Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass

The Union expedition began in New Orleans, where General Banks sent about 4,000 soldiers under General William Franklin, with four gunboats carrying 18 guns. Lt. Frederick Crocker planned the naval attack on the fort. The Clifton shelled it from long range early in the morning, and at 3:40 that afternoon the gunboats came through the pass to within 1,200 yards. A shot cut the Clifton's tiller rope and put it aground, and the Sachem was disabled in the channel. The Davis Guards fired 107 rounds in 35 minutes, and about 350 prisoners were taken.

What the plaque says

Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass Federal Fatalities at the Battle of Sabine Pass The battle at Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863 was a victory for Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling and his troops, which numbered fewer than 50. Dowling and his Davis guards kept Union gunboats from advancing up the pass. The U.S.S. Clifton and the U.S.S. Arizona ran aground early in the battle. The Clifton and the U.S.S. Sachem, both disabled by cannon fire, surrendered. The Arizona and the U.S.S. Granite City were able to return to federal headquarters at New Orleans. After the battle, more than 300 federal troops became prisoners of war. Others were killed or missing; many of those had been aboard the Sachem when its boiler exploded as a result of the direct hit on the ship. John Marshall Carson, a Confederate commissary sergeant, was on board the C.S.S. Uncle Ben, an old freight boat used by the Confederate army. The Uncle Ben towed the two captured gunboats to shore, where Carson and the other crew members aided in removing the dead. The Confederates dug a long ditch near the Dorman Hotel on the northern edge of the townsite of Sabine Pass and near what would become the Port Arthur Canal. There, they buried a reported 28 Union troops. Many others were considered missing, their bodies never recovered. Excavations in the 20th century confirmed the burial location, much of which has eroded away. Today, the U.S. soldiers and sailors killed and missing at the pass are remembered along with the Confederate troops who engaged them in battle. (1980, 2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site — 0.4 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

• World War II Coastal Defenses at Sabine Pass — steps away
• Fort Manhassett — steps away
• Spanish-American War Fortifications — steps away
• Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity — steps away