During the Civil War, the Sabine Pass Channel was a strategic gateway to the interior of eastern Texas and western Louisiana, and control of it was vital. Fearing a possible Union invasion, citizens of Sabine City, later Sabine Pass, formed a committee of safety in April 1861 to build a fort along the channel and arm it with guns capable of defending their city against Union naval assault. Local residents, including many slaves, constructed a dirt and timber earthwork overlooking the channel. The fort was garrisoned by the Sabine Pass Guard, a local militia, and later by the 6th Texas Infantry Battalion and members of Spaight’s 11th Battalion, Texas Volunteers. On Sept. 24, 1862, the Union steamer USS Kensington, along with schooners USS Rachel Seaman and USS Henry Janes, attacked, and Fort Sabine suffered extensive damage. At the time of the attack, Confederate forces manning Fort Sabine numbered approximately 60. Coupled with the effects of yellow fever among troops and citizens, C.S.A. Major Josephus S. Irvine ordered the fort’s guns spiked and the site evacuated. Union forces mastered the earthworks at Fort Sabine, occupying the immediate area for months before abandoning the site in early 1863. In March 1863, Confederate forces inspected the site and determined that Fort Sabine was no longer an effective defensive position. Lessons learned there shaped the construction of a new site, Fort Griffin, along the channel about one mile north, where two reactivated 32-pound guns from Fort Sabine were installed before the second battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863.
