150 years ago, the Battle of Sabine Pass saved Texas, Donald Smart, who is the Commander of the Dick Dowling Camp as well as the weekend safety officer, test fires one of the caps in his unloaded 44 caliber army revolver underneath one of the set up tents on the Union side. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents()/Rect[72.0 594.2333 118.127 607.124]/StructParent 1/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> At that point, Taylor enjoyed a numerical advantage over Banks. At Gettysburg, considered the high-water mark of the Confederacy, the Union blunted the rebel invasion of the North on July 3, 1863. Alabama fired the first shot, but Kearsarge was slightly faster, had more firepower, and carried a larger crew complement than Alabama, giving the Union the advantage. The Confederate commander, Major-General Dick Taylor, chose Mansfield as the place where he would make his stand against the advancing Union army under General Nathaniel Banks. 150 years ago, the Battle of Sabine Pass saved Texas - Beaumont Enterprise The 30-foot-tall statue came down in 1939 and was stored away in a barn for nearly 20 years. ?~ xref Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae (Clifton and Shirley For example, an 1863 note from Leon Smith describing the battle reads, "God bless the Davis Guards, one and all! More than 300 re-enactors are expected, he said. First Battle of Sabine Pass - Wikipedia Sabine Pass. This "beautifully written . Readmore, My mothers death was so wrenching that I applied to medical school to help change the way people die in America. Composing with orchestral instruments was fine. The USS Clifton was a quarter-mile, on the west channel side of the reef, when Dowling and his men opened fire in the mid-afternoon. endobj Postwar Houstonians also heaped praise on their local hero. Students who are new to America or lack college-educated parents often dont know their options.Readmore, Giving fishermen a business incentive to fish sustainably can unleash their creative capacity to help solve the problem, says one expert. The other heroes in the Battle of Sabine Pass - Houston Chronicle %%EOF (Editorial), What would Jesus do about trans kids? The entrance to Emancipation Park, with Dowling Street behind it. Sabine Pass : The Confederacy's Thermopylae - Google Books The bulk of the expedition had been in plain view of Dowling's men in the Confederate fort since early in the day. On September 8, 1863, at the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small Confederate force thwarts a Federal invasion of Texas at the mouth of the Sabine River on the Texas- Louisiana border. The Dave Ryan/The Enterprise, Donald Smart, who is the Commander of the Dick Dowling Camp as well as the weekend safety officer, finishes cleaning his unloaded 44 caliber army revolver underneath one of the set up tents on the Union side. 25 in the Third Ward for $800. "My first event was at Sabine Pass. Hawkins Wilson 1867 letter to the Freedam's Bureau Asking for Assistance in Locating his Family. Within days of the battle, contemporaries already compared it to the Battle of Thermopylae, the famous stand of the 300 Spartens against the invading Persians. A native Texan himself from Waco hes been an editorial page editor in San Diego, Calif., a contributor to Texas Monthly, a speechwriter for Gov. Even when we disguise their identities, we risk betraying them. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark: No: Private Property: No: Marker Location: Sabine Pass Battleground State Historical Park: Marker Condition: In Situ: Marker Size: 27" x 42" Marker Text: United States Forces at the Battle of Sabine Pass Federal forces in the Civil War failed in most of their early efforts to capture Texas. For the first time, this exhibit considers the story of Dick Dowling and the Battle of Sabine Pass from the perspective of those men and women who stood to gain their freedom from the victory of Union forces in the Civil War. The commanding officer, Major Josephus S. Irvine (CSA), ordered his artillery spiked and then retreated during the night. After the war, the former Confederate president Jefferson Davis called the Battle of Sabine Pass "more remarkable than the battle of Thermopylae," and many other white Southerners considered. xX[o8~ eUC~ u]t7vd5-%7{(JHN@DwD?4?~HS 0j0?$ p2?FMtto-9l9Bq-w{.2!