Driving east to Louisiana Civil War sites from Galveston last week I still had Confederate General, “Prince John” B. Magruder on my mind. Hoping to see more ocean/river than tourist streets/restaurants I was eager to explore https://thc.texas.gov/historic-sites/sabine-pass-battleground I was not disappointed.
Just as before-the-Civil War, I was greeted with the confluence of railroad to move goods to Houston, Sabine River for navigation, and access to the Gulf of Mexico for larger reach. The road into Fort Griffin, which Confederate President Jefferson Davis dismissed as a “mud fort,” took me through the bowels of a Valero Refinery to round a corner with full view of freighter ships. Plus, the only word I can think of to describe them, gigantic calipers that the site attendant told me were used to pick up a freighter out of the water to do repairs.
Magruder knew the Union wanted to control the Texas coast so cotton could continue on to textile mills in the North. As the National Geographic Battlefields of the Civil War map shows below, the Confederates pulled off another surprise victory. He tasked Richard Dowling with building the fort, who used 400 slaves to do the hardest labor.
I took my time walking around the site. No other visitors distracted me from reflecting on the view, and, since I travel alone, the joy of reading.every.single.marker. at my leisure. And that’s when I found one dedicated to Leon “The Lion” Smith, hero of Galveston who taunted Texans to jump their sinking ship onto a Union ship and fire away. Apparently, on Sept. 8, 1863 he was in Beaumont, 30 some miles west and could hear the cannon fire of the battle. He sent ships and arrived himself on horseback.
In person, it’s easy to read the entirety of a marker, including the very last paragraph which states, “Smith returned to California after the war. In 1869 he was killed in Alaska, and his body was moved to San Francisco, California for burial.” Clearly, Smith’s life is a tale in its own. So, I offer a link for my Alaska friends to read more about his exploits and death in Wrangel, Alaska.
Solivagant USA 
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