One of the things that both Jaclyn and Ryan discussed is the importance of the legacy of the battle over the actual skirmish itself. Dowling was unique in the number of times he and his troops were memorialized in the forms of statues and monuments—six in total. This, coupled with the narratives and stories put forth by characters such as Davis and other Confederates both during and after the war, show that, for many reasons, the battle had a lasting impact in the wake of the Civil War.
I found Jaclyn’s idea that the narrative of Sabine Pass was important to Southerners grappling with issues such as racism and xenophobia, but I feel it would be a mistake to entirely downplay the importance of the battle during the Civil War itself. By 1863, the Confederacy was becoming more demoralized as the war dragged on through it second year. A decisive victory such as that at Sabine Pass—however much of a fluke combination of good timing for the Confederates and bad luck for the Union it may have been—was important in inspiring troops and boosting morale during the war. As Cotham mentioned several times in the book, Texas was very important strategically to the Confederacy, and loss of it or any of its major seaports to the Union could have had drastic implications for the transport of much-needed military supplies.
Cotham also mentions the scandal the unthinkable defeat at Sabine Pass caused in the North and how it led to several scathing editorials as well as investigations of the various officers involved in the battle. Jaclyn and Ryan both allude to the idea that the victory was a combination of military training and pure luck, but, regardless of how the victory was achieved, it did definitively squelch any further Union efforts to take over Sabine Pass. Furthermore, it led Northerners to question the effectiveness of certain military strategy and commanders, which could have had an affected Union morale in a manner that was beneficial for the troops.
The impact of Sabine Pass during the war also had a definite impact on Union war strategies, particularly relating to Farragut’s increasingly popular practice of conquering a city or town on the shore using naval artillery. Although this strategy had proved successful in capturing cities such as New Orleans, Sabine Pass caused Union generals to reconsider the advisability of these tactics. While Farragut continued to use some elements of this strategy in subsequent battles (189) he did so with much more caution. It should also be noted that this strategy seemed to be one that was almost exclusively effective for Farragut; there were several instances in the book when commanders and strategists on other ships—including those commanding the battles at Sabine Pass—attempted Farragut’s strategies and failed.
While Dowling and his battalion’s victories were much celebrated in the South and particularly in Texas, the scope of the impact of Sabine Pass on Union forces is a part of the story that seems largely silenced. I would find it fairly plausible that this was because, in the grand scheme of the war, Sabine Pass was relatively insignificant to the Union. However, with Trouillot’s book fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help wondering if this was an example of a silenced piece of history that was actually more influential than the standard history books would have their readers believe.