The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 363
434 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The United States Gunboat Harriet Lane
wharf and warehouse better, as