The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-13
A SINGULAR COMBAT.
Detroit Frse Press.l

Detroit Free Press.l
 One of the most singular combats of the civil war was the affair at Sabine Pass In September, 1863 the government de- termined to possess itself of Sabine City, situated on the river of that name, about fifty miles from Galveston It was con- sidered strategic point of great impor- tance to the union forces, and so care fully were all the plans laid and matured that Gen. Franklin's Nineteenth corps, accompanied by four gunboats, left New Orleans without half a dozen persons having the least suspicion of their desti- nation.
 Information had been received by the government that the confederate defenses were of httle account, and it was conf- dently expected to take them by surprise and come into possession without much of a fight. The defenses consisted of a single dirt fort, mounting six guns, with riae-pits' on the Hanks. The garrison had at no time numbered over sixty men, and when the advance of the federals was first sighted there were only forty four men, including officers in the works. The officers numbered two, and both were lieutenants.
 GunboAts and transports reached Sa- bine Pass in good shape, and after sew eral shells had been fired into the fort without provoking az answer, arrange ments were entered into for disem bark ing the troops. It was decided that while this was occurring the tour gum boats should mo 1e up and pound away at the fort. If it was garrisoned the gar rison would be driven out. If it had been abandoned, as some of the officers seemed to believe, the heavy missiles of the gunboass would knock it to pieces
 At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the Cliff ton, Sachem and Arizona steamed for ward to engage the fort at short range, and they had only fired one shot each when the confederates returned an an- swer. The Sachem had the lead, and as she steamed on she used every gun which could be brought to bear, and her pro- tected sharpshooters kept up constant hre at the embrasures of the fort.
 The fourth shot tired at the Sachem struck her amidshjps with terrible force, tearing of her plating and crashing her timbers into splinters. Her steam pipe was cut or broken, and in ten seconds her crew were fighting an enemy more cruel than shot or shell The escaping steam blis,ered, burned, killed. Inside of two minutes her flag was hauled down and the Sachem lay a wreck on the water.
 The Arizona drew too much water to run in close, but as soon as it was seen that the Sachem had been disabled the rkA nG ssaR Rr Ant hAv .TN was believed that so long as she kept moving any shot which struck her would be an accident, but she had scarcely reached close-range position when she grounded on the bar and swung in such position that the cenfederates could bring four out of the six guns to bear on on her. For ten minutes it was give and take. Realizing that he was on the bar hard and strong, the captain of the Cliff ton turned all his attention to the fort, changing his shell for grape and canni- ster whenever confederate sharpshooters showed their heads above the parapet. The gunboat was frequently struck, but had sustained no great damage up to the instant the great calamity sefell her. A ponderous iron bolt struck her almost where the Sachem was hit, crashed through her side in the same manner, and again it was hot steam from the boilers which finished the work of wreck and surrender. The Clifton hauled down her flag, and the transports. which had been following her in to disembark the troops, lost no time in getting out of range.
 The gallan, action of the captain of the Clifton in steaming up within such close ran ge, and of giving battle while hard and fast aground, was tarnished by his later conduct. Alter a white flag had been run up and the confederates had ceased firing, he ordered all the guns spiked, and with his own hands fired a solid shot through the centre ef the craft, rendering her machinery entirely useless Nearly the entire crews, together with over 100 sharpshooters, were made pris- oners by the conieder ates, and most of the guns were soon made available. Either crew outnumbered the men in the fort, but upon the return of the expedi- hon the doweTy correspondents wrote of GOO rebels behind the works" and added that "the loss of the enemy was without precedent in war;" As . point of fact that can be proved to-day, not one single man in the fort was even wounded.
 For more than an hour and half the fcrty-tvo men were under . fire which never entirely ceased, and were given solid shot, monster shells and liberal doses of grape and canister, and ye4 nos so much as drop of bloed was drawn. At no time could all the guns be worked, and the crew at such as were being used were more or less targets for the sharp shooters aboard the gunboats. While the parapet vas dug full of holes deep enough to bury horse, not one of the guns was dismounted
 Amer the loss of the two gunboats the |othezs maintained long-range fire tor half an hour or 90 and then drew of. The force of infantry aboard the trans ports was large enough to have taken rcssssssSs:sSS of the entire a;ssT;Sst, and had |oome fully supplied for permanent oc- h,~k # Ank ~1