Talk:Second Battle of Sabine Pass

message: There were actually three battles of Sabine pass [referenced here] and this article along with First Battle of Sabine Pass and Battle of Galveston need to be corrected. There will need to be edits, possible merges, and title name changes. Otr500 (talk) 23:58, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I didn't see this comment earlier. The lack of mention of the intermediate fight (all naval) is worth attention.  However, I'm not sure what the official name was and am searching for it.  The NPS/APBB listing does not include it that I can see.  The engagement differs from the other two in that it was a naval battle outside of the pass (chase ending about 20 miles from it), rather than a fight in or at the pass.  Therefore, the name would likely differ enough so that no name changes would result for existing articles.  The Texas Historical Commission plaque titles the episode: "Capture of the USS Morning Light and USS Velocity".  I'm looking for an actual "official" designation.  Cotham's book may be referring to it as the "Sabine Expedition" (although the citation is unclear) while the period Houston Telegraph article titled it the "Naval Fight off Sabine."   It is a notable naval fight and probably merits its own article. Red Harvest (talk) 07:43, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Cool---keep looking and lets see where it leads. I am just trying to make sure that the titles are as close to what they should be as is possible. Otr500 (talk) 22:27, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: The title above ("Capture of...") is long but is both on the plaque and that used in the USN's annual report at the time.  I intend to use that for the name of either an article or sub-section in another article (e.g. Morning Light) to serve as link.  If a better official name is found, the article can be retitled and moved.  The form "Capture of" seems to have been a common one for some actions at sea and should be non-controversial since it is generic in form, but descriptive of the event. Red Harvest (talk) 07:45, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Serious problems 

message: Maybe it doesn't sound so traditional as usual, but the fact is...
There was an expedition planned (strongly hastened and hampered by Washington politics) for the U.S. Army to hurry and invade Texas. The venture was much delegated by high-ranking U.S. Army officers, execrated by the U.S. Secretary of Navy, and the highest ranking Navy admiral more than twice on the record predicted "disaster".  High-ranking Navy officers shied away; front-line roles were filled by volunteer officers who served as "Acting Captain" (etc.).  Indeed it was a disaster as Farragut warned.  (I'm working on pertinent and accurate references.)
"Expedition into..." is generic and incorrect: No U.S. soldierset foot in Texas except in surrender as a result of the Second Battle of Sabine Pass --other than some U.S. Marines serving as ships' guards.  Three months later the U.S. military was ignominiously run out of Galveston, and two Navy warships were overtaken and surrendered to two Confed blockade steamers with old smoothbore field pieces mounted on open top decks and manned by artillerymen of the same regiment whose "David Guards" accepted U.S. Acting Captain Crocker's sword.  
The newly minted title "First Battle of Sabine Pass" is a different matter.  It includes various skirmishes, sniping, cannon duels, shelling of residential settlements and warehouses, target practice on civilian barns by U.S. gunboats, cavalry displays, and whaleboat landings (one of these resulted in detention by dismounted Texas cavalrymen of a U.S. Navy officer and his rowers.)
The U.S. Army more than 4 years later named a cavalry post "Fort Griffin", surely knowing that the former Texas Confederate "Fort Griffin" was the nexus of the U.S. Army / U.S. Navy debacle at Sabine Pass.  The Sabine Pass fort was named in 1863 to honor a Confed officer; the U.S. cavalry fort was named (cynically, in my opinion) in 1867 for a U.S. Army officer who was a temporary military occupation commandant (Reconstruction "governor") of Texas who, due to unskilled and implacable administrating, was replaced and ordered to the Texas frontier to chase Indians and protect farmers.
American Civil War history has been so infused with sparky patriotism that despite Shelby Foote and his genre of historians there is much misleading "info".  Wayne Roberson, Austin, Texas (talk) 21:04, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Expedition into ... Texas" in opening statement is erroneous