Sabine Pass Cemetery

A Union report on the casualties of the January 21, 1863 fight, dated February 10, 1864, says Seaman Patrick Ferlin was killed by a shell explosion at the forward port gun near the end of the action. He was buried with military honors on January 22 in the Sabine City cemetery. Ordinary Seaman Albert W. Marshall, struck in the right temple by a shell fragment, died on the 27th and was buried beside him with the same honors. W. T. Block later made aluminum markers for graves at risk of becoming unknown.

What the plaque says

Sabine Pass Cemetery The oldest continually used cemetery in Jefferson County, This graveyard has served the citizens of the Sabine Pass area since the 1840s. The earliest documented grave is that of a 12-year-old John A. Dashiell, son of William V.C. and Mary Dashiell, who died on August 27, 1847. The large site now known as Sabine Pass Cemetery represents a combination of five formerly distinct burial grounds. Included in what was once called "The Colored Peoples Cemetery" is the unmarked grave of 108-year-old Louis Williams. Born a slave in Mississippi in 1813, Williams died on June 23, 1921. Among the burials in this historic graveyard are those of many distinguished military veterans. Able Coffin (1792-1862) and Burwell Jackson (1783-1864) fought in the War of 1812. Jacob Harmon Garner (1814-1887), Benjamin Johnson (1815-1872) and Niles F. Smith (1800-1858) were Texas Revolution veterans. Soldiers and sailors from both the Union and Confederate forces of the Civil War also are interred here. The two Union sailors Patrick Ferlin and Albert W. Marshall, died of wounds sustained during the offshore naval encounter on January 21, 1863, while serving on the ship Morning Light. A number of Confederate veterans rest in the cemetery, as does Kate Dorman, dubbed "the heroine of Sabine Pass" for her assistance of the southern troops. A number of graves have been specially marked with military or state historical markers. Maintained by Jefferson County and cared for by local volunteer organizations, the Sabine Pass Cemetery remains in use by citizens of the area. Its historic gravestones and monuments provide a unique component of the cultural history of Jefferson County. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site — 1.9 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 — 7.4 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 — 11 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

• Kate Dorman — steps away
• Kate Dorman — steps away
• Jacob Harmon Garner — steps away
• Benjamin Johnson — steps away