The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 434

exas CollectioN
H. BAILEY CARROLL
HE CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCE OF THE BATTLE OF SABINE PASS
was held at Port Arthur and Sabine Pass on September
6-8, 1963. Sponsors for the program were the Texas State
Historical Survey Committee, the Texas Civil War Centennial
Advisory Committee, and the Jefferson County Historical Survey
Committee. On September 6, the Texas Civil War Centennial
Advisory Committee held a meeting in Port Arthur. The program
on the 7th included a roundtable discussion of Texas coastal
defense during the Civil War, the Southeast Texas regional meet-
ing of county historical survey committees, and a centennial
luncheon in Port Arthur, followed by a commemorative ceremony
at Sabine Pass. At the luncheon Waggoner Carr spoke on the
significance of the battle of Sabine Pass. On the morning of
September 8, a field mass was held at Sabine Pass, and the de-
stroyer Wren, which was stationed off the Dick Dowling Monu-
ment in honor of the occasion, received visitors throughout
the day.
On September 7, the Texas Civil War Centennial Advisory
Committee also presented literary awards of merit for 1962 to
Harold B. Simpson, author of Gaines' Mill to Appamatox: Waco
and McLennan County in the Army of Northern Virginia; W. W.
Morrison for reprinting rare items of Texana on the Civil War;
Donald E. Everett, editor of Chaplain Davis and Hood's Texas
Brigade; Jay Matthews, editor of Texas Military History, the
quarterly journal of the National Guard Association of Texas;
Frank X. Tolbert, author of Dick Dowling at Sabine Pass; and
R. H. Porter, president of the Steck Company in Austin which
reprinted the New Texas School Reader, originally published
in 1864.
Other regional meetings were held throughout the state during
the fall of 1963 to exchange ideas on the efforts of county histor-
ical survey committees and to hear speakers on topics concern-
ing the Texas Civil War Centennial in many areas. Confederate