Fort Manhassett Fort Manhassett was a group of earthen fortification s that guarded the western approaches to Sabine City , Texas during the American Civil War , operating in service of the Confederate Army from October 1863 to May 1865 . Background . By the time Fort Manhassett ' s construction was complete , Texas had long been a target for attempted Union occupation . President Abraham Lincoln ' s blockade of southern ports threatened to cut off the Confederacy ' s foreign supply of desperately needed arms , powder , and lead . By late 1862 , both Sabine Pass and Galveston , two port cities vital to the Confederacy ' s war effort , had been occupied by Federal forces . However , when both cities were reclaimed by Texan forces after a yellow fever epidemic drove Lt . Frederick Crocker ' s expedition out of Sabine Pass and Maj . Gen . John Bankhead Magruder recaptured Galveston on January 1 , 1863 , the two port cities quickly renewed their blockade running activities . In the summer of 1863 , US President Abraham Lincoln , fearing an alliance between the French government in Mexico and the Confederacy , ordered the invasion of Texas . After some deliberation in planning the actual site of the invasion , Maj . Gen . Nathaniel P . Banks directed Maj . Gen . W . B . Franklin to plan for the landing of an amphibious expeditionary force to establish a base of operations for the invasion and occupation of Texas . A fleet of nineteen transports carrying about 1200 Federal marines was assembled in New Orleans . Escorted by six gunboats mounting heavy guns to support the landings , the fleet got underway and sailed for Sabine Pass . On September 8 , 1863 , a company of 42 immigrant Irish dockhands from Galveston , under the command of a young Lt . Richard ' Dick ' Dowling , were manning six antiquated cannon in a small earthen fortification , known as Fort Griffin , at Sabine Pass . On the evening of the 8th , the Federal fleet arrived off the bar and sent four gunboats up the pass to neutralize the fort . Dowling withheld the fire of his guns until the Union boats came within point - blank range and decimated the Union ships . After watching Dowling ' s gunners maul three gunboats , and fearing rebel gunboats and field artillery , the Union fleet immediately set sail and returned to New Orleans , without ever disembarking its troops . Dowling had captured two gunboats with heavy cannon and captured approximately 300 prisoners , without the loss or injury of a single Irishman . Had the Federals attempted to land further south rather than the killing zone of the pass , Fort Griffin would have been turned and become useless to resist the invading force . Having painfully realized their oversight , the Confederate authorities immediately began plans to construct a line of fortifications to secure and defend this unprotected ' back door ' to Sabine City . Design , Construction , and Characteristics . Fort Manhassett ' s siting and construction was built with a keen eye to the tactical terrain of the marshy plains west of Sabine City . The area consists of flat salt grass prairie with numerous marshes and several large shallow lakes inland of the beach . These large lakes are generally six to eight feet at their deepest , and the marshes support a huge variety of wildlife . The mile of open ground between Knight ' s Lake and the beach was selected as the site for the fort , with the road on Sabine Ridge providing a route of resupply and communication with the town . Colonel Valery Sulakowski , chief engineer of the Confederate engineering department in Texas , ordered his subordinate , Major Julius G . Kellersberger , to begin the construction of a series of redoubts , redans , and lunettes on the mile of open saltgrass prairie between Knight ' s Lake and the Gulf of Mexico . Sulakowski also ordered that a small slough , known as Redfish Bayou , just inland and paralleling the beach , be connected to the waters of Knight ' s Lake . This ditch would create a further obstacle for any attacking Union forces attempting to march on Sabine City from the west . Fort Manhassett consisted of two redoubts , two redans , and one lunette . Redoubt A , Redoubt B , and Redoubt C were built on a straight line between the beach road and the southern prong of the lake . The three redoubts were built to contain a possible enemy advance from the west , and mounted several heavy cannon for that purpose . The two redans in the rear , labelled Flank Defenses I and II on Kellersberg ' s 1863 map of the Sabine defenses , were intended to serve as temporary defenses in the event of the forts being turned . The shell road from Galveston to Sabine City ran between Redoubts A and B . Redoubt C , which was actually a lunette , was sited in the marsh , making it inaccessible for artillery when first built ; however , it is possible that corduroy roads were later built to allow heavy weapons to be mounted in the work , much in the same manner that machinery and pipe fittings are transported to modern LNG terminals in the salt marshes of the Texas coast . All the forts were built of sand and oyster shell using slave labor , and supporting framing was presumably constructed using timber and planks from the federal collier " Manhassett " . This was a civilian vessel out of Boston , Massachusetts under contract to supply coal to the blockade ships of the Union Navy . During a severe storm on the night of September 19 , 1863 , the " Manhassett " ran aground on the sandbar near the site of the new fort . On the morning of its discovery by the Confederates , the wreck was immediately seized , and her civilian crew of seven men were taken prisoner . They were eventually interred at Camp Groce , near Hempstead , Texas . On the morning of September 30 , the US gunboat " Cayuga " approached the wreck close enough to ascertain that it was the " Manhassett " , and upon sighting Confederate cavalry on the beach nearby , she fired a total of six shells from her 30 - pounder and 20 - pounder rifled guns . " Cayuga " was in turn fired upon by a Confederate battery of three guns on the beach . After sighting Confederate