<P> Consequently, General Banks ordered his subordinate, Major General William B. Franklin, who would coordinate with the U.S. Navy, to enter the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico and defeat the small Confederate detachment at "Fort Sabine" on the river's west bank (Texas side) at Sabine Pass . about 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of the river mouth . The key U.S. Navy target in the First Battle of Sabine Pass was the original earthworks thrown up on the Texas (west) shore of the Sabine River about three miles (4.8 km) south of Sabine City, a tiny town with some wharfs on the east side of its main street . After the Navy gunboats subdued the fort, the first wave of U.S. Army infantrymen riding the deck of one of the gunboats would debark at the fort . They were to take Sabine City, secure the area for the main landing force, and prepare to march on Beaumont . This action would deny the Pass and the natural shallow - water harbor Sabine Lake, upstream from the Gulf about 6 miles (about 9.6 km), to blockade runners . Beaumont, on higher ground about 18 miles (33 km) northwest of Sabine City, was the key to threatening Houston . If Union forces were to capture Beaumont, through which passed the railway line from Houston to New Orleans, then the last remaining railroad connection between Texas and the eastern Confederacy would be under Union control . </P> <P> Considering the dominant size of the Union expeditionary force, taking control of Sabine Pass and environs was not expected to be a great challenge to the U.S. forces . To prevent intervention from forces in Louisiana, that consisted of Brigadier General Thomas Green's First Cavalry Brigade and Brigadier General Alfred Mouton's infantry division, the Union division of Major General Francis J. Herron moved to Morganza as a diversion, that resulted in the Battle of Stirling's Plantation . </P> <P> Fort Sabine had been renamed "Fort Griffin" in honor of an earlier commander, Confederate Lt. Colonel W.H. Griffin, although this was not shown on Union maps since the First Battle of Sabine Pass in late September 1862 . The Confederate detachment residing at the fort was the Jeff Davis Guards (named for Confederate president Jefferson Davis), a company of mostly Irish - American men from the Houston and Galveston area, recently had been merged into the First Texas Heavy Artillery . They were stationed at the hastily built earthworks a mile (1.6 km) upstream (north) on the southwest bank of the Pass . When the battle began with the Union gunboats' bombardment on September 8, 1863, at the fort were forty - six men; all but two or three were members of the Davis Guards . Under the immediate command of Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling, the Davis Guards had mounted their unit's six old smoothbore cannon on the elevated platform of the small earthen fort . Although unimpressive to Union observers and scouts, the fort's gun positions were high enough to afford a clear view to the horizon for many miles: the flat marshlands stretched northeastward into Louisiana, westward toward Houston, southwestward toward Galveston, northward toward Port Arthur and Beaumont, and southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico . The nearest observation point affording a view of Fort Griffin, other than from the mast "top" of a naval vessel seaward of the Pass, was the Sabine Pass lighthouse on the Louisiana (opposite) side of Sabine Pass at the mouth of the Sabine River . </P> <P> On the afternoon of September 8, 1863, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Frederick Crocker ("Acting Captain") was in command of the advance squadron composed of four gunboats . Crocker was a veteran officer of considerable recent experience in Union river - gunboat actions and blockade duty . His ship was the USS Clifton, a steam - powered side - wheeler . Besides Clifton, Crocker's advance squadron included Granite City, Sachem, and Arizona, all recently commissioned ironclad warships . Less than three miles southeast downriver, well out of range of the Confederate fort's cannons, were anchored seven U.S. Navy transports carrying most of the U.S. Army soldiers of the landing force . The U.S.S. Suffolk, hosting invasion force commander U.S. Army Major General Franklin and his staff, headed the seven - vessel squadron . Outside the principal Gulf shore sand bar, an additional two miles (3.2 km) downstream of this squadron, lay at anchor the remaining ships of the 22 - vessel invasion fleet . The cited contemporary U.S. Army map shows the nominal positions of the bombardment fleet of four, the seven ships of the transport squadron, and the relative position farther out in the Gulf of the remaining vessels . The official reports of the battle generally reflect the map's information . The total number of Union infantry assault troops in the landing force is given as 5,000 infantrymen, which included 500 listed as aboard the Granite City, those aboard the six troop transports in the seven - ship squadron headed by Suffolk, plus an artillery company somewhere among them . The first wave of 500 men aboard Granite City which steamed as close behind Clifton as possible but out of range of the fort's guns, were to land in the open space adjacent to and downstream of the fort . This was a flat, often muddy area already cleared of brush by the Confederate garrison as a clear field of fire for the canister and grape of the fort's artillery . The U.S. Army's invasion plan, therefore, absolutely required that the Confederate guns be silenced before any troops were debarked . This engagement was to be the largest amphibious assault on enemy territory in the history of the U.S. military up to that date . </P>

Where did the battle of sabine pass happen