United States Forces at the Battle of Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass, Jefferson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
United States Forces at the Battle of Sabine Pass Federal forces in the Civil War failed in most of their early efforts to capture Texas. In the fall of 1863, after taking New Orleans and Vicksburg, their leaders attacked Western Louisiana in a renewed effort. They wished to divert valuable stocks of cotton from Confederate to federal uses, and to cut off French troops who might come from Mexico to aid the Confederacy. General Nathaniel P. Banks, U.S.A., ordered 5,000 troops to go by sea, capture Sabine Pass, and establish a land base here. His objective was for these men to move up the Sabine River and rendezvous later with troops he was leading overland through Louisiana for a sweep into Texas. Federal ships transporting men and materiel converged beyond the sandbars, and on September 8, 1863, began to steam north through the pass. They saw a Confederate installation, Fort Griffin, guarding the pass, but got no response when they opened fire. When they came within 1,200 yards of the fort, however, cannon fire was returned, disabling the gunboats U.S.S. Clifton and U.S.S. Sachem. Both gunboats surrendered and the rest of the fleet retreated. Captured Union troops were taken to Beaumont. The next day, they were transported to Camp Groce at Hempstead (NW of Houston). From there, enlisted men were sent to Louisiana for exchange with Confederate prisoners. Commissioned federal officers were sent to Camp Ford, outside of Tyler, where they were detained for the remainder of the war. The lives of both Confederate and Union prisoners of war throughout the North and South were grim, with limited food, clothing, bedding and medical supplies. The decisive battle at Sabine Pass allowed the Confederacy to maintain control of the Texas coastline for the duration of the war. (1980, 2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The lopsided Confederate victory kept the Texas coast out of Union hands for the rest of the war, making Sabine Pass one of the Confederacy's most striking defensive stands.
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Related people
- · Nathaniel P. Banks
Related events
- · Battle of Sabine Pass
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Nearby & related markers
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.
Fort Manhassett
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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.
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
Sabine Pass, TX
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.