Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity
Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Texas seceded from the Union at the onset of the Civil War, the state's ports were included in a Union blockade of the South. The proximity of Sabine Pass to Galveston made it a strategic point for both the Union and Confederacy. In January 1863, Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Confederate Military District of Texas, in an attempt to open Sabine Pass for shipping, ordered an assault on the two sentry Union warships. Using "cottonclads," riverboats armored with cotton bales that afforded effective protection from enemy fire, Confederate forces under command of Maj. Oscar W. Watkins engaged the Union blockaders. Consisting of the Uncle Ben and the Josiah H. Bell, this bantam fleet was designated the "Second Squadron of Magruder's Navy." On board the Josiah H. Bell, the Davis Guard of the First Texas Heavy Artillery, an all-Irish unit, served under Lt. Richard "Dick" Dowling. It manned a Columbiad artillery piece, supported by sharpshooters from the 2nd Texas Cavalry and Spaight's Battalion; additional forces from Spaight's Battalion served similar roles on the Uncle Ben. In the ensuing battle on Jan. 21, 1863, the cottonclads seized the initiative, and the engagement lasted roughly two hours. The frigate Morning Light was neutralized first, compelling the lesser-armed Velocity, a converted blockade runner, to strike its colors. Union casualties were minimal, but the battle resulted in the capture of the two ships, $10,000 worth of supplies and 109 Union prisoners of war. Although only temporarily lifting the Union blockade and presaging a decisive battle later in 1863, the battle demonstrated the Davis Guard had the ability to defend the Texas coast successfully. (2006)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas seceded, the Union blockaded its ports, and the closeness of Sabine Pass to Galveston made it a prize for both sides. In January 1863, Confederate Gen. John B. Magruder ordered an attack on the two Union sentry ships using "cottonclads"—riverboats armored with cotton bales. In a two-hour fight on January 21, forces including Lt. Richard "Dick" Dowling's all-Irish Davis Guard neutralized the frigate Morning Light and forced the Velocity to surrender, capturing both ships, $10,000 in supplies, and 109 prisoners.
Why it matters
The engagement was an early proof of Confederate ingenuity in coastal defense along the Texas Gulf, foreshadowing Dowling's more famous stand at Sabine Pass later that year.
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Related people
- · Gen. John B. Magruder
- · Lt. Richard "Dick" Dowling
- · Maj. Oscar W. Watkins
Related events
- · Union blockade of the Confederacy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass, TX
At the Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863, Lt. Richard W. Dowling and fewer than fifty Confederate Davis Guards repelled a Union naval assault, disabling the gunboats Clifton and Sachem and taking more than 300 federal prisoners. Many Union sailors died, some killed when the Sachem's boiler exploded, and Confederate crews aboard the Uncle Ben helped recover the dead. The victors buried a reported 28 Union troops in a long ditch near the Dorman Hotel, a site later confirmed by twentieth-century excavation though much of it has eroded away.
Spaight's 11th Battalion
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Ashley W. Spaight's 11th Battalion of Texas Volunteers—the "Swamp Angels"—grew out of the Sabine Pass Guards militia of 1861 and served the Confederacy defending the Texas Gulf Coast and the Louisiana border against Federal raids. Many of its men died not in battle but in the yellow fever epidemic that swept Sabine Pass in 1862. Those who survived went home to become community and business leaders across southeast Texas.
Fort Sabine
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When war came in 1861, the citizens of Sabine City formed a Committee of Safety and, with enslaved and free labor, raised a dirt-and-timber earthwork to guard the strategic Sabine Pass channel into East Texas and western Louisiana. In September 1862 a Union steamer and two schooners battered the fort; with only about sixty defenders and yellow fever spreading, Confederate Major Josephus S. Irvine spiked the guns and abandoned it. Lessons from its fall shaped nearby Fort Griffin, site of the famous 1863 Confederate victory at Sabine Pass.
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