Spanish-American War Fortifications

Spanish-American War Fortifications. (Approximately 3 miles south). As tension mounted between the United States and Spain during the late 1890s, U. S. Representative Samuel Bronson Cooper of Texas recommended the War Department begin plans for the defense of the strategic Sabine Pass area. The Army Corps of Engineers authorized Maj. James B. Quinn, out of New Orleans, to direct construction of two forts near here on land granted by Augustus F. Kountze. Work on the batteries was under way by May 1898, one month after the formal war declaration. Government engineer J. L. Brownlee coordinated the military efforts with area residents., Although the emplacements were soon completed, the shore guns were never part of military action here. The Spanish-American War ended December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris., Following the war, there were efforts to establish a permanent military installation at the site. Officials dropped the plan, however, by 1901. In 1913, fifteen years after the war, the fortifications were the site of a tragic accident, in which a Sabine boy was killed when an abandoned ammunition cache exploded., Evidence of the Spanish-American War fortifications has been severely damaged by hurricanes over the years, but the site remains a symbol of an important era in U.S. history.