DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Fort Manhassett has to say — and friend, this one's got layers worth unwrapping. Now, it's September 1863, and the Confederacy is feeling the pressure along the Gulf Coast. Federal ships are patrolling those waters, and the threat of invasion hangs in the salt air like a coming storm.
Confederate General John B. Magruder looks at a stretch of Jefferson County coastline and says, on September 4, 1863, this is where we build. And here's the thing — that order came just four days before one of the more remarkable moments of the entire war in Texas.
Four days before Dick Dowling and his small company turned back Union ships and gunboats at Sabine Pass, just seven miles to the northeast. Four days. Magruder was already planning the next move before the last one had even been played.
After the Federal retreat at Sabine Pass, you might think folks along the coast could breathe easy. But the Confederate Coastal Defense program kept right on going. Federal blockading vessels were still out there on the Gulf, and the fear of more invasions hadn't gone anywhere.
Then nature stepped in and did something peculiar. September 19th, a storm rolls through. It sends the Union patrol steamers scattering out to sea — but it drives one of their ships right ashore.
Their coaling ship, the Mannahassett. Confederate troops didn't waste a minute. They dismantled that ship and seized its cargo.
Now, the fort they were building needed a name. The marker says that name evidently was adapted from that of the captured ship. Fort Manhassett.
The man who designed it was Colonel Valery Sulakowski, formerly of the Austrian Army — which tells you something about how far and wide this war had drawn its participants. And overseeing the construction was Major Getulius Kellersberger, a Swiss-born engineer who had settled in America some years earlier. Two men from two different corners of the Old World, raising earthworks on the Texas Gulf Coast.
By October 1863, the fort was no skeleton crew operation. Five companies garrisoned its five redoubts, and ten cannons stood ready. And then, on May 6, 1864, soldiers from Fort Manhassett rode that momentum all the way to Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana, where they participated in the capture of two Union ironclad ships.
A fort named after a grounded enemy vessel, designed by an Austrian, built by a Swiss engineer, manned by five companies with ten cannons — sitting in the marshes of Jefferson County, Texas, doing exactly what it was built to do.
What the marker says
To protect Texas against Federal invasion during the Civil War, Confederate General John B. Magruder ordered the construction of a fort at this site on September 4, 1863, four days before the famous Confederate victory won by Dick Dowling and his small company against Union ships and gunboats at Sabine Pass (7 mi. NE). After the Federal retreat, the Confederate Coastal Defense program continued, since Federal blockading vessels still patrolled Gulf waters and the threat of more invasions was feared. A storm on September 19 sent the Union patrol steamers out to sea, but drove ashore their coaling ship, the "Mannahassett". Confederate troops dismantled the ship and seized its cargo. Col. Valery Sulakowski, formerly of the Austrian Army, designed Fort Manhassett, whose name evidently was adapted from that of the captured ship. Major Getulius Kellersberger, a Swiss-born engineer who had settled in America some years earlier, oversaw the construction. By October 1863, five companies garrisoned the five redoubts of the new fort and manned its ten cannons. Fort Manhassett soldiers participated in the capture of two Union ironclad ships at Calcasieu Pass, Louisiana on May 6, 1864.