Dudley, Goodall Wooten. A Complete History of Texas for Schools, Colleges, and General Use. Dallas: The Texas History Company, 1899.
Pages 363 to 371 of Dudley’s book are dedicated to Texas and the Civil War, a full chapter. However, Dowling is never mentioned, and Sabine Pass is only referenced briefly as an example of a battle in Texas. Mostly, Dudley describes how Texas contributed a large number of troops to the war, and mentions how most battles occurred on the border or the coast. Dudley also focuses on some of the specific Texans who served in the war and, particularly, achieved the status of General, but otherwise not much is mentioned about specific battles. Dudley does discuss politics in Texas at the time, with elections happening as usual, although he also mentions that the declaration of martial law in the state and the passage of conscription acts caused some discontent among citizens. Some of the significant events Dudley writes about are the death of Sam Houston in 1863 and the final battle of the Civil War, which occurred at Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, Texas, with a Confederate victory.
In general, Dudley’s book of Texas history seems to be fairly brief, so it is not surprising that the chapter on the Civil War is short, especially considering how little of it actually occurred in Texas. I am surprised that Dowling was not mentioned at all, given that Dudley provides a long list of Texan heroes of the Civil War. It is a book clearly meant to be used by schools, given its title and the fact that it features review questions at the end of each chapter, and even a section meant to be read by teachers entitled “Suggestions to Teachers” at the beginning of the book. It was published in Dallas, Texas; according to the Handbook of Texas, Dudley was not only a citizen of Dallas but an active politician there as well, serving as both a county judge from 1890-1892 and a representative in its legislature from 1899-1900. Dudley was even elected to the United States Congress, and served from 1901 to 1903, and was a member of the Texas State Historical Association and president of the association in 1898. However, Dudley was born in Missouri, educated at Princeton, and served in the Washington State Board of Higher Curricula after losing a Congressional campaign and moving to Seattle. Dudley was also a professor of law at Notre Dame. Dudley’s book does not mention slavery at all in its discussion of the Civil War, although it is mentioned in the following chapter about Reconstruction. The book focuses very specifically on Texas and, therefore, champions the state’s contributions to the war and the bravery of its citizens who fought for the Confederacy, but does not really discuss the nation-wide issues brought up by the war. However, although this is the only edition of this book in particular, I did discover that this is the abridged for schools version of Dudley’s larger text, Comprehensive History of Texas, from 1685 to 1897, published in 1898. It is possible that more about Dowling is mentioned in the full book, but since it seemed to be more difficult to acquire and was almost certainly going to be very different from this book, I decided not to look further into it. It certainly seems that A Complete History of Texas for Schools, Colleges, and General Use was meant more for use in schools anyways, giving it a different audience than the full book and setting the two significantly apart.
The following passage comes from page 366 of the book, and is the only mention of Sabine Pass:
There were various stirring conflicts along the coast, from Sabine Pass to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the most notable of which were the capture of Galveston in October, 1862, including the taking of the Harriet Lane.