Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/333

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wounded and dying. Later, Commodore Crocker came ashore and entered the fort. Imagine his surprise when he realized that there were only forty-two men in the fort. The Confederates took as pris- oners 490 men, seventy-two of whom were badly wounded. The exact number of killed is not known, these, as contradistinguished from those who were drowned by the sinking of the Arizona, but has been estimated at fifty, most of whom were scalded to death by the explosion of the boiler on the gunboat Sachem when the shot struck it. Not a man on the Confederate side received a scratch, and be- yond slight injuries to the walls of the little mud fort, and one gun carriage, no damage was done.

The prisoners, who numbered 490, were kept under guns until re- lief came by steamers from Orange and Beaumont.

Commodore Leon Smith makes honorable mention of Captain Odium, Lieutenant Dowling, Lieutenant Smith, and Captain Cook, who came down with the Uncle Ben, a Confederate transport. He also makes mention of another Lieutenant Smith, of Company B, Spaight's Battalion, and Lieutenant Harrison, of Captain Daly's Company.

Dr. George H. Baily, who is living out in California, volunteered his services and was in the fort during the battle, but, as no one re- quired his attention as a surgeon, he assisted in firing the guns, and valuable assistance he rendered, too. General Magruder presented him with a sword which was taken from one of the prisoners.

Mr. Jefferson Davis in his book on the Rise and fall of the Con- federacy, says: "There is no parallel in ancient or modern warfare to that of Dowling and his men at Sabine Pass, considering the great odds against which they had to contend."

The Congress of the Confederate States also passed the following resolutions:

Resolved, That the thanks of Congress are due and are hereby .cordially given to Captain Odium, Lieutenant Dowling and his forty- two men, comprising the ' Davis Guards,' under their command, for their daring, gallant and successful defence of Sabine Pass against the attack made by the enemy on the 8th of September, 1863, with a fleet of five gunboats and twenty-one steam transports carrying a land force of 15,000 men.

"That the defence, resulting, under the providence of God, in the defeat of the enemy, the capture of two gunboats, with 490 prisoners, including the commander of the fleet, Frederick Crocker;