At this site on Sept. 8th, 1863, Dick Dowling and forty-seven men of Company F, Texas Heavy Artillery, Jefferson Davis Guards, C.S.A., fought from a mud fort and repulsed an attack by four warships and twelve hundred men of the Federal Army, which was credited with saving Texas from invasion by the enemy. Dowling reported that his force captured two gunboats mounting thirteen guns of the heaviest caliber and about three hundred and fifty prisoners, and said that all his men behaved like heroes and that not a man flinched from his post. Texas honored Lt. Richard W. Dowling and the men who fought with him for their faithfulness, valor, and heroic example to future generations.