The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 38
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
of Vicksburg, Walker's division of Texas infantry was finally
ordered from the Tensas country and was posted by early autumn
north of Opelousas in convenient distance of Taylor's other
troops."
Once Vicksburg and Port Hudson were secured, Banks rec-
ommended to Washington an immediate movement against Mo-
bile." Before these operations could be mounted, however, Banks
received orders from the War Department that "There are im-
portant reasons why our flag should be restored in some part of
Texas with the least possible delay.""' In June, 1863, French
troops had entered Mexico City and rumors were rife that the
French contemplated the annexation of Texas or at least were
planning to render material assistance to the Confederacy in
the West. Lincoln and Seward believed that a Federal army in
Texas would check these plans of Emperor Napoleon III."
Banks was allowed to select his own line of operations into
Texas. He chose Sabine Pass as his objective, making use of
superior Federal sea power. From there he planned to capture
Beaumont and Liberty, which would give him control of the
Texas and New Orleans Railroad, and then advance on to Hous-
ton. Major General William B. Franklin was given 5,000 troops
and entrusted with the amphibious operation." A newly con-
structed mud fort at Sabine Pass, named Fort Griffin for Lieu-
tenant Colonel William H. Griffin, was garrisoned by Lieutenant
Dick Dowling and forty-seven men. When four Federal gun-
boats moved up the narrow channel on September 8, 1863, the
accurate fire of Dowling and his men from their four thirty-two-
pounders and two twenty-four-pounders soon disabled the Sachem
and the Clifton. After running aground in shoal water they were
forced to surrender while the two remaining gunboats precipi-
"Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 145-146, 150.
"Major General Nathaniel P. Banks to General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck,
July 3o, August 1, 1863, Official Records, Series I, Vol. XXVI, Pt. 1, 661, 666;
Halleck to Banks, July 24, 1863, ibid., 652.
2"General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck to Major General Nathaniel P. Banks,
August 6, 1o, 12, 1863, ibid., 672, 673, 675.
"5Howard K. Beale (ed.), Diary of Gideon Welles (3 vols.; New York, 1960), I,
387-391. See Ludwell H. Johnson, Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in
the Civil War (Baltimore, 1958), for the political and economic factors behind
Federal interest in the reoccupation of Texas.
9"Irwin, Nineteenth Army Corps, 267-268.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/58/?q=%221777%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.