The Texas Thermopylae - Part One

Note: This entry is based on an excerpt from the 2016 centennial book: Deep Water: The Story of Beaumont and its Port. The town of Beaumont is about 90 miles east of Houston, Texas, and Sabine Pass is 30-ish miles to the south/southeast, as the crow flies.

Texas spent nearly a decade as proud republic before it became part of the United States of America. And yet, within fifteen years, the clouds of war gathered once again. The Lone Star State seceded from the Union along with the other Confederate States of America. It was during this “War of Northern Aggression” that Beaumont and its port were coveted targets. Popular history tends to highlight other towns of the South, like Atlanta, Charleston, and New Orleans. But a seemingly unstoppable Union army had its sights set on a lonely stretch of railroad laid westward from Beaumont—a meager spit of iron connecting to the Confederate armory in Houston. And, too, the port itself was another channel to transport men and supplies. Indeed, there were blockade-runners, sneaking in some supplies and contraband—though these were fewer and farther between than Union estimates.

This depicts the second Battle for Sabine Pass. The
lighthouse on the right still stands.

In September of 1862, the Union army captured Sabine Pass, a very narrow inlet to the shallow Sabine Lake. Soon after, Galveston had been captured and meant that the final two vital supply routes or ports of entry into the Confederacy had been captured or sealed off.

This would not stand.

Galveston was liberated from Union hands on New Year’s Day 1863 with a bold move orchestrated by Confederate General John Magruder. This loss was adding insult to injury for the Union because in October of 1862, Union forces abandoned the fort at Sabine Pass. This was due to faulty intelligence reports that Confederate forces were massing nearby for an assault. That never happened, nevertheless, these embarrassments were intolerable to Union strategists.

It took nine months before an organized Union fleet was assembled to assault Sabine Pass, but what a force it was. On the morning of September 8, 1863, the Union was packing twenty-two vessels, including four gunboats and eighteen transports carrying between four thousand and five thousand Union soldiers. The official objective was to seize Sabine Pass, and then proceed upriver to the port of Beaumont with the stated intent to plug a potential Confederate supply line. Real intentions, however, were to teach the Southerners a lesson. In other words, the North wanted vengeance.

Dick Dowling in 1866

Standing against this overwhelming force was Dick Dowling, a Texas treasure. He was an Irish immigrant who settled in Texas after encountering anti-Irish sentiments in New Orleans. Dowling prospered in Texas, having established several saloons. His civic efforts brought gaslight to Houston, along with streetcars, and he was a founding member of the city's first first fire company. Like many fellow Texans, he joined the Confederacy to protect his state and his city from northern aggressors. He commanded a militia of about forty-four men composed of mostly Irish immigrants. Their assignment—protect Sabine Pass at Fort Griffin.

Putting things in perspective, Dowling’s command was about a quarter of Travis’ defenders at the Alamo facing similar numbers from Santa Anna; and certainly the kind of odds that the Spartans could appreciate during their defense of Thermopylae against Persian forces two thousand years earlier. Let me restate this: it was 44 against well over 4,000.

Battle map of Sabine Pass

Not unlike ancient Thermopylae, Sabine Pass is just that, a pass. The waterway is a very narrow and shallow inlet from the Gulf of Mexico that squeezes traffic into a sliver. Just to compound things, there was an oyster reef right down the middle of the pass, splitting the channel into two even more narrow passages. Overlooking Sabine Pass is Fort Griffin, although the term “fort” is an overstatement. It was little more than earthworks—the walls were packed dirt of about thirty-five feet thick from front to back. It was defended by six smoothbore cannons behind the walls, and their mounts elevated the guns about five feet above normal ground level.

Dowling's task was simple, defend the pass, and do his level best to make the Union's 1,000 to 1 superiority count for nothing. Fortunately, Dowling was clever in a delightfully sneaky sort of way.

The militia placed stakes at particular points along both sides of the oyster reef. Remember, this reef ran down the center of the already narrow pass, splintering the passage. The stakes Dowling's men placed on the reef were range markers, and Dowling had his artillery teams use them during target practice. And practice they did all through July and August—and practice and practice.


Next: 44 men go to-to-toe with thousands of Union soldiers.