~2VaKEG$1Qp *`YoO;Df>p>;O9xt|P(N14nM1&fj3K+!JbZcmP#J&nikCms$9rSFxU\F;h.V5ljXp$-=Svn{oc#4Glqw9Tp$(0 But even after the statue was moved to its current location in Houstons Hermann Park, Dowlings memory continued to leave The decisive battle at Sabine Pass allowed the Confederacy to maintain control of the Texas coastline for the duration of the war. Readmore, It wasnt my heart that he broke.Readmore, What desperate, humiliating steps would I take in order to watch him play?Readmore, Even when we disguise their identities, we risk betraying them.Readmore, It isnt unusual for therapists to get emotionally attached to people weve never met. Sabine Pass - Wikipedia Heroes of the Sabine Pass - The New York Times Four years after the name change, as McDaniel points out, the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson ruled public segregation constitutional. During the battle, the 3rd Division of the XIII Corps, commanded by General Robert A. Cameron, arrived with approximately 1,500 men. Dowlings position never left their boats. Dowling, 26, had fewer than 50 men who had six heavy cannon, arrayed so they could fire at pre-set aiming points in the river channel split by an oyster reef. In 1968, at the height of the civil rights movement, city leaders opened a new middle school that still bears Dowlings name. were left to guard a small fortification at the pass. By the time the smoke from Dowlings guns had cleared, the entire fleet was steaming back to New Orleans in defeat. Sending his cavalry to harass the Union vanguard as it approached, Taylor called his infantry divisions forward. The Second Battle of Sabine Pass (September 8, 1863) was a failed Union Army attempt to invade the Confederate state of Texas during the American Civil War. [26] Including the 14.5 acres, the Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 455 acres (184ha) of the battlefield. Time, erosion and commerce have altered the landscape of the park in the 150 years since the battle. In the course of his research McDaniel discovered that a number of "contraband" slaves were aboard the Union gunboats. Hes the author of six books, including Hometown Texas, a collection of his weekly Native Texan columns; Hurricane Season: The Unforgettable Story of the Houston Astros and the Resilience of a City; and Sutherland Springs: God, Guns and a Small Texas Town, published in 2020 and recipient of the 2021 Carr P. Collins Award, presented by the Texas Institute of Letters in recognition of the years best work of nonfiction. Their intention was to mess with Texas and the Confederacy by disrupting rail traffic and cotton shipments. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents( \n h t t p s : / / s c h o l a r w o r k s . 0000001728 00000 n 0000009837 00000 n Now, those experts are back to discuss the wars end, and its legacy. Readmore, Had I prolonged my Indian grandmothers suffering with my stubborn belief in the power of medicine to fix things? In his exaggerated retelling of the battle, Davis described an "iron clad fleet [that] came steaming up the river with nothing to oppose it but a mud fort armed with field guns and held by 42 men." More than 20 warships loaded with dozens of guns and thousands of trained seamen and soldiers surrendered to the 47 inhabitants of a mud hut in a debacle that defies . Commanding the guards was Dick Dowling, an Irish immigrant and saloonkeeper who had prepared his men well for the four light gunboats who appeared in the pass. So fewer than 50 men, known as the Davis Guards, On the other hand, by the time the Battle of Sabine Pass was fought on September 8, 1863, the American Civil War had become a war of emancipation by Union forces. Told in this way, Dowling's story fit easily into the mythology of the "Lost Cause," which was first developed by Southern historians and former Confederate leaders such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee in the aftermath of Reconstruction and was later taken up by groups such as the United Confederate Veterans. 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. It isnt unusual for therapists to get emotionally attached to people weve never met. Edward T. Cotham, Jr., is an independent scholar based in Houston, Texas. One hundred soldiers' remains are marked nearby in Keachi's Confederate Cemetery, maintained by the local Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy. Now, those experts are back to discuss the wars end, and its legacy. Port Arthur, TX 77641. The Battle of Cherbourg was an intense naval battle that ended in the sinking of CSS Alabama, one of the most powerful ships in the Confederate fleet, by USS Kearsarge. It is a two day event and the public is invited to walk through life as it was in 1863, see period camps, witness battle reenactments with canon fire, and cavalry charges. The Dave Ryan/The Enterprise, Donald Smart, who is the Commander of the Dick Dowling Camp as well as the weekend safety officer, cleans his 44 caliber army revolver underneath one of the set up tents on the Union side. see the battle that made Dowling famous. Franklin. DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/dwallach. Before the sun had set, Franklin had suffered one of the most humiliating Union defeats of the Civil War. Providing a meticulously researched, scholarly account of this remarkable victory, Sabine Pass at last separates the legends from the evidence. Battle Detail Return to Results Sabine Pass II Other Name: Campaign: Operations to Blockade the Texas Coast Date (s): September 1863 Principal Commanders: Brigadier General William Franklin [US] Lieutenant