DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at Fort Sabine tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. It's April 1861, and the war hasn't been going long before the citizens of Sabine City look out at the Sabine Pass Channel and understand something with cold clarity — whoever holds that channel holds the gateway to the interior of eastern Texas and western Louisiana. That's not nothing.
That's everything. So they do what Texans do when trouble's coming down the water: they form a committee. They called it the Committee of Safety, and its primary job was to build a fort along that channel and arm it with guns capable of standing off a Union naval assault.
Local residents — and the marker is plain about this — including many slaves, constructed a dirt and timber earthwork overlooking the channel. That fort became Fort Sabine. The Sabine Pass Guard, a local militia, garrisoned it first.
Later came the 6th Texas Infantry Battalion, and members of Spaight's 11th Battalion, Texas Volunteers. For a while, Fort Sabine held the line. Then September 24th, 1862 arrived.
The Union steamer USS Kensington came up that channel, and she didn't come alone — she brought the schooners USS Rachel Seaman and USS Henry Janes with her. Three vessels, one fort, and the marker tells us that at the time of the attack, Confederate forces manning Fort Sabine numbered approximately sixty men. Sixty.
The fort suffered extensive damage. And here's where the story gets grimmer still — yellow fever was already moving through the troops and the citizens both. C.S.A.
Major Josephus S. Irvine faced an impossible arithmetic. He ordered the fort's guns spiked and the site evacuated.
Union forces took the earthworks, occupied the immediate area for months, then abandoned it themselves in early 1863. In March of that year, Confederate forces came back, inspected what was left, and determined that Fort Sabine was no longer an effective defensive position. But here's what the marker wants you to carry with you down the road — the lessons learned from Fort Sabine shaped what came next.
A new fort, Fort Griffin, was positioned along that same channel, about one mile north. And two reactivated 32-pound guns salvaged from Fort Sabine were installed at Fort Griffin before the second battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. Fort Sabine fell, yes.
But even in falling, it had one more fight left to give.
What the marker says
During the Civil War, the Sabine Pass Channel was a strategic gateway to the interior of eastern Texas and western Louisiana, control of which was vital. Fearing a possible Union invasion, the citizens of Sabine City (later Sabine Pass) formed a “Committee of Safety” in April 1861. The primary responsibility of the committee was to build a fort along the channel and to arm it with guns capable of defending their city against union naval assault. Local residents, including many slaves, constructed a dirt and timber earthwork overlooking the channel. The fort was garrisoned by the Sabine Pass Guard, a local militia, and later by the 6th Texas Infantry Battalion and members of Spaight’s 11th Battalion, Texas Volunteers. On Sept. 24, 1862, the Union steamer USS Kensington, along with schooners USS Rachel Seaman and USS Henry Janes attacked. Fort Sabine suffered extensive damage. At the time of the attack, Confederate forces manning Fort Sabine numbered approximately 60. Coupled with the effects of yellow fever among troops and citizens, C.S.A. Major Josephus S. Irvine ordered the fort’s guns spiked and the site evacuated. Union forces mastered the earthworks at Fort Sabine, occupying the immediate area for months before abandoning the site in early 1863. In March 1863, Confederate forces inspected and determined that Fort Sabine was no longer an effective defensive position. Lessons learned from Fort Sabine impacted the construction of a new site, Fort Griffin, positioned along the channel about one mile north. Two reactivated 32-pound guns from Fort Sabine were installed at Fort Griffin prior to the historic second battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. (2013)