Sabine Pass, March 2022

[Harms88]

Down in Texas last week and was only able to visit 1 of the 5 battlefields that I was for certain going to hit and 1 of 8 that would have been very optimistic on my part. The one I did hit was Sabine Pass, a rather small engagement, really short but resulted in a lopsided Confederate victory that stopped a Union invasion of Texas dead in its tracks before it even could set foot on dry land.

While most of the original site of the fort is gone the park is located on the very edge of the leftmost portion of it. They have a very unique setup for interpreting the battle, with stone ships and a stone fort which allow people to visualize where the ships were and what the fort looked like.

Even without the fort still standing (the beach has shifted with the passage of time) it's not hard to imagine the clear line of sight the defenders had.

The walking beam (basically a piston) of the USS Clifton's steam engine serves as a center piece. The ship is sometimes mistaken as an ironclad warship, even in online articles today about this battle, but it was just a steam ship with thin iron playing in sections.

While there were no Confederate casualties (outside one man whose leather glove burned through and scorched him to the bone of his thumb the gun was that hot) there were more than a few Union ones honored here. You may note at the bottom of the monument they specify that even though there were African Americans who served on these ships, they were unnamed.

Overall, it was a good time with a few members of the board with @bdtex as fellow member of the tour and @mjr251 doing a good job as your guide.

 

[bdtex]

The walking beam (basically a piston) of the USS Clifton's steam engine serves as a center piece.

@mjr251 explaining to us how it worked:

 

[bdtex]

Overall, it was a good time with a few members of the board with @bdtex as fellow member of the tour and @mjr251 doing a good job as your guide.

Anyone wanting a preview of his tour would do well to read through his thread:

ACW Sites in Sabine Pass, Texas | Traveler's Companion - Visit Historic Sites

Like most of you, no doubt, I have had an interest in the ACW since I was a kid. Compared with many towns in southeast Texas, Sabine Pass isn't terribly far removed from its 19th-century heritage, if you know what to look for. Back then, it was a hub of commerce. Timber and cotton were the main...

civilwartalk.com

 

[lupaglupa]

Looks like you had perfect weather for it! Thanks for sharing your photos

 

[mjr251]

Had an absolute blast and was honored to meet you gentlemen. I hope we can do it again sometime.

@bdtex, next time you can make it over this way, there are quite a few local cemeteries that hold CS veterans.

 

[mjr251]

@mjr251 explaining to us how it worked:

Pardon the knee brace.. I had just had ACL reconstruction in February. You can't tell by my fat a^s^s but I'm a runner, and I apparently overdid it the past couple years!

 

[bdtex]

Looks like you had perfect weather for it! Thanks for sharing your photos

The other 2 times I have been there was July 2015 and September 2018. It was sweltering and mosquito infested both times. It was cool and breezy last Wednesday and the mosquitoes were not an issue.

 

[Harms88]

Looks like you had perfect weather for it! Thanks for sharing your photos

I actually got pretty badly sunburned and it wasn't even that hot.

 

[Pollaco]

I was there this past October and thoroughly enjoyed it. My regret was missing the meeting up with you 3 last week. It looks like once the storm passed y'all were blessed with some pretty good weather.

 

[Harms88]

I was there this past October and thoroughly enjoyed it. My regret was missing the meeting up with you 3 last week. It looks like once the storm passed y'all were blessed with some pretty good weather.

We might have been able to see a lot more, but one of our companions told us that roads were too bad because of the storm to make it.

 

[Pollaco]

I heard we missed a reenactment at Goliad yesterday. It was a shame you didn't get to venture "down South".

 

[mjr251]

We might have been able to see a lot more, but one of our companions told us that roads were too bad because of the storm to make it.

Eh, we would have tried it if we had more time. Tell ya the truth, I was running out of steam by the time we were finishing up at the Pace cemetery, and my knee was killing me.

I know for sure we'd have been able to get to the site of Fort Sabine.

 

[Harms88]

Eh, we would have tried it if we had more time. Tell ya the truth, I was running out of steam by the time we were finishing up at the Pace cemetery, and my knee was killing me.

I know for sure we'd have been able to get to the site of Fort Sabine.

While I say that, the fiancé was not so happy with me when I got back, so any later would have only gotten me more in the doghouse.

I heard we missed a reenactment at Goliad yesterday. It was a shame you didn't get to venture "down South".

I wish I'd had more time but it's the nature of the beast.

 

[mjr251]

Here's a hand-drawn map from WT Block of Fort Manhassett.. it's hard to read because the image is a photo I took of the drawing, and it looks like WT did it with a Sharpie.

 

[mjr251]

This is a sketch of Redoubt A I did when I was a kid.. that **** flagpole should not be there, and I neglected to draw the bombproofs.

 

[mjr251]

@bdtex Bobby, those are the two 32-pounders I mentioned as being at Redoubt A. These are the guns for which all that ammunition was found back in the 70s. The three other works had platforms for field guns, not barbette mounts like these, and Redoubt C, the northernmost work, probably never had any guns at all.

 

[bdtex]

This is the best picture I got of Redoubts A and B. I wish had pointed the camera down a little more. I might've gotten the triangular shape of the remnant of Redoubt A a little better if I had. As I recall, you pointed out that the 3 dark areas to the right of Redoubt A were Fort Manhassett fortifications too.

 

[mjr251]

 

[mjr251]

Redoubt C is underwater now, so I didn't label it. Not sure why it's labeled a redoubt, because it was actually a redan - two earthwork faces forming a salient angle.

 

[bdtex]

View attachment 436175

I just noticed the barbed wire fence in my picture. I guess I pointed the camera down as much as I could have. It was torture not being able to walk out there.