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This site includes the postings from the Irish Aires email list. This includes a listing of Irish/Celtic events in the Houston area and other information that the Irish Aires radio program posts.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Reenactment 2008 Dick Dowling Day
Reenactment 2008 DICK DOWLING DAY
CIVIL WAR LIVING HISTORY
SEPTEMBER 6th
10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
Commemorating the 145th Anniversary
of the BATTLE OF SABINE PASS, TEXAS
To be held at the
Spindletop/Gladys City Boomtown Museum
Beaumont, Texas
COME and SEE and HEAR UNION and CONFEDERATE
Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines Of All Services and Branches
AT WAR and AT PEACE
See and Talk to the Citizens and Soldiers
of the 19th Century City of Sabine, Texas
TWO DRAMATIC BATTLE REENACTMENTS
11:00A.M. & 4:00 P.M.
Plus
Witness the Irony of Life When WAR is in YOUR OWN BACK YARD
MILITARY EXECUTION
of Confederate Officer for Desertion
NOTED AUTHOR and HISTORIAN to speak about
THE BATTLE of SABINE PASS
FULL SCALE
CIVIL WAR
MILITARY ENCAMPMENT
FOOD, VENDERS, EXCITEMENT
ADMISSION: Adults $5.00,
Seniors $4.00, Under 12 $2.00,
Under 6 FREE
Sponsored by
Dick Dowling Camp #1295
Sons of Confederate Veterans
and
Kate Dorman Chapter #11
Order of Confederate Rose
Participants are asked to Please Pre-Register
For REENACTOR REGISTRATION
contact
Micheal McGreevy at Michael.E.McGreevy@usa.dupont.com
or call (409) 866-1655
ASAP for registration and details.
FINAL SCHEDULE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Background:
The Summer of 1863:
The Confederate States of America had been fighting for their independence from the United
States of America for two long violent years.
They had just suffered two serious setbacks with the fall of Vicksburg, a vital Mississippi River
city, and the virtual destruction of Robert E. Lee’s army in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, both,
ironically, on the 4th of July.
Union commanders viewed it as an ideal time invade and occupy Texas. Soldiers, equipment
and ships were gathered in Union-held New Orleans for a ten thousand-man invasion force for
the occupation of Texas. The destination chosen was the mouth of the Sabine and Neches
Rivers at Sabine Pass on the Texas and Louisiana border.
In early September, four heavily armed gunboats and eighteen transports set sail on the Gulf of
Mexico. On board was the first half of the invasion force sent to overcome any enemy defenses
along the rivers.
Guarding the entrance to Sabine Pass was Fort Griffin, an uncompleted earthen fortification. Its
only armament was a battery of six smoothbore artillery pieces. Manning the guns was one
undersize company of Confederate volunteers; Company F of the 1st Texas Heavy Artillery
Regiment.
Known as the Davis Guard, they were very a well-drilled and highly patriotic unit made up of Irish
immigrants who had seen action at the Battle of Galveston and had been instrumental in
capturing two Union blockading ships the year before.
On the morning of September 7th the Federal fleet arrived at the mouth of the pass. Many of the
men of the Davis Guard, including Captain Frederick Odlum, Commander of Fort Griffin, were on
leave, sick, or attending to duties away from the post. Command of less than fifty men fell to
young Lieutenant Dick Dowling.
Confederate high command advised that Dowling destroy his guns and withdraw, but, knowing
that there weren’t sufficient forces to defend Beaumont, Orange, and their important railroads,
he determined to stay and try to fend the Yankee fleet off at the pass.
The next morning, the Union gunboats approached the fort and fired a barrage of shells. Dowling
kept his men concealed and didn’t return fire. The union commanders were deceived into
thinking that the fort was empty and that the Confederate guns were fakes. The attack was
ordered to proceed. The gunboats USS Clifton, USS Sachem, USS Arizona, and USS Granite City
steamed to the attack.
Again, the fort held its fire until the Sachem was within range of his old smoothbores. At
Dowling’s command, the Davis Guard commenced firing, and crippled the Sachem by exploding
her boilers with one of its first shots. Wounded and scalded men poured into the water where
many drowned in the pandemonium as she surrendered.
Dowling then turned his attention to the Clifton. Her tiller ropes were soon shot away and she
was stuck on the shallow, muddy river bottom within easy range of Irish gunners. A terrible
artillery dual ensued as the Davis Guard and the Clifton exchanged volley after volley.
Additionally, US Marine sharpshooters on board were raking the fort with musket fire.
One of the Clifton’s guns was struck by a shell, destroying it and killing the gun crew. Then her
boiler, too, was struck. It exploded, sending many of the sailors and marines overboard,
wounded, scalded and drowning. She quickly surrendered also.
The two disabled gunboats now blocked the only water deep enough to safely navigate past the
fort. The remaining gunboats and transports fled fearing Confederate reinforcements, but the
tide was out and many were too heavily laden to get back across the sandbars and back out into
the gulf. Equipment, provisions, and livestock had to be thrown overboard to lighten them. They
returned to New Orleans, defeated, the invasion of Texas was never attempted again.
The members of the Davis Guard were awarded medals for their heroism. Fearing a second
invasion try, Fort Griffin was reinforced and Fort Manhassett was constructed nearby. Dick
Dowling was promoted to major and toured the South recruiting more soldiers for the
Confederate cause. After the war, he returned home and was a popular and successful
businessman. He died of Yellow Fever at age twenty-nine, and had one of the largest funerals
ever seen in Houston.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis called the Battle of Sabine Pass one of the most heroic
acts in the history of warfare.
For additional information and registration forms, please contact the Dick Dowling Camp #1295.