France was openly sympathetic to the
Confederate States of America early in the
Civil War, but never matched its sympathy with diplomatic or military action. After
Mexican forces were defeated by French forces in summer 1863, Mexican president
Benito Juárez escaped the capital, and the French installed Austrian
Maximilian as "Emperor". With a de facto French government bordering Texas on the south across the
Rio Grande, the Confederates hoped to establish a formal route between Texas and Mexico by way of which the Confederacy could obtain much-needed supplies. United States
President Abraham Lincoln was well aware of Confederate intentions and sent an expedition to establish a military presence in Texas and to discourage Maximilian from opening trade with the Confederacy. The military Federal force was commanded by
Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, a political general with little discernible command ability. Banks's original intent was to launch a combined Army–Navy campaign in northwest
Louisiana. The Union plan was to send Union Navy warships from the
Mississippi up the tributary
Red River, which was navigable upstream as far as where the boundaries of the Confederate states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas came together. The Union had effected its
Capture of New Orleans on May 1, 1862, and after the July 3, 1863 surrender of Confederate
Vicksburg, the Union military had better control of both the east and west banks and of the mouth of the Mississippi. Unusually low water in the Red River at this time, however, prevented even relatively low-draft Union
gunboats from operating effectively, and the anticipated overland Union invasion of Texas was further delayed. Consequently, General Banks ordered his subordinate Major General
William B. Franklin to 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 bank 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. The U.S. Army battle plan was that after the U.S. Navy gunboats silenced the guns of Fort Sabine, the
wave of about 200 U.S. Army infantrymen, riding the deck of one of the main fleet's reserve gunboats, would debark immediately below (east) of the fort and effect the fort's surrender. The main fleet, less than five miles offshore and well beyond Confederate gunfire, contained as many as 20 vessels, which carried U.S. Army regulars—as many as 5,000 men, according to Official records. A small artillery was included. The company-size initial landing force was to then take Sabine City and secure the area for the main force. After the main force was landed and united with the initial assault company the intention was to march the few miles north to the railroad and cut the railroad between Houston and Beaumont. Once done, the Army force would march east, presumably destroying the rail line as it went, and attack
Beaumont. This action would deny Sabine Pass and the natural shallow-water harbor
Sabine Lake upstream from the Gulf about 6 miles (9.6 km) to
blockade runners. 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 Confederate 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, which precipitated the
Battle of Stirling's Plantation. 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 Sabine Pass 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 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. ==Battle==