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to the whole Confederate forces to speak of the garrison of the earthwork at Sabine Pass as the ‘forty bravest men of the Confederacy’ as it is to insinuate that the Union naval and military forces, lying out in the Gulf of Mexico, have any reason to be ashamed of the failure to capture a place they could not reach in vessels drawing fourteen to twenty-five feet of water, which was the case with the exception of those I have named, and which experience demonstrated drew too much to navigate a channel in which there could not have been much more, if any, than seven feet.
Mr. Davis was undoubtedly misled, and did not know that if the garrison had abandoned their post at any time during the Federal reconnoisance—for that was all it was, in point of fact they should have been courtmartialed for cowardice; because however meritorious their action in ‘holding the fort’ may have been, it is absolutely certain that they were never exposed to any real danger of capture or injury from the Federals, who did not fire a dozen shots altogether, and from which the garrison was perfectly protected by the earth-work.
Very respectfully yours,
Frederic speed, Formerly A. A. General 1st Division 19th Army Corps.
