Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass The battle at Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863 was a victory for Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling and his troops, which numbered fewer than 50. Dowling and his Davis guards kept Union gunboats from advancing up the pass. The U.S.S. Clifton and the U.S.S. Arizona ran aground early in the battle. The Clifton and the U.S.S. Sachem, both disabled by cannon fire, surrendered. The Arizona and the U.S.S. Granite City were able to return to federal headquarters at New Orleans. After the battle, more than 300 federal troops became prisoners of war. Others were killed or missing; many of those had been aboard the Sachem when its boiler exploded as a result of the direct hit on the ship. John Marshall Carson, a Confederate commissary sergeant, was on board the C.S.S. Uncle Ben, an old freight boat used by the Confederate army. The Uncle Ben towed the two captured gunboats to shore, where Carson and the other crew members aided in removing the dead. The Confederates dug a long ditch near the Dorman Hotel on the northern edge of the townsite of Sabine Pass and near what would become the Port Arthur Canal. There, they buried a reported 28 Union troops. Many others were considered missing, their bodies never recovered. Excavations in the 20th century confirmed the burial location, much of which has eroded away. Today, the U.S. soldiers and sailors killed and missing at the pass are remembered along with the Confederate troops who engaged them in battle. (1980, 2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
This marker honors the Union dead of one of the Confederacy's most lopsided defensive victories, a reminder that battlefields hold the fallen of both sides.
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Related people
- · Lt. Richard W. Dowling
- · John Marshall Carson
Related events
- · Battle of Sabine Pass
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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