Hey everyone, welcome to episode 389 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning in to the podcast.

Just east of Beaumont, Texas, the Sabine River runs as the dividing line between the

Lone Star State and Louisiana.

The river flows into Sabine Lake and where its waters empty into the Gulf of Mexico is

known as Sabine Pass.

On September 8th, 1863, the Gunners of Company F, First Texas Heavy Artillery, known as the

Davis Guards in honor of the Confederate President, aimed their assortment of a half dozen

cannons at a handful of Yankee warships steaming up the pass toward the Earthworks of Fort

Griffin.

The Fort, with its complement of two 24-pounders and 432-pounders, guarded Sabine Pass.

Major General Nathaniel Banks had dispatched a small federal armada under the command of

Major General William Franklin to storm the pass and capture the Fort as the first step

in the Union occupation of Texas.

On that day in September 1863, the four Yankee gunboats steaming up the pass toward Fort

Griffin mounted 18 guns while the two dozen or so transports behind them carried about

5,000 federal soldiers.

Inside the fort, outnumbered more than 100 to 1 were fewer than 50 Confederates.

The lopsided battle that followed would be one of the civil wars' most remarkable engagements.

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