In the first newspaper I looked through I found it extremely difficult to locate anything on Dick Dowling. But after the fifth time reading through, I saw a familiar name in the corner of a map, labeling the locations of some new houses. The name was Dowling Street, right in the center of a circle of brand new houses. The Medallion Houses were part of a week-long display of brand new housing around the area of Houston. Unfortunately, I could not find anything different said about Dowling, the monument, or even Sabine Pass in this article. However, I did find some pictures and stories that reminded me a lot about the battle itself. The nation was in the middle of sticky relations with China, and found itself defending some small Pacific Islands off the coast of China, and similar coastline areas. One of them was a certain strait. This reminded me somewhat of the battle of Sabine Pass due to its relation of defending a pass of water by land. Communism was on the rise, references to the “Reds,” were incredibly common throughout the paper, and the city of Houston had just been recovering from a problem with the schools, seeing as there was an article about thousands of kids finally coming back to school that Monday. Five new schools were being built, a Mexican labor strike had been going on, and references to certain people either being accused of or being proven innocent of communism, suggesting the end of McCarthyism was just about ready to come. All in all, there was not much mention of the Civil War, Dowling, or Sabine Pass at all that I could find. This might suggest that the city of Houston was just preoccupied with other things around this time. Homages were being paid to local judges and people, however, that made me think Houston had a history of treating its people well, and recognizing dedicated people.
List B gave me a much larger article specifically about Dowling, his Irishmen, and the battle of Sabine Pass. It was mainly a commemoration to the heroes of Sabine Pass, recognizing Dick Dowling as its main figurehead. It described the battle itself, and how they stood against “10,000 men,” and took “150 prisoners,” without one of Dowling’s men being seriously injured. The article also described a recent ceremony that had taken place with the presentation of a prestigious medal to Dick Dowling’s daughter, Miss Annie Dowling. The article also mentioned other people in the regiment, including Captain White, who was part of the Houston city police force. They likened the battle to Thermopylae, the Alamo, and to the battle led by Horatius Cassius in Rome. Later, Jefferson Davis came as a guest, and the ex-governor gave a speech about Dowling and the heroes of Sabine Pass. It was interesting to read about such a ceremony, especially with Dick Dowling’s actual daughter. It makes one wonder why it took so long to give the medal and recognize the accomplishment. However, the notion clearly showed the pride that Houston and Texas had for Dick Dowling, and for the Confederacy itself. The honor and glory of that battle and defending and sacrificing oneself for the nation was spoken of very highly. There were some references to a lot of new bills and government-related topics throughout the newspaper, which suggested that the tension between the North and the South was smoothing over. Grain and livestock were talked about a great deal, and not too much mention about anything foreign. The nation was repairing itself, and the South was thanking its veterans for their sacrifices.
All in all, reading through these newspapers was a very edifying experience. It gave a lot of information about not only Dick Dowling, but about how he was perceived throughout the course of time, and how memorials and commemorations are born and maintained throughout time as well. I still wonder why the commemoration was so late, and I wonder if it was his daughter that helped to erect the statue in his honor. One thing I found interesting in the article from 1889 was that the number of soldiers in that battle changed even in the article. One moment its 10,000 and some gun boats, another moment its 15,000. It is interesting to see this exaggeration of the battle and the lack of details, such as the fact that they really only battled 2-3 gunboats. However, it is a battle to be proud of indeed, and one that is still remembered today.

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