Battle of Sabine Pass

proud texan

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I have attached some links to a site I found today that is one of the finer descriptions of this battle. I welcome any discussion on this battle as it was a major setback to the invasion plans of Texas.
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX9a.htm
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX10.htm
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX10a.htm
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX10b.htm
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX11.htm
http://celticowboy.com/CSATX11a.htm


Great site.

We are also coming up on the 150th of another action at Sabine Pass. In January 1863 the CSS Uncle Ben and CSS Josiah Bell steamed out of the Sabine to attack US blockading ships Morning Light and Velocity. The CS ships chased the US ships down and captured them. I think Dowling was manning the gun on the Josiah Bell that day.

With the battle of Gavelston bay, the sinking of the USS Hatteras by the CSS Alabama, and the capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity , January 1863 was a good month for CSS naval forces in Texas.
 
With the battle of Gavelston bay, the sinking of the USS Hatteras by the CSS Alabama, and the capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity , January 1863 was a good month for CSS naval forces in Texas.

I've always thought it was notable that all this happened in Farragut's department, yet he somehow escaped blame for it. The Teflon Admiral? :D
 
I've always thought it was notable that all this happened in Farragut's department, yet he somehow escaped blame for it. The Teflon Admiral? :D
Yeah, well, the large-scale operations he commanded on-the-spot -- passing the forts on the Mississippi and Mobile, later -- turned out well. Nothing succeeds like success, etc., etc.

After the debacle at Galveston, he came down hard on the senior surviving Federal naval officer, Richard Law, because instead of taking up the blockade again off the port, he and what was left of the Federal squadron high-tailed it all the way back to New Orleans. Law's sword was on exhibit here this weekend, which I'd never seen before. It was billed as the "Sword of Surrender," which is not really right, because he never formally surrendered the squadron, but I suppose "Sword of Skedaddle" was too snarky for the museum display panel.
 
In the December issue of the United Daughters of the Confederacy magazine, there is interesting article on the "Skirmish at the Sabine Pass Lighthouse", April 18, 1863. It talks about the lighthouse has fallen into disrepair. It is on the National Register of Historic Places but needs restoration. I am sure some of you from Texas know its plight.
 
It was being talked about and funding may be in the future due to contributions from an LNG plant recently built in Sabine Pass and Cameron,La. Let's cross our fingers. By the By; Lighthouse cove used to hold a tremendous amout of Flounder.
 
I duck hunt here; also Texas Bayou in Sabine Pass which is 10-15 miles South of my home and you can literally sink up to your neck. We call it gumbo mud.

Banks seemed to believe there was another possible landing place a little further down the coast.
But when I look at a map I cant figure out where that would have been.
 
In the December issue of the United Daughters of the Confederacy magazine, there is interesting article on the "Skirmish at the Sabine Pass Lighthouse", April 18, 1863. It talks about the lighthouse has fallen into disrepair. It is on the National Register of Historic Places but needs restoration. I am sure some of you from Texas know its plight.

I think it was a little more than a skirmish IMO. The importance of this battle if the Confederacy had lost would open all the supply routes from Texas to attack with a minimum amout of Texas troops to defend it. I haven't seen a total on the actual amount of supplys that traveled through Texas; does anyone know what the cessation of supplys would mean to the Confederacy?
 
So would High Island be an alternative landing spot?
I doubt it. There's no sheltered anchorage -- landing on an open beach -- and while High Island is a good, elevated spot, it's still surrounded by the same wet, boggy marsh. No rail connection to the interior at all, and I doubt even much in the way of good roads.
 
That leaves Galveston then.
Yes, but Magruder was already building up extensive local defenses from the time he re-took the island on New Years Day 1863. By spring he had hundreds and hundreds of laborers building entrenchments, gun batteries, and obstructions in the harbor. (Fremantle visited here at the time and discusses this in his famous account.) The Federals never made any serious attempt to retake Galveston after losing it, and instead focused on South Texas -- Brazos Santiago, Corpus Christi and Matagorda Bay.
 
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