Civil War Two major battles occurred here during the
American Civil War, known as the
First and
Second Battles of Sabine Pass.
Spanish–American War In May 1898, the
55th United States Congress authorized the establishment of two
seacoast defense forts at Sabine Pass relative to the
Texas Gulf Coast. The
fortifications were a response as
hostilities intensified in the
Gulf of Mexico during the
Cuban War of Independence often referred as the
Spanish–American War. In 1983, Texas Historical Commission acknowledged the seacoast defense command posts establishing a Texas historical marker at the
Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site.
World War II In 1941, the United States authorized a
coastal artillery emplacement and Harbor Entrance Control Post at the Sabine Pass natural
waterway inlet as a response to
Battle of the Atlantic better known as
Operation Drumbeat orchestrated by
Nazi Germany. The Sabine Pass
military base exhibited checkpoint and guard end stations, coastal searchlights, coastal signal stations, and an
observation tower. The
coastal defence and fortification incorporated an
artillery battery command post complementary as a
Coast Guard lifeboat station initially chartered in the 1870s as the
United States Life-Saving Service. The Sabine Pass coastal defense installation was deemed
military surplus as the
United States Department of War operations tapered by 1945. The channel is also the only conceivable way that ships produced by
shipyards in Orange and
Beaumont could have reached the seas.
Hurricanes A powerful storm made landfall at Sabine Pass on October 12, 1886. It was the tenth hurricane of the season, now referred to as
The Texas-Louisiana Hurricane of 1886, that all but wiped out Sabine Pass and
Johnson Bayou in
Cameron Parish. The storm, now considered to have been a category 3 (
Saffir–Simpson scale), resulted in at least 196 deaths. Occurrence of the storm was recorded in the controversial "Diary of Louise" on October 20, 1886.
Hurricane Rita made landfall on September 24, 2005, and on September 12–13, 2008,
Hurricane Ike struck Sabine Pass and
Galveston, generating the highest surge of which is, according to the
North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88), the highest ever recorded at Sabine Pass. ==Current==