Archie McDonald, Texas: A Compact History (Abilene, TX: State House Press, 2007)
Texas: A Compact History by Archie P. McDonald explicitly tries to answer the question “What does it mean to be a Texan?” It was published by State House Press, which is based in Texas, publishes books about Texas and has a silhouette of Texas in its logo. The book seems to be intended for popular consumption. Its specific audience is people with a casual interest in Texas history, those who want a cursory knowledge of Texas history without spending a large amount of time dealing with complicated issues. The book was first published in 2007, and so far there have been no following editions. Archie P. McDonald has written several books on Texas, and is currently the executive director of the East Texas Historical Association. He generally emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of Texas as a state rather than focusing on any one specific issue.
The chapter that contains the explanation about the Battle of Sabine Pass is titled, appropriately enough, “Civil War.” It begins with a section of The Yellow Rose of Texas and with the following statement:
Tension over slavery, its expansion westward, and state’s rights increased in the United States during the 1850s. Texans, approximately ninety percent of whom had been born in one of the southern states that permitted legalized chattel slavery, generally reflected that background.
As might be expected from the quote, the rest of the chapter takes on a similar tone of describing the role of Texas in the Confederacy while emphasizing any connections to the Union. The section about The Battle of Sabine Pass begins not with an explanation of Fort Griffin or the Dowling Guards but instead with a description of “Union Strategy.” In fact, more time is spent on Nathaniel Prentiss Banks in this chapter than on Dowling. Dowling is described minimally as a “Houston saloonkeeper” who commanded “forty-two artillerymen.” Even so, the description of the victory followed somewhat typical modes of being against unlikely odds and of boosting Confederate morale. However, there was no mention of how the Union might have reacted to the loss. The following section proceeds to Banks’ actions that led to the Battle of Mansfield.
In addition to focusing on the Union rather than the Confederacy when describing events prior to battles, McDonald also includes a two-sentence section on opposition to the Civil War in Texas:
Opposition to the Confederacy was strongest in North Texas along the Red River. The vigilantes in Gainesville charged more than forty people considered disloyal.
Forty people is so few that it is almost more significant that he included the section at all than that the opposition exists. Still, the book offers an interesting contrast to older Texas-focused texts, and is a quick read for someone wanting to know more about Texas without already knowing much about history.
Union Strategy. The Battle of Sabine Pass, fought on September 8, 1863, was part of Union Gen. Nathaniel Prentiss Banks’ plan to invade Texas. Banks’ efforts sprang from Gen. Winfield Scott’s original Anaconda Plan, named for a south American snake that squeezed its prey into submission, to conquer the Confederacy. Scott knew the Union itself contained the Confederacy from the North, and the wilderness would keep it from expanding westward. A blockade on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico kept the insurgent Southerners in a vise. Then, said Scott, the Union could cut the Confederacy into parts via its rivers and conquer each in turn.
Sabine Pass. General Banks planned’ to enter Texas through Sabine Pass, a narrow channel from Sabine Lake, which received waters from the Neches and Sabine rivers, into the Gulf of Mexico. He planned to cross the lake with 5,000 troops aboard transports that would deliver the soldiers to a point near the rail line connecting Houston and New Orleans.
Anticipating Banks’ plans, forty-two artillerymen commanded by Lt. Dick Dowling, a Houston saloonkeeper, occupied Fort Griffin on the Texas side of the Pass. They trained their cannon on the channel, and when the Union Navy attempted to enter Sabine Lake via the pass, they sailed into the line of fire. Dowling’s guns sank or disabled the first two ships, blocking the channel. Fifteen more ships returned to New Orleans with Union assault troops still aboard. The image of forty-two Confederate artillerymen turning back over 5,000 Union troops and seventeen ships gave the Confederacy its first good news since losses earlier in the year at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.