mjr251
Private
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2014
- Location
- Near Port Arthur, Texas
I originally wrote this on Facebook, just now thought to share it here. For geographic reference, this spot is in southeast Texas, between Beaumont and Port Arthur.
Between the winter of 1862 and mid-summer of 1863, Confederate Fort Grigsby stood on this spot. The commanding site over the river and lake is still apparent to this day. This is at the 'Texaco Curve', in front of the Motiva dock offices.
After abandoning Fort Sabine in the face of much heavier US Navy guns on September 25, 1862, the Confederate defenders from Spaight's 11th Battalion, Texas Infantry, retreated north toward Beaumont. Marauding Federal shore parties bought or confiscated Sabine Pass cattle, burned Confederate military structures and Judge D.R. Wingate's sawmill, and destroyed several schooners and the railroad bridge over Taylor's Bayou.
To defend against any Yankee incursions this side of Sabine Lake, Major Julius Kellersberg fortified the mouths of the Sabine and Neches Rivers. On an unnamed fortification on a shellbank eight miles south of Orange, he emplaced a pair of 1844 32-pounder 'brass' howitzers, and here, on Grigsby's Bluff - modern-day Port Neches - he emplaced a pair of iron 24-pounders on barbette carriages "in a temporary and very primitive manner." Captain K.D. Keith's artillery Company B, Spaight's Battalion, manned these guns.
Due to several factors, including unfounded rumors of thousands of rebels, cottonclads, and field guns coming down from Beaumont, the Federals temporarily abandoned Sabine Pass. Kellersberg and his Polish-born superior, Colonel Valery Sulakowski, began construction of a much stronger fortification there, later named Fort Griffin. As it would, when completed, guard the only means of entry by water into Texas between Galveston and Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, Griffin rendered the forts at Orange and Grigsby's Bluff no longer necessary. The 24-pounders and 32-pounder howitzers, along with two refurbished 32-pounders from Fort Sabine, were moved to Fort Griffin, where they stopped cold a serious Federal invasion of Texas in September 1863.
In the center of this picture, between the trees, is the mouth of the Neches River where it empties into Sabine Lake. Kellersberg had sunk several barges loaded with clamshells there, which kept any substantial vessels out of the river. He noted the weakness of this defensive layout, as the barrier was out of range of all four guns, but he was confident that they could easily deal with anything that was capable of crossing it.
Not much is known of Fort Grigsby, except for Kellersberg's plans to build a bombproof and magazine for it. In his report dated October 18, 1862, he noted that his men were in the process of building it. I think it's very probable, then, that it was competed to his orders, as the fort would have been in existence for the better part of a year by the time the guns were moved to Fort Griffin.
Though it didn't exist at the time, Port Neches can claim a small stake in the Civil War, as two of the guns that stopped a Federal invasion and spared Texas from the burden of military occupation were once located here.
Between the winter of 1862 and mid-summer of 1863, Confederate Fort Grigsby stood on this spot. The commanding site over the river and lake is still apparent to this day. This is at the 'Texaco Curve', in front of the Motiva dock offices.
After abandoning Fort Sabine in the face of much heavier US Navy guns on September 25, 1862, the Confederate defenders from Spaight's 11th Battalion, Texas Infantry, retreated north toward Beaumont. Marauding Federal shore parties bought or confiscated Sabine Pass cattle, burned Confederate military structures and Judge D.R. Wingate's sawmill, and destroyed several schooners and the railroad bridge over Taylor's Bayou.
To defend against any Yankee incursions this side of Sabine Lake, Major Julius Kellersberg fortified the mouths of the Sabine and Neches Rivers. On an unnamed fortification on a shellbank eight miles south of Orange, he emplaced a pair of 1844 32-pounder 'brass' howitzers, and here, on Grigsby's Bluff - modern-day Port Neches - he emplaced a pair of iron 24-pounders on barbette carriages "in a temporary and very primitive manner." Captain K.D. Keith's artillery Company B, Spaight's Battalion, manned these guns.
Due to several factors, including unfounded rumors of thousands of rebels, cottonclads, and field guns coming down from Beaumont, the Federals temporarily abandoned Sabine Pass. Kellersberg and his Polish-born superior, Colonel Valery Sulakowski, began construction of a much stronger fortification there, later named Fort Griffin. As it would, when completed, guard the only means of entry by water into Texas between Galveston and Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, Griffin rendered the forts at Orange and Grigsby's Bluff no longer necessary. The 24-pounders and 32-pounder howitzers, along with two refurbished 32-pounders from Fort Sabine, were moved to Fort Griffin, where they stopped cold a serious Federal invasion of Texas in September 1863.
In the center of this picture, between the trees, is the mouth of the Neches River where it empties into Sabine Lake. Kellersberg had sunk several barges loaded with clamshells there, which kept any substantial vessels out of the river. He noted the weakness of this defensive layout, as the barrier was out of range of all four guns, but he was confident that they could easily deal with anything that was capable of crossing it.
Not much is known of Fort Grigsby, except for Kellersberg's plans to build a bombproof and magazine for it. In his report dated October 18, 1862, he noted that his men were in the process of building it. I think it's very probable, then, that it was competed to his orders, as the fort would have been in existence for the better part of a year by the time the guns were moved to Fort Griffin.
Though it didn't exist at the time, Port Neches can claim a small stake in the Civil War, as two of the guns that stopped a Federal invasion and spared Texas from the burden of military occupation were once located here.
Bringing the