The Battle of Sabine Pass has gone down in military history as one of the great battles, yet it has been overshadowed by other Civil War action. As most Texas schoolchildren know, 43 Irish-Texans with six cannons repelled a Union invasion force of 6,000 and saved the state from occupation.

Today, the site where the rudimentary fort once stood is commemorated with a park about 14 miles south of Port Arthur. Huge ocean-going vessels move vast amounts of goods into the Gulf of Mexico through the narrow pass that separates Texas from Louisiana.

From the outset of the Civil War, the U.S. Army tried to choke off the South's industrial capabilities by blockading the ports.

Sabine Pass became one of the most successful contraband routes along the Southern coast. Ships carrying lumber and cotton from East Texas and Louisiana hid on Sabine Lake before making a dash for open waters.

After several victories against Southern shore batteries and the capture of Galveston, the U.S. Navy turned its attention to the Southeast Texas shipping channel in late summer 1863.

The Union's battle plan was to steam up the Sabine Channel, land a small army, capture the railroad between Houston and New Orleans, and then capture Houston. By occupying coastal Texas, the Union could control nearly the entire state.

The Confederates had a much different plan.

Concerned by rumors of a naval attack at Sabine Pass, military officials in Houston sent a Polish and a Swiss engineer to construct Fort Griffin two miles south of Sabine City. It was an excellent strategic location on a small rise on the otherwise flat marshland.

The fort's guns covered the narrow channel that was divided by a large oyster reef. The earthen bunker was manned by a group of Irish dock workers led by Lt. Dick Dowling, a 25-year-old Houston saloon keeper.

The rowdy Irishmen really didn't have a cause in the Civil War other than their love of a good fight. The unit was an efficient artillery company, however. Before the battle, they had practiced firing at markers placed in the two channels.

The Union's plans quickly unraveled. It took hours to get the Navy's heavy ships over the sandbar at the mouth of the pass. By 3:30 p.m. Sept. 8, 1863, the gunboats were ready to attack.

The USS Clifton slowly began the charge up the Texas side of the channel. The Union sailors -- blinded by the sun -- sent most of their cannon shells over the fort. The first ship to come into range of the fort's artillery was the USS Sachem advancing up the Louisiana side of the channel followed by the USS Arizona. The Irishmen's accuracy took out the boiler of the Sachem, leaving it disabled and blocking the right side of the oyster reef.

The Clifton moved toward the fort until it ran aground in the mud a few hundred yards from the shore battery. The fort's guns soon forced the stuck skipper to raise the white flag. Officers on a transport ship following the Clifton saw the devastation and turned back rather than landing troops.

According to Dowling's report, his gunners fired 137 shots during the 45-minute battle. His men captured two Union ships and 350 prisoners and routed the invasion without a casualty.

In 1971, the state purchased the site of Fort Griffin as a small park where a monument to Dowling and his men had been erected in 1936. There is no visible evidence of the Civil War fort at the park. The landscape reveals only modern picnic tables and ammunition bunkers from World War II.

In 2005, Hurricane Rita destroyed much of the park. The Legislature transferred the park to the Texas Historical Commission in 2007.

At the Sabine Pass Battleground Historic Site, south of Port Arthur on Texas 87, birds' songs mix with the clang of steel from oil-drilling platforms being constructed nearby. An occasional freighter passes where the oyster reef once blocked the channel.

The park is open daily during daylight hours. No services are provided at this time. There is no admission fee.

• Gerald E. McLeod's Day Trips, Vol. 2 is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, P.O. Box 33284, South Austin, Texas 78704.

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