Spanish-American War Fortifications

FortWiki, a catalog of American coastal defenses, lists three unnamed batteries here around 1898 and 1899: one 8-inch gun on a modified 15-inch Rodman carriage, two 5-inch guns and two 7-inch guns. A single two-gun 5-inch battery stood here around 1917 and 1918. In 1942 to 1944 a two-gun 155mm battery with a support base, a harbor entrance control post, five magazines and searchlights made up the Temporary Harbor Defense of Sabine Pass. The reservation was finally abandoned in 1945, and the site is now Sabine Pass Battleground State Historical Park.

What the plaque says

Spanish-American War Fortifications As tension mounted between the United States and Spain during the late 1890s, U. S. Representative Samuel Bronson Cooper of Texas recommended the War Department begin plans for the defense of the strategic Sabine Pass area. Maj. James B. Quinn of the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, was authorized to direct construction of two forts on land granted by Augustus F. Kountze. Work on the batteries was under way by May 1898, one month after the formal war declaration. Military efforts were coordinated with area residents by government engineer J. L. Brownlee. Although the emplacements were soon completed, the shore guns were never part of military action here. The Spanish-American War ended December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Later efforts were made to locate permanently a military installation at the site following the war. The plans were dropped, however, by 1901. In 1913, fifteen years after the war, the fortifications were the site of a tragic accident, in which a Sabine boy was killed when an abandoned ammunition cache exploded. Evidence of the fortifications has been severely damaged by hurricanes, but the site remains a symbol of an important era in U. S. history. (1983)

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

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