DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just here to do it justice. Now, pull up a chair — or keep both hands on the wheel — because this story starts with tension, involves some serious military hardware, and ends in a way nobody planned. Late eighteen-nineties, and the air between the United States and Spain is getting thick.
Out of Texas, U.S. Representative Samuel Bronson Cooper sees what's coming, and he goes to the War Department with a recommendation — start making plans to defend the strategic Sabine Pass area. The War Department listens.
They authorize Major James B. Quinn of the Army Corps of Engineers out of New Orleans to direct construction of two forts. The land to build them on?
Granted by a man named Augustus F. Kountze. Work on those batteries was under way by May of 1898.
Now here's the thing about May of 1898 — that's one month after the formal declaration of war. They were not wasting daylight. A government engineer named J.
L. Brownlee coordinated the whole military effort with the folks living in the area. And those emplacements?
They were soon completed. Two forts, shore guns in place, ready. Except — and this is where the story takes a turn — those shore guns were never part of any military action at Sabine Pass.
Not a single shot in anger. Because the Spanish-American War ended December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. After the war, efforts were made to locate a permanent military installation at the site.
Somebody saw the potential. But by 1901, those plans were dropped. And so the forts sat.
The guns went quiet and stayed quiet. Then comes 1913 — fifteen years after the war ended — and the site earns a place in the record for the worst possible reason. A boy from Sabine was killed when an abandoned ammunition cache exploded.
A tragic accident, the marker calls it, and there's no other word that fits. Hurricanes over the years have severely damaged what evidence of the fortifications remained. But the site holds on.
A symbol, the marker says, of an important era in U.S. history. Two forts built in a hurry, guns that never fired, and a peace that came before the story was supposed to begin. That's Sabine Pass, and that's the marker.
What the marker says
As tension mounted between the United States and Spain during the late 1890s, U. S. Representative Samuel Bronson Cooper of Texas recommended the War Department begin plans for the defense of the strategic Sabine Pass area. Maj. James B. Quinn of the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, was authorized to direct construction of two forts on land granted by Augustus F. Kountze. Work on the batteries was under way by May 1898, one month after the formal war declaration. Military efforts were coordinated with area residents by government engineer J. L. Brownlee. Although the emplacements were soon completed, the shore guns were never part of military action here. The Spanish-American War ended December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Later efforts were made to locate permanently a military installation at the site following the war. The plans were dropped, however, by 1901. In 1913, fifteen years after the war, the fortifications were the site of a tragic accident, in which a Sabine boy was killed when an abandoned ammunition cache exploded. Evidence of the fortifications has been severely damaged by hurricanes, but the site remains a symbol of an important era in U. S. history.