While stuck to the bank, the Clifton was easy prey for the gunners in the fort. The Davis Guard poured round after round into the ship. Several rounds hit the Clifton's steam drum. Crocker still had the steam up trying to get off the bank. Boiling water and steam cleared her decks of all sharpshooters as it had on the Sachem. Somehow, the Clifton gunners hung on. The Clifton was a big ship, two hundred seventy feet long. It would not go down easily. Several fires broke out. Crocker directed them to be put out as he kept firing at the fort. The forward nine-inch gun was temporarily knocked out.

 

An Harper's Weekly illustration of the Clifton aground and the Sachem burning

                 A Colorized version of the above

< This Don Troiani drawing of another Confederate artillery battery in action may help the reader imagine the scene.

 The drawing to the right is taken from the cover art of a recent book, Texas and Texans in the Civil War by Ralph Wooster and published by Eakin  Press.  It depicts a bare chested Dowling with his sabre raised on high and the disabled field piece to his left just after the Sachem raised the white flag of surrender.

One of the Clifton's other guns was permanently destroyed, killing all its crew. One of the officers of the Clifton hauled down its colors to stop the killing. Crocker reprimanded the officer and ordered the flag put back up. Half of the gun crews, and many of the sharpshooters however, seeing the flag lowered, abandoned ship. Seeing half his men leave, the Arizona not coming forward, the Granite City still remaining out of the fight, as did the General Banks, Crocker belayed the order. With only half the gun crews left, he decided to save his valiant men. He ordered the white flag raised after all.

The Arizona was stuck in mud. It saw the white flags on the Sachem and Clifton, and knew the deadly guns would next be trained on her. The Arizona, also, ran up a white flag.

The USS Arizona >

 

 

 

 

Another Harpers Weekly illustration of the battle in which you can see all four Union gunships engaged with the fort and catching a lot of lead while reinforcements aboard the Confederate cotton clads are coming across the Sabine Lake and down the river. You can also see the view the Sabine Pass lighthouse had of the action.

The other ships were frozen in their positions by what they were witnessing. They saw, in short order, the destruction of one third the fleet's gunships. Three of the four gunships within the bar were flying the white surrender flag. Captain Lamson of the Granite City which was near the Texas bank close to Andrew Daly's Company position, signaled the other boats that Confederate field artillery was approaching. That was the straw that set in motion the withdrawal of the Union fleet.