Action at Sabine Pass, TX
Early in September, Sachem was assigned to a joint Army-Navy expeditionary force mounted at New Orleans to attack Sabine Pass, Tex. Sachem arrived off Sabine Pass on the evening of the 7th, followed Clifton across the bar and entered the harbor there the next day. That afternoon, Sachem, followed by Arizona, advanced up the Louisiana Channel while Clifton and Granite City moved forward along the Texas shore. Sachem and Clifton opened fire on the Confederate batteries at Fort Mannahasset, but the Confederate guns remained silent until the Union gunboats were at close range. Then they countered with a devastating cannonade. A shot through her boiler totally disabled Sachem and another cut Clifton's wheel rope causing her to run aground under the Southern guns. Nevertheless, the damaged gunboats continued their struggle until heavy casualties forced Clifton to surrender. Arizona and Granite City then began to withdraw, so Lt. Johnson, with no possibility of saving his ship, ordered her Parrott gun spiked, her magazine flooded, and her signal book and spy glass destroyed. He then had her flag hauled down and a white flag hoisted.
