Site of Fort Griffin

The fort was not the work of Dowling's gunners. Maj. Julius Kellersberger was sent from Houston to site and build it with about 500 enslaved laborers, and two surviving maps show the slave quarters and a slave hospital. The earthwork was triangular, with a sawtooth front meant to keep one shell from wrecking every gun and crew at once. It took Griffin's name only after his battalion arrived in May 1863. Union forces occupied it on May 25, 1865, and it was rapidly dismantled after 1870, its timber and iron probably reused on docks and the jetties.

What the plaque says

Site of Fort Griffin (1863-1865) Renowned for brilliant Civil War victory, Sept. 8, 1863. Confederates in this form repulsed a fleet seeking to land thousands of Federal soldiers. Lt. Richard W. Dowling (1838-1867), in civilian life a Houston businessman, commanded fort during enemy assault. His men, mostly Irishmen from Galveston and Houston, had been comrades in arms since Feb. 1861. Sabine Pass, where Dowling's men (Co. F, Texas Heavy Artillery) were assigned in 1863, was a center for the blockade-running whereby Confederacy exported cotton and obtained in exchange vital goods such as medicines and arms. Here Co. F built Fort Griffin, named in honor of Lt. Col. W. H. Griffin, Confederate commander at Sabine City. Fort was designed by Col. Valery Sulakowski, formerly of the Austrian Army. Fort Griffin was an earthwork strengthened with railroad iron and ship's timbers. It was unfinished when Confederates learned of approach of 22 ships. Dowling kept watch, but ordered no response to the early shelling by the Federals. When first ships entered range of Fort Griffin's guns, however, the battle began. Dowling himself served as one of the gunners. The fort sent 137 shells toward the targets. Dowling monument (near here) tells of the victory. (1969)

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