Today in History:

307 Series I Volume XXVI-I Serial 41 - Port Hudson Part I

Page 307 Chapter XXXVIII. THE SABINE PASS EXPEDITION.

attacked, the troops need but remember the success of their comrades at Sabine, emulate their courage and skill, and victory will be the result.

By command of Major General J. Bankhead Magruder:

EDMUND P. TURNER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HDQRS. DIST. OF TEX., N. MEX., AND ARIZONA,
Beaumont, September 10, 1863.

To the Men of Texas:

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Almighty God in his divine mercy has given us another signal victory over our enemies. A handful of determined men, in the face of 15,000 of the enemy's troops and a powerful fleet of gunboats, have for the present defeated their landing, capturing two and crippling two others of the gunboats, with eighteen pieces of artillery and over 300 prisoners.

Fellow-citizens, I need your assistance. Form yourselves into companies, and assemble at Beaumont with your arms as rapidly as possible. Those passing through Houston will be furnished transportation, ammunition, and rations, by reporting to Lieutenant Colonel J. D. McAdoo, assistant adjutant-general State troops. The enemy will return to the attack upon the works at Sabine Pass, and threatens vengeance for his defeat. Let us meet him like men resolved to conquer or die.

Men of Texas, I know I do not call upon you in vain. Shall it be said that your State was invaded and you hastened not to the aid of your brethren in the field? Let the mothers, wives, and daughters of Texas, remembering the outrages and tyranny their sisters of the South have met at the hands of the fore, urge every man to do his duty and tarry no longer from the field. The gray-haired sires and women of Texas have the courage to defend their homes from local danger if the able-bodied men will march to meet the enemy and contest every inch of ground which leads to plantations and homes to be desolated by his vandal hand.

Business men and planters, the time has come for you to turn aside from your daily pursuit and rally to the defense of your country. Wait not until the enemy has wrested from you the fruits of years of toil, or ravaged the fields upon which you rely for a sustenance.

Old Texans, men of the days of '36, men of the Republic, you have grasped the rifle and rusty knife before at the call of danger. Come now, and the men who love you for your deeds of valor, the youths who would emulated your example, will follow you. Many of your comrades are in the ranks. Form with them a wall of fire and steel against which the foe shall press in vain.

J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER,

Major-General, Commanding Dist. of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.


Numbers 8. Report of Colonel Leon Smith, C. S. Army, commanding Marine Department, Texas.

SABINE PASS,

September 8, 1863.

SIR: After telegraphic the major-general this morning before leaving Beaumont, I took a horse, and proceed with all haste to Sabine,


Page 307 Chapter XXXVIII. THE SABINE PASS EXPEDITION.