gunboats up the pass ready to give battle , the " Cayuga " stood down and sent a boat ashore under flag of truce to inquire as to the condition of the wreck and the fate of the crew . Ironically , the " Manhassett " had supplied the Federal gunboats attacking Fort Griffin with coal about two weeks before she was captured by the Sabine garrison . Though never mentioned specifically in any known reports or letters , it is generally assumed that since the fort was built near the site where the " Manhassett " ran aground , its name was taken from the ship . Fort Manhassett ' s works were constructed along the same principles and theories that had been taught to US Army engineers for decades . The works were generally up to 15 feet in height , from 60 to 80 feet along the sides , and 15 to 20 feet thick at the parapets . They were further protected by ditches surrounding the works , abatis , and rifle trenches and breastworks . It is not known if the plans for the forts survived the war ; their design plans were mentioned by Colonel Sulakowski as being in the possession of Major Hugh T . Douglas of the engineering department . Many of the surviving original plans of neighboring forts , especially those in Galveston , bear the signature of Major Douglas , but unfortunately , no designs or plans of Fort Manhassett have turned up , leaving scholars to estimate the dimensions of its works based on nearby forts of the period . Confederate Service 1863 - 1865 . Fort " Manhassett " has been dubbed a ' quiet piece of history ' by Sabine Pass residents , and indeed , no known combat occurred there . The main enemy to the Confederates in garrison there was boredom and disease . In spite of poor army rations , the garrison presumably subsided well on the plentiful ducks , geese , rabbits , and fish in the surrounding marsh and beach . However , in April 1864 , Fort Manhassett ' s defenders would receive their baptism of fire 35 miles to the east at Calcasieu Pass , Louisiana . On April 14 , 1864 , two Federal gunboats , USS " Wave " and USS " Granite City " sailed into Calcasieu Pass and anchored on the horseshoe bend across from what is now Monkey Island . Almost as soon as the boats anchored , a Confederate loyalist rode to Sabine City and notified the Confederate authorities of their presence . The gunboats ' mission was simply to gather beef to feed the sailors of the blockade fleet , and to recruit for the Union Navy . However , their relatively innocuous intentions were of little concern to Major General John B . Magruder , after being notified of the situation , ordered a force to attack and capture the vessels immediately . The forces assembled to attack the gunboats were composed of Colonel Ashley W . Spaight ' s 11th Texas Infantry ( companies A , B , C , and D ) , based at Niblett ' s Bluff , and Colonel W . H . Griffin ' s 21st Texas Infantry ( companies A , C , and E , commanded by Major Felix McReynolds ) , twenty cavalrymen of Daly ' s Company of the Fourth Arizona Cavalry , and Captain Edmund Creuzbauer ' s battery of two 6 - pounder and two 12 - pounder guns . Colonel Griffin ' s force moved from Fort Manhassett to Sabine City , and was transported by steamer to Johnson ' s Bayou , Louisiana . After debarking there , the infantrymen and cannoneers marched the thirty miles all night along Blue Buck Ridge to Calcasieu Pass , going straight into the attack at 5 AM . The Confederates discovered the Federal boats lying at anchor with no steam in their drums ; after a sharp three - hour battle , both vessels surrendered and were boarded by the Confederates . The two ships were recovered by the Confederates and outfitted as blockade runners . Rebel casualties were 14 killed and 9 wounded ; it is unknown how many Union sailors and marines died . However , according to Colonel Griffin ' s report of May 11 , 1864 , there were an estimated 15 to 20 Union dead . It is ironic that the " Granite City " was captured by the Sabine garrison only 35 miles from Sabine Pass ; during the battle there , the " Granite City " was one of the two surviving gunboats which participated in the ill - fated assault on Fort Griffin on September 8 , 1863 . While the rebel armies to the east fought against overwhelming odds in titanic battles in Virginia , Georgia , Tennessee , and the Carolinas , the remainder of the war at Sabine Pass was spent guarding the coastline from an enemy who was ever expected but never came again after September 1863 . The blockade runners continued to slip by the Federal blockade , and the Union never again attempted a landing on the upper Texas coast . When Lee and Johnston surrendered in April 1865 , effectively ending the war , the news did not reach Sabine Pass until the end of May . Many Confederate officers simply told their men to go home . At Fort Manhassett , the Confederate standard was lowered for the last time , and some of the remaining guns , ammunition , and powder were pushed or thrown into the ditches and buried . On May 25 , 1865 , Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Lewis L . Pennington of the US Navy , and a former resident of Sabine Pass , came ashore with a landing party of marines and raised the Union flag over Forts Manhassett and Griffin , bringing four years of death , destruction , and hardship in southeast Texas to a close . Garrisons . The Trans - Mississippi Department , under command of Lieutenant General E . K . Smith was widely known as ' Kirby - Smithdom ' , in reference to the department ' s size and isolation , due to the Union ' s control of the Mississippi River which halved the Confederacy ' s territory . As such the department did not receive much assistance from the Confederate government in the Eastern theater , where by 1863 the Armies of Tennessee and Northern Virginia were deemed most vital to the survival of the Confederacy . Major General Magruder , concerned with keeping open the ports used by blockade runners and defending the Texas coast from seaborne invasion , had 3 , 636 men ( nearly 40 % of his entire command ) in garrison at Sabine Pass , by September 1863 References . Fort Manhassett