Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity

The Morning Light was a wooden sailing ship built at Kensington, near Philadelphia, and launched on August 15, 1853. She displaced 937 tons, ran about 172 feet long and carried eight 32-pounders and a rifled Butler gun. The Navy bought her on September 2, 1861, and commissioned her that November into the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. After the Confederates captured her on January 21, 1863, they held her two days before burning her off Sabine Pass on January 23.

What the plaque says

Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity After Texas seceded from the Union at the onset of the Civil War, the state's ports were included in a Union blockade of the South. The proximity of Sabine Pass to Galveston made it a strategic point for both the Union and Confederacy. In January 1863, Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Confederate Military District of Texas, in an attempt to open Sabine Pass for shipping, ordered an assault on the two sentry Union warships. Using "cottonclads," riverboats armored with cotton bales that afforded effective protection from enemy fire, Confederate forces under command of Maj. Oscar W. Watkins engaged the Union blockaders. Consisting of the Uncle Ben and the Josiah H. Bell, this bantam fleet was designated the "Second Squadron of Magruder's Navy." On board the Josiah H. Bell, the Davis Guard of the First Texas Heavy Artillery, an all-Irish unit, served under Lt. Richard "Dick" Dowling. It manned a Columbiad artillery piece, supported by sharpshooters from the 2nd Texas Cavalry and Spaight's Battalion; additional forces from Spaight's Battalion served similar roles on the Uncle Ben. In the ensuing battle on Jan. 21, 1863, the cottonclads seized the initiative, and the engagement lasted roughly two hours. The frigate Morning Light was neutralized first, compelling the lesser-armed Velocity, a converted blockade runner, to strike its colors. Union casualties were minimal, but the battle resulted in the capture of the two ships, $10,000 worth of supplies and 109 Union prisoners of war. Although only temporarily lifting the Union blockade and presaging a decisive battle later in 1863, the battle demonstrated the Davis Guard had the ability to defend the Texas coast successfully. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A waterfront park at the mouth of the Sabine where the earthwork of Fort Griffin stood, with a Dowling statue, a Union memorial, wartime magazines and a walkway for fishing.
• Sea Rim State Park — 9.4 mi
  Texas's far southeast corner: nearly two miles of Gulf shoreline backed by 4,000 acres of marsh, reached by boardwalk or paddle trail, rebuilt after Rita and Ike.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 10 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 24 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Richard Dowling — steps away
• Site of Fort Griffin — steps away
• Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass — steps away
• World War II Coastal Defenses at Sabine Pass — steps away