History of the Nineteenth Army Corps

by Richard B. Irwin

Franklin had the brigades under Love and Merritt of Weitzel's First division, with Bainbridge's, Closson's, and Bradbury's batteries, and the two brigades, Nickerson's and McMillan's, of Emory's Third division, with Duryea's, Trull's, and Hebard's batteries. For cavalry there were the two squadrons of the 1st Texas. Commodore Bell, who then commanded the West Gulf Squadron, gave the command of the gunboats, destined to keep down the fire of the shore batteries and cover the landing of the troops, to Lieutenant Frederick Crocker, from whose personal observation while serving on the blockade the information that led to the choice of the point of attack had been largely drawn. Crocker, besides his own vessel, the Clifton, had the Sachem, Lieutenant Amos Johnson; the Arizona, Acting-Master Howard Tibbetts; the Granite City, Acting-Master C. W. Lamson. Crocker's belief was that the defences ashore and afloat consisted of two 32-pounder guns in battery, and two small steamboats converted into rams.

Franklin's orders were to proceed to Sabine Pass; there, if the Navy should be able to secure the landing, he was to debark his whole force rapidly, take up a strong position, seize Beaumont, or some other point on the railroad to Houston, and then reconnoitre the enemy to learn their position and strength. He was not to go farther into the country until reinforced. After landing, he was to turn back the transports to Brashear, where Benton's division of the Thirteenth Corps would be found waiting to join him.

After many delays, due to the state and inadequacy of the transports, which, besides ten ocean steamers, fit and unfit, included six river steamers wholly of the latter class, Weitzel sailed from New Orleans on the evening of the 4th of September. Leaving the Southwest Pass on the morning of the 5th, under convoy of the Arizona, and steering westward, he was joined, early on the following morning, off Berwick Bay, by the Clifton and the Sachem. A detachment of about 100 sharp-shooters, mainly from Companies B and G of the 75th New York, under Lieutenants Root and Cox, was then sent aboard the Clifton, and to the Sachem an officer and 25 men from the 161st New York.

About daylight on the 7th, Crocker became convinced that he had overrun his distance and gone beyond Sabine Pass; but when all the vessels had put about and for three or four hours had been steering to the eastward, he found himself off the entrance to the Calcasieu, thirty miles east of the Sabine. Then he and Weitzel agreed that, under the circumstances, the best thing to be done was to intercept the remainder of the expedition, supposed to be following, under the immediate command of Franklin, and assembling the whole force where they were to wait until the next morning, the 8th of September, for the attempt at Sabine Pass. But the arrangement had been that the attack by the gunboats to cover Weitzel's landing was to be made early on the morning of the 7th. Accordingly Franklin, with his part of the fleet, carrying the supporting force, had already passed Berwick Bay; in fact, at eleven o'clock he was off Sabine Pass; and the Suffolk, bearing the headquarters flag of the Nineteenth Corps, had crossed the bar and was about to run in, the others following, when Franklin perceived that his advance had not yet come up, and therefore stopped the movement. In the afternoon Weitzel, seeing nothing of Franklin's fleet, made up his mind that he must have gone by, and once more setting his face toward the west, joined Franklin off the Sabine about nine o'clock that evening.

After the full and open notice thus given the enemy, all thought of anything like a surprise was at an end; yet it was agreed to go on and make the attempt the next morning. Accordingly, at daylight on the 8th, Crocker, with the Clifton and the other gunboats, followed by Weitzel with the 75th New York on the transport steamer Charles Thomas, entered the harbor, and after reconnoitring the landing-place and the defences, signalled the rest of the fleet to run in. Weitzel put a picked force of five hundred men on the transport General Banks, and following in the wake of the four gun-boats, made ready to land about a thousand yards below the fort.

Shortly before four o'clock the gunboats moved to the attack. Above the swamp through which the Sabine finds an outlet to the Gulf, the shore lies low and barren. The fort or sand battery was placed at the turn about one half mile below the hamlet called Sabine City, opposite the upper end of the oyster reef that for nearly a mile divides the channel into two parts, each narrow and neither straight. The Sachem, followed by the Arizona, took the eastern or Louisiana channel, and was hardly under fire before a shot struck her steampipe and completely disabled her. The Clifton moved at full speed up the western or Texas channel until, when almost directly under the guns of the fort, she also received a shot through her boilers, grounding at the same time; and thus, nearly at the same instant, before the action had fairly begun, the two leading gunboats were completely disabled and at the mercy of the enemy. The Louisiana channel was too narrow for the Arizona to pass the Sachem or to turn about; so at the moment when the Clifton received her fatal injury, the Arizona was backing down the eastern channel to ascend the western to her assistance; but in doing this she also took the ground. The Sachem hauled down her colors and hoisted the white flag at the fore, and after bravely continuing the fight for twenty minutes longer the Clifton followed suit.

The place where the Clifton grounded was fairly in range of the beach where Weitzel was expected to land his troops. There may have been a minute, or even ten, during which it might have been possible for Weitzel, breaking away from the concerted plan, to have thrown his picked men ashore while the attention of the Confederates was fixed upon the Clifton; yet, although this criticism has been suggested by high authority, the point would have been a fine one at best; and under the actual circumstances, with the Granite City in the channel ahead, the Arizona aground, and the guns of the Sachem and the Clifton about to be added to those with which the enemy had opened the action, the problem becomes one of pure speculation. What is clear is that the landing depended upon the gunboats; that these were cruelly beaten before they had a chance to prove themselves; and that nothing really remained to do but what was actually done: that is, to give up the expedition and go home.

It is true that the orders under which Franklin was acting indicated that if he found a landing impracticable at Sabine Pass he was to attempt to land at some other place near by; and it is also true that the infantry might have been set ashore almost anywhere in the soft salt marsh that serves for the neighboring coasts of Louisiana and Texas; but this must have been without their guns and wagons and with no fresh water save what they carried with them until they should have moved successfully into the interior; while on the transports the stock of water was already running so low that the men and animals were on short allowance. Therefore, with the loss of 3 officers and 94 men captured, of the 75th New York, 6 killed, 2 drowned, and 4 wounded, and 200 mules and 200,000 rations thrown into the sea, the expedition returned to New Orleans, whence, by reason of unseaworthiness of transports, part of it had not yet started. The transports came back in a sorry plight, the Cahawba on one wheel, the river steamboat Laurel Hill without her smokestacks, and all the others of her class with their frail sides stove. The Clifton and the Sachem, whose losses are but partially reported, lost 10 killed, 9 wounded, and 39 missing. Nearly all the rest of their crews were taken prisoners.

The Confederate work, known as Fort Griffin, mounted six guns, of which two were 32-pounder smooth bores, two 24-pounder smooth bores, and two 32-pounder howitzers, manned by a single company of Cook's regiment of Texas artillery, whose strength is stated variously, though with great precision, as 40, 41, 42, and 44 men. This company was commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling, and the post by Captain Frederick H. Odlum. There was a supporting body of about 200 men, as well as the gunboat Uncle Ben, but Dowling's company was the only force actually engaged. They received, and certainly deserved, the thanks of the Confederate Congress.

Still intent on executing the instructions of the government, and having in mind Halleck's strong preference for an overland operation, Banks at once gave orders to concentrate at Brashear for a movement up the Teche as far as Lafayette, or Vermilion, and thence across the plains by Niblett's Bluff into Texas. The route by the Atchafalaya and the Red River, Halleck's favorite, was now impracticable, for both rivers were at their lowest stage, and the great length of this line put out of the question the movement of any large force dependent upon land transport.