to depress the spirits of the army so far that General Lambert, our present general in chief, immediately after the action, determined upon a re-embarkation and began to put our wounded on board the same day .
    Forbes mentioned the suffering that had occurred during their journey and said, “Not only our prospects or prize money have vanished, but promotion also, which I fully expected would have followed success.” It was common practice to reward officers and soldiers. New Orleans was considered a rich city. An officer’s share could have brought him a nice estate and the soldiers a nice payday.
    Vice Admiral Cochrane and Major General Lambert sailed to Mobile and captured Fort Bowyer. As they planned to take Mobile, they received word that a treaty was agreed to and fighting should cease. The British had planned, if victorious, not to honor the terms of the treaty. Due to the American victory, they were forced to do so, and America gained the respect of the world.

CHAPTER 15
    T HE H ERMIT OF D EER I SLAND
    Growing up on Biloxi’s Point Cadet, I learned quickly that there was an array of interesting characters living there as well. One of the most interesting characters was the Hermit of Deer Island. I can remember the first time I saw him. He was dressed in ragged clothing, with a rope for a belt, and was barefoot. His hair and beard were white, and if you had placed him in a red suit, you would have believed him to be Santa Claus. We only knew him as the Hermit of Deer Island, so who was this man?
    His name was Jean Guilhot, a Frenchman who had operated a citrus grove in the Bahamas and a turtle soup cannery in Florida. He arrived in Biloxi in 1921 at forty-six years of age and began working as a barber. He met and married a widow, Pauline Lemien, who had a house on Deer Island with her son, Elmer. Elmer Lemien would later marry Rhoda Louise William and have two children, Elmer and Elaine, who were born on Deer Island. While living on Deer Island, Jean Guilhot gave up being a barber and became an oyster fisherman. A few years later, his wife died, but Guilhot continued to live on Deer Island and made his living by tonging oysters. During the 1947 hurricane, Guilhot climbed a tree and weathered the wind and water. The storm flooded the island and destroyed his home, but he built a new shack from driftwood. By this time, his skin was like leather from the sun and saltwater. He lived on a diet of cheese, fruit and various seafoods but refused to eat meat.
    In early 1950, Louis Gorenflo, captain of the tour boat Sailfish , offered to pick up and deliver groceries to Guilhot. On a small pine sapling seventy-five feet from shore, Guilhot would place his grocery list, and during his daily tourist trips, Gorenflo would retrieve the list and return with the groceries on the next visit. At first, Guilhot would only retrieve the groceries after the Sailfish departed, but gradually, he began to row out and meet the Sailfish . Later he would sing songs in French and English for the tourists. The tourists would take his picture and throw coins into Guilhot’s boat.

    John Guilhot, the “Hermit of Deer Island.” Courtesy of Alan Santa Cruz Collection .
    On May 27, 1959, Guilhot died in his sleep at the age of eighty-two. One account of his passing implies that it occurred on Deer Island. His family attests that he died at the residence of his stepson, Elmer Lemien, on Tucker Road in the St. Martin community. According to the Bradford O’Keefe Funeral Home records, Jean Guilhot died at Latimer Route 2 in Jackson County. Jean Guilhot’s death closed an unusual chapter of Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast history. The Hermit of Deer Island now lives only in the pictures and memories of those who knew and saw him.

CHAPTER 16
    J EFFERSON D AVIS
    A Vision of His Early Life
    On a windy March day in 1888, a lone figure made his