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.

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.