Richard Dowling [CS] Forces Engaged: 44 total (US 0; CS 44;) Estimated Casualties: 350 total (US 350; CS 0;) Description: It's the USS Clifton's walking beam, which once was at Riverfront Park In Beaumont. View this record in full map (opens in new tab/window), United States Forces at the Battle of Sabine Pass, Sabine Pass, United States Forces at the Battle of, Sabine Pass Battleground State Historical Park, 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. On July 10, 1872, Yates and his group purchased Lot No. The absence of evidence, the evidence of absence, and the Iraq War. After two years of brilliant victories over a sluggish and bewildered federal force with inept commanders, the war was not going well for the southern Confederacy. Several black sailors were among the casualties, including men scalded to death when cannon fire ripped into ships' boilers. The Battle of Sabine Pass was particularly celebrated in an 1882 speech by Jefferson Davis, which called Sabine Pass the Confederacy's Thermopylae. On September 8, 1863, the United States forces attacked the area in what became known as the battle of Sabine Pass. The Moviegoers pick who should and who will win at the Academy Awards and pick apart Hollywoods diversity problem. endobj On September 8, 1863, a Union navy flotilla of four gunboats and 5,000 men attempted to enter the Sabine Pass. The Battle of Mansfield, also known as the Battle of Sabine Crossroads, on April 8, 1864, in Louisiana formed part of the Red River Campaign during the American Civil War, when Union forces were attempting to occupy the Louisiana state capital, Shreveport. In less than an hour, the guards used well-aimed cannon Riding to the front, Banks decided that he would fight Taylor at that spot, and he ordered all his infantry to hurry up the road. This page was last edited on 27 July 2023, at 05:37. With only 42 artillerymen defending the fort - most of them stevedores and "dockwollopers" from Houston and Galveston - the ragtag army captured two gunboats and disabled a third. In 1867, the number of attacking soldiers was supposedly 15,000 men, but a few decades later various sources quoted the numbers as 10,000 and 20,000. seeking freedom had flocked to Union naval vessels in the region for months before the battle, often escaping from Louisiana plantations like the ones that the Clifton had patrolled earlier in 1863. The Confederates burned the ship to keep it away from the Union forces. While the accompanying gunboat fleet with a portion of the infantry continued up the river, the main force followed the road inland toward Mansfield, where Banks knew his opponent was concentrating. Dick Dowling and Sabine Pass in History and Memory. Travel east on Elgin Street from U.S. 59 into the citys Third Ward, and you will soon pass along the southern side of Emancipation Park, 0000002199 00000 n Visit Sabine Pass Battlefield | American Battlefield Trust [19], At around noon, the Union cavalry division, supported by one infantry brigade of Landram's division, was deployed across a small hill at the south end of the clearing. Dowling, Richard William - TSHA n Re-enactors will bring the battlefield to life. The original plan to capture the Rebel fort near the mouth of the Pass (a surprise attack at dawn on the 7th) was now clearly in shambles. The United States Navy blockaded the Texas coast beginning in the summer of 1861, while Confederates fortified the major ports. First, Confederate officials in Texas used the labor of enslaved men to build the sophisticated fortifications that Dowling defended in the battle. And for a city now among the largest and most diverse in the country, Giving fishermen a business incentive to fish sustainably can unleash their creative capacity to help solve the problem, says one expert. The hero of "Whether it was a backhanded slap at Emancipation Park is difficult to say," McDaniel told me the other day, "but it does seem a little too coincidental to be a coincidence.". In September, 1862, Lieutenant Pennington in the mortar schooner USSHenry Janes was blockading the Sabine River estuary. Sabine Pass: The Confederacy's Thermopylae (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series): Cotham Jr., Edward T.: 9780292705944: Amazon.com: Books Books History Americas Buy new: $25.00 FREE Returns FREE delivery Monday, December 19 Or fastest delivery December 11 - 16 Arrives before Christmas Select delivery location 0000001290 00000 n Some of the initial stories about Dowling's victory at Sabine Pass highlighted the Irish heritage of the Davis Guard and its commander, but most contemporary accounts of the battle focused on the odds that Dowling faced and the service he provided to the Confederacy. It has often been credited as the war's most one-sided Confederate victory. The next day, they were transported to Camp Groce at Hempstead (NW of Houston). The Sabine Pass 150th has been in the planning for a year, he said. new marks on the citys landscape. In arresting prose, Edward T. Cotham, Jr., recounts the momentous hours of September 8, 1863, during which a handful of Texansalmost all of Irish descentunder the leadership of Houston saloonkeeper Richard W. Dowling, prevented a Union military force of more than 5,000 men, 22 transport vessels, and 4 gunboats from occupying Sabine Pass, the starting place for a large invasion that would soon have given the Union control of Texas. 0000001111 00000 n On the east side of the road, Mouton was killed, while several of his regimental commanders were hit as well and the charge of his division was repulsed. Ive been drug-free for nearly a month. On Jan. 1, 1863, Southern forces expelled Union occupiers from Galveston. His fame lived on, for a while at least. [102 0 R 103 0 R 104 0 R 105 0 R 106 0 R 107 0 R 108 0 R 109 0 R 110 0 R 111 0 R] The pedestal on which he stands is engraved with the names of the men who served in his company. One-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans went to war with themselves. In the early morning hours of September 25, 1862, Union naval forces under the command of Crocker attempted to enter Sabine Pass, as Crocker made his way through the inland passage towards Beaumont, the Confederates attacked. PDF "125th Anniversary of the Battle of Sabine Pass." - UTRGV As I decrease my medications, the urgency I feel around men and relationships subsides. [24], After the Union troops retreated, they fought Confederates again on April 9 at the Battle of Pleasant Hill. missing contraband.. this war. After the war, the former Confederate president Jefferson Davis called the Battle of Sabine Pass more remarkable than the battle of Thermopylae, and many other white Southerners There is nothing there that Dowling or his men would recognize. The Confederate Congress passed a resolution calling his unlikely victory "one of the most brilliant and heroic achievements in the history of this war." In 1968, at the height of the civil rights movement, the city opened a new middle school that bears Dowling's name. Captured Union troops were taken to Beaumont. But recovering stories like his and Smiths from the history of Sabine Pass offers alternative ways to Confederate forces in the area had mostly withdrawn inland after catching wind of the large invasion fleet. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents(Provide feedback)/Rect[392.1938 211.9047 476.7295 224.7953]/StructParent 8/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> The battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, turned back one of several Union attempts to invade and occupy part of Texas during the Civil War. Woodlands Snoop Dogg concert sees 16 hospitalized amid extreme Keanu Reeves and band Dogstar to perform next month in Houston, Texas has cash. Battle of Mansfield - Wikipedia The book explores the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2017. With the help of other formerly enslaved men and women, Yates led a campaign The Battle of Mansfield was followed immediately by the Battle of Pleasant Hill. s f a s u . "The Defense of the Red River". The annual Dick Dowling Days held at the Sabine Pass battleground in Sabine Pass, will see some 300 plus re-enactors taking part this weekend in re-creating the Battle of Sabine Pass, which took place 150 years ago. 105 0 obj 98 23 120 0 obj The Clifton was aground, disabled and captured. Today, the Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site at the site of Fort Griffin is a great place to fish or picnic while exploring the rich history of the Texas coast. However, there is one artifact from the battle. A city high school bears his name as well, and a few years ago a Texas Historical Commission marker was erected in Emancipation Park. For several miles the Confederates pursued the retreating Union troops until they encountered a third line formed by Emory's division. Could Pearl Harbor be called a failure of imagination, and in that sense was it similar to the attacks of 9/11? Sachem. Amid burning ships, dying men and cannon shells roiling the water around them, they apparently splashed and thrashed their way from the disabled boat they were on, the Sachem, to the safety of the Arizona. The goal is to transform the historic site into a national landmark, the place to celebrate Juneteenth from 2016 onward. Lost Cause historians and writers also denied that slavery was a cause of the Civil War, arguing instead that courageous white Southerners were only defending their homes from Northern aggression. What desperate, humiliating steps would I take in order to watch him play? Don Smart is a Civil War re-enactor who lives in Liberty County and will be taking part in the Sabine Pass sesquicentennial. Sabine Pass, Battle of - TSHA As time passed, the number of Union soldiers and prisoners in the battle was also increasingly exaggerated as a means of glorifying the Confederacy. Those who originally It became a race to see which side could bring its forces to the front first. Taylor concentrated his forces at Sabine Crossroads, knowing that reinforcements were nearby. They were waging a truly American fight - a fight for freedom, for themselves and for generations to come. 100 0 obj 98 0 obj Dick Dowling and Sabine Pass in History and Memory, The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionists and Transatlantic Reform, Digital Natives: A Defense of the Internet Community, Bruni and Douthat Agree: #OscarsSoPolitical, 10 Things Id Tell My Former (Medicated) Self, The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 4), The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 3). Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site - THC.Texas.gov Readmore, What I learned about writing from doing crossword puzzles.Readmore, When a family commissions a work, theyre more interested in stories, lessons and values, rather than in sensation.Readmore, Ive been drug-free for nearly a month. (Item 453). Sabine Pass, Battle of. Annual Message of Governor Henry Watkins Allen, to the Legislature of the State of Louisiana", Red River Campaign (Louisiana, March to May 1864), "Cornell University Library Making of America Collection", Mississippi River in the American Civil War, List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials, List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic, Confederate artworks in the United States Capitol, List of Confederate monuments and memorials, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. Providing a meticulously researched, scholarly account of this remarkable victory, Sabine Pass at last separates the legends from the evidence.In arresting prose, Edward T. Cotham, Jr., recounts. The Lost Cause referred to the idea that the South was never capable of winning the Civil War because the North had an overwhelming advantage due to their increased resources and manpower. Emancipation Park, meanwhile, remains at the heart of the city. 103 0 obj Sources: Edward T. Cotham Jr., Sabine Pass: The Confederacys Thermopylae and The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book of Henry O. Gusley; Friends of Emancipation Park; Dick Dowling and Sabine Pass in History and Memory, Rice University Woodson Research Center; Dick Dowling Collection, Houston Area Digital Archives; Jaclyn Youngblood, More on Emancipation Park., W. Caleb McDaniel is an assistant professor of history at Rice and the author of The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery: Garrisonian Abolitionists and Transatlantic Reform.. Today it stands on the backside of Hermann Park, near the fifth green of the golf course. Dowling became an instant hero. When the city acquired Emancipation Park in 1918, it became the only municipal park in which black Houstonians could set foot. About 6:00 am on the morning of September 8, 1863, a Union flotilla of four gunboats and seven troop transports steamed into Sabine Pass and up the Sabine River with the intention of reducing Fort Griffin and landing troops to begin occupying Texas. 0000003362 00000 n In 1864, the Confederate Congress passed a resolution calling it one of the most brilliant and heroic achievements in the history of The importance of the battle cannot be overstated, said Smart, a 1968 graduate of French High School in Beaumont. endobj <>/Border[0 0 0]/Contents( \n h t t p s : / / s c h o l a r w o r k s . Wardlaw, Trevor P. Sires and Sons: The Story of Hubbard's Regiment. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015. His obituary in 1867, after his death from yellow fever, lauded his "unparalleled boldness and intrepidity" and praised him as a "warm-hearted hero" for his activity at the Battle of Sabine Pass, but did not include his manner of death or his accomplishments in the city of Houston (Item 336). 0000003794 00000 n Painted Portrait of Dick Dowling by Thurston Donnellan Representating him as a Solider. Forty-five minutes later, the Union forces withdrew. The early versions of the story of Dowling and the Battle of Sabine Pass certainly supported these Lost Cause ideas. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link . On the other hand, by the time the Battle of Sabine Pass was fought on September 8, 1863, the American Civil War had become a war of emancipation by Union forces. Contemporaries of Dowling understood that the future of slavery in Texas hinged on the outcome of the Civil War as well as the outcome of specific battles, including the one that made Dowling famous. But one unfortunate result has been an assumption 1t1>8t%WnJ3@YQV*Y92_qY^M~~EieQF%Pf(72aDCw2=4"_ff5O+ 6m"ZtcpP`*+t|~d-7b#DpJ8V;}W:?WnUGUSbQXCemc=5&*NCZGp.Qd1(4$Jr}|J*\}'@)1:U'EW6 startxref The Union assault could have landed 5,000 troops, with another 10,000 in reserve, to shut down blockade-running vessels trading with Mexico and to seize the railheads at Beaumont, sweep over to Liberty, down to Houston and take the major port of Galveston.

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