Texas played a number of significant rolls in the Civil War: It invaded the New Mexico Territory and established the Confederate State of Arizona; It was Texans that counter attacked at Bull Run and swung the battle to the South; Texas was a sanctuary for Confederate Irregulars operating in the Oklahoma and Kansas; and along the Texas-Mexico boarder a lively trade in cotton, heading south, and badly needed weapons and supplies headed north, had sprung up.
Further complicating the issue for Lincoln, a new Emperor Napoleon III had conquered Mexico and it was not known in Washington what his plans were. The Emperor might aid the Confederacy on the theory that two smaller nations would be weaker than one United States; or he might attack himself to recapture Louisiana and the southwest. Lincoln had to do something so he ordered Maj. Gen. Nathanial Banks to mount an attack on Texas.
Banks was a poor choice for many reasons: First, he was a political general, his rank was not something earned from good service but rather granted because of political office; Second, Bank had not shown himself to be much of a military leader, his previous campaigns either failed outright or succeeded despite his involvement; Lastly, Banks did not believe in the mission, he agreed with Gen. Grant that Mobile, Alabama was the place to strike to inflict the most damage on the Confederate Cause. So it was that Lincoln choose an incompetent General who didn’t believe in the mission to lead the his battle.
Back in Washington Lincoln’s chief military advisor Major Gen. Henry Halleck sent orders to Banks to carry out the attack with the suggestion that he use gunboats to move up the Red River. Banks thought that the Red River would be to dangerous and looked for an easier route. The Sabine River seemed to offer a clear shot at Houston and Galveston and was only guarded by a single, small mud walled fort. Once the fort fell the seven mile long Sabine River would serve as a ready made harbor and an existing railroad to Houston would aid in the invasion of central Texas.
Fort Griffin did not appear to be a formidable obstacle. Under the command of Lt. Dick Dowling, a former barkeeper, the fort only sported six cannon, four thirty-two pounders and two twenty-four pounders and was garrisoned by the Davis Guards, a band of twenty year old Irishmen only forty-four man strong. Tipped of by Banks poor security Davis Guard worked out in the river driving stakes marking range and practicing their marksmanship.
Against the small fort Banks through an armada. Four gunboats mounting eighteen cannon plus numerous transports and supply ships hauling between four and six thousand troops. (Depending upon sources.) Unknown to the Union though was that the Sabine River was not some wide mouthed deep channel. The river was divided into two channels, the Texas Channel right in front of the fort and the Louisiana Channel across the river with an Oyster bed in between. Unlike the mouth of the Texas Channel which was right against the Texas shore, the mouth of the Louisianan Channel was about a third of a mile off shore toward the guns of the fort. The shore on both sides of the river was lined with mud flats that would cause a soldier to sink out of sight while preventing any boats from reaching shore.
The Battle Sabine Pass
There were two battles fought at Sabine Pass, the first one took place September 23-25, 1862 when the USS Kensington, USS Rachel Seaman and the USS Henry James attacked a Confederate battery on shore. The overmatched Confederates fled during the first night. On the twenty-fifth the ships moved up the river and forced the town of Sabine Pass to surrender. The Union ships did not attempt to navigate further up the river at that time.
With the intelligence from this previous operation and led by a guide who knew nothing about the river, Banks launched his attack against the little fort. Because of the narrowness of the channel the Union boats could only approach in file. The first ship in line was the USS Sachem which steamed into the Louisiana and opened fire on the fort. One of the early shots fired by the Confederate gunners hit the Sachem’s boiler. The crew abandoned ship, jumping into the river and disappeared into the mud. While the Sachem was being destroyed the gunship Arizona ran aground and became stuck in the mud, by the time it freed itself the battle was over.
A third gunboat the Clifton entered the Texas Channel sheltering the tugboat Uncle Ben with the task of landing an advanced contingent of skirmishers meant to drive the Confederates from their guns. Of course, the boats ran into the mud flats and the soldiers who tried to go over the sides disappeared. The Clifton continued firing on the fort until it’s boiler was hit forcing the sailor’s to surrender or die in the mud. The last of the Union gunboats the Granite City beat a hasty retreat, ending the battle.
The Confederates captured two gunboats and some 300 prisoners, an unknown number of Union men disappeared into the mud. The whole battle was over in forty minutes and when it was through Davis Guard discovered that they had suffered no casualties.
War On the Frontier The Trans-Mississippi West
By Alvin M. Josephy Jr. and the Editors of Time-Life Books
Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia
Strange Battles of the Civil War
By Webb Garrison Jr.
Cumberland House, Nashville, Tennessee
Next: The Rio Grand Campaign