Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis. Under Six Flags: The Story of Texas. (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1897)
M.E.M. Davis’ Under Six Flags: The Story of Texas covers Texas history from its colonization through the late nineteenth century. Davis wrote an entire chapter about Texas’ participation in the Civil War and devotes almost three pages of text to the tale of Dick Dowling and his defense of Sabine Pass. However, the passage barely talks about Dowling himself, but gives an almost romanticized telling of the battle. The description is full of flowery language and descriptions that captivate its audience. She uses descriptors such as guns “vomiting huge shells which tore the earthwork of the fort and filled the air with dust” (Davis 164). Davis mentions most details of the battle, from the entrance of the Sachem, Clifton and Arizona into the Sabine Pass to the surrender of the Union soldiers on the disable Clifton and Sachem. She even mentions that the Union attempted another failed attack on Sabine Pass eight months later. The book provides a decent description of the events of the Battle of Sabine Pass.
Under Six Flags covers the Civil War in Texas in great detail. Since it was published only 30+ years after the Civil War, Davis’ tone is one of pride for Texas’ survival against the Federal forces, but definitely reflects the hardships suffered during the war. She describes the early months of 1861 as “like one long holiday” (154). While the soldiers showed pride to be fighting for their country, they would learn how a true soldier lived. Her coverage of the war began with the surrender of Federal troops from the military outpost in San Antonio. From there she describes the anguish of the loss of Galveston to Union forces. “A mournful cry echoed throughout Texas: ‘Galveston has fallen!'” (157). Of any battle fought in Texas during the Civil War, Davis spends the most time on our friend Dowling’s Battle at Sabine Pass.
I could only find one edition of the book at Fondren library and when I perused Amazon to see if other editions existed, the only result I found was a version typed from the legible scans of the 1897 edition. Under Six Flags appears to have been a history book, intended for the average reader who wanted to learn more about Texas history. However, the book’s target audience appears to have been women. The type of language used by Davis does not provide a bloody or violent account of the battle, but a highly romanticized one with vivid descriptions and similes. It seems highly unlikely men at the turn of the twentieth century would have been reading books that described the surrendering Union officer as “the gallant Federal in his handsome uniform” (165). The book was published in 1897, just before the turn of the twentieth century.
Transcription from pg. 163-165 from Under Six Flags: The Story of Texas:
“A small earthwork called Fort Griffin had been built by the Confederates on the Texas side of the Sabine Pass at the mouth of the Sabine River. It was protected by five light guns and garrisoned by the Davis Guards, a company from Houston commanded by Captain Odlum. The first lieutenant was Dick Dowling, an Irishman but twenty years of age.
Fort Griffin, though small, was a place of much importance. Sabine Pass was a sort of outlet for the pent-up Confederacy. Blockade-runners, in spite of the Federal ships stationed in the Gulf, were always slipping out of the Sabine River, loaded with cotton for Cuba or Europe, and stealing in with arms and supplies from Mexico.
Soon after the battle of Galveston, Major Oscar Watkins, Confederate States navy, was sent by General Magruder with two cotton-clad steamboats, the Josiah Bell and the Uncle Ben, to annoy the blockading fleet at Sabine Pass. After a skirmish and an exciting chase, he succeeded in capturing two United States ships, the Velocity and the Morning Light (January 21, 1863)
The United States then determined to take Fort Griffin and land at Sabine Pass with a force large enough to overawe that part of the country. Twenty-two transport carried the land troops, about fifteen thousand in number, to the Pass. Four gunboats, the Sachem, the Clifton, the Arizona, and the Granite City, accompanied them, to bombard the fort and cover the landing of the soldiers. The expedition was under the command of General Franklin.
When this formidable fleet appeared at Sabine Pass, Captain Odlum was absent and Lieutenant Dowling was in command of Fort Griffin. His whole force consisted of forty-two men. He ordered the “Davys,” as they were called, to stay in the bomb-proofs until he himself should fire the first gun. Then, hidden in the earthwork, he watched the approach of the gunboats.
The Clifton steamed in and opened the attack from her pivot gun, throwing a number of shells which dropped into the fort and exploded. The Sachem and the Arizona followed, pouring in broadsides from their thirty-two pound cannon.
No reply came from the fort, which seemed to be deserted. The gunboats came nearer and nearer. Suddenly a shot from the fort clove the air and felling hissing into the water beyond the Arizona. The fight at once became furious. The Clifton and the Arizona moved backward and forward, vomiting huge shells which tore the earthwork of the fort and filled the air with dust. Ships and fort seemed wrapped in flame. The Sachem meanwhile was stealing into the Pass toward the unprotected rear of the fort. But a well-aimed shot from Dowling’s battery struck her, crushing her iron plating and causing her to rise on end a quiver like a leaf in the wind. She was at the mercy of the fort, and her flag was instantly lowered. The Clifton kept up the fight with great skill and bravery. But she soon ran aground in the shallows, where she continued to fire until a shot passed through her boiler, completely wreaking her. A white flag was run up at her bow, and the battle was over. The Arizona and the Granite City steamed out to the transports, whose men had watched the fight with breathless interest.
The fleet at once retired, leaving the Sachem and the Clifton to the “Davys.”
Three hundred Union soldiers were taken prisoners. Captain Crocker of the Clifton came ashore with a boat’s crew, and, mounting the parapet, asked for the commanding officer. Lieutenant Dowling, covered with the dust of the fort, presented himself as the person sought.
The gallant Federal in his handsome uniform could hardly believe that this dirty little boy was his conqueror, or that the handful of men before him comprised the force which had so calmly awaited a hostile fleet and defeated it.
Eight months afterward the United States gunboats, the Granite Cit and the Wave, were captured at Sabine Pass.”