Fort Manhassett
Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
To protect Texas against Federal invasion during the Civil War, Confederate General John B. Magruder ordered the construction of a fort at this site on September 4, 1863, four days before the famous Confederate victory won by Dick Dowling and his small company against Union ships and gunboats at Sabine Pass (7 mi. NE). After the Federal retreat, the Confederate Coastal Defense program continued, since Federal blockading vessels still patrolled Gulf waters and the threat of more invasions was feared. A storm on September 19 sent the Union patrol steamers out to sea, but drove ashore their coaling ship, the "Mannahassett". Confederate troops dismantled the ship and seized its cargo. Col. Valery Sulakowski, formerly of the Austrian Army, designed Fort Manhassett, whose name evidently was adapted from that of the captured ship. Major Getulius Kellersberger, a Swiss-born engineer who had settled in America some years earlier, oversaw the construction. By October 1863, five companies garrisoned the five redoubts of the new fort and manned its ten cannons. Fort Manhassett soldiers participated in the capture of two Union ironclad ships at Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana on May 6, 1864.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Confederate General John B. Magruder ordered this fort built on September 4, 1863—just four days before Dick Dowling's small company famously repelled a Union fleet at nearby Sabine Pass. When a September storm drove the Union coaling ship Mannahassett ashore, Confederates seized its cargo and even borrowed its name for the new fort. Designed by former Austrian officer Valery Sulakowski and engineered by Swiss-born Getulius Kellersberger, the five-redoubt fort guarded the Texas coast with ten cannons.
Why it matters
Fort Manhassett is part of the Confederate coastal-defense network that kept the Union blockade at bay along the Texas Gulf, anchoring one of the South's most celebrated small victories.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1863 the Texas coast was a nervous place. The Union Navy was blockading Southern ports to choke off the cotton the Confederacy sold abroad and the weapons and supplies it brought in. Along the Gulf, the Confederacy worried about more than blockade runners slipping past patrols. Commanders feared a full Federal invasion.
Sabine Pass was an obvious target. The pass is where the Sabine River reaches the Gulf on the Texas–Louisiana border, and it opened a route inland toward railroads and the towns of Southeast Texas. Whoever held it held a door into the state.
The Confederate commander in Texas, General John B. Magruder, answered with a program of coastal defenses: earthen forts, batteries and garrisons placed at the points most likely to be attacked. Fort Manhassett was part of that effort. Work began on September 4, 1863, just days before the Union tested the coast at Sabine Pass.
People & events
On September 8, 1863, four days after Magruder ordered this fort built, a Union fleet of gunboats and troop transports steamed into Sabine Pass. A small company of Confederate artillerymen under Lieutenant Dick Dowling met it from a fort about seven miles northeast of here. Firing quickly and with practiced accuracy, Dowling's men disabled Union gunboats and forced the expedition to turn back. It became one of the most celebrated Confederate victories in Texas.
The danger did not end there. Federal ships still patrolled offshore, and commanders expected another attempt. Then the weather took a hand. A storm on September 19 drove the Union patrol steamers out to sea, but it beached their coaling ship, the Mannahassett. Confederate soldiers stripped the wreck and took its cargo. The new fort seems to have taken its name, slightly reshaped, from that ship.
Two European-trained engineers gave the fort its shape. Colonel Valery Sulakowski, a former officer of the Austrian Army, drew up the design. Major Getulius Kellersberger, a Swiss-born engineer who had settled in America, supervised the building. By October 1863 five companies of soldiers held the fort's five redoubts and manned ten cannons.
The garrison did see action. On May 6, 1864, soldiers from Fort Manhassett took part in capturing two Union vessels at Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, just east along the Gulf coast.
Its place in the American story
Fort Manhassett is a view of the Civil War away from the famous eastern battlefields. The blockade was one of the Union's main strategies, and the Confederacy's answer included miles of coastal earthworks built to keep Federal forces from landing. Most of those forts never fought a famous battle. Their job was to stand guard, and for long stretches of the war they did.
The fort also shows how international the war was. An Austrian-trained designer and a Swiss-born engineer laid out a Texas fort, both of them part of the wave of European immigrants and military professionals who ended up fighting on both sides.
And it tells a story about weather and luck. A Gulf storm beached an enemy supply ship, and the Confederates salvaged it and named a fort after it. The war on this coast was fought against wind and water as well as against warships.
If you visit
Bring your imagination. Coastal earthwork forts like this were built mostly of packed soil, and what survives of such places is usually low, grassy rises rather than walls and towers. Try to picture five redoubts with ten cannons pointed toward the water, and soldiers watching the horizon for Federal sails.
The Sabine Pass area is flat, wide open and close to the Gulf. Standing here, you can understand why both sides cared so much about this stretch of coast, and how exposed the defenders must have felt.
The site of Dowling's famous 1863 victory is only a few miles northeast, so the two make a natural pair. You can see the fort built in expectation of invasion and the place where the invasion was turned back.
Add it to a Gulf Coast drive through Southeast Texas, where marsh, shipping lanes and coastal history meet. Keep an eye on the weather, too. A storm helped write this fort's story.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John B. Magruder
- · Dick Dowling
- · Valery Sulakowski
- · Getulius Kellersberger
Related events
- · Battle of Sabine Pass
- · Battle of Calcasieu Pass
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
United States Forces at the Battle of Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass, TX
In September 1863, Union forces tried to force their way into Texas through Sabine Pass, where the small earthen Fort Griffin guarded the channel. A Confederate battery held its fire until the federal gunboats came within close range, then disabled the U.S.S. Clifton and U.S.S. Sachem and forced the fleet to retreat. Captured Union troops were marched inland to prison camps at Camp Groce and Camp Ford, sharing the grim conditions endured by prisoners on both sides.
Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass
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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.
Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity
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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.
Richard Dowling
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On September 8, 1863, Lt. Richard W. Dowling and forty-seven men of the Davis Guards held a small mud fort at Sabine Pass against a Union flotilla and hundreds of federal troops. Firing with cool precision, the tiny Confederate garrison crippled the attacking gunboats and captured hundreds of prisoners without losing a man. The lopsided victory turned Dowling and his largely Irish-immigrant company into enduring Texas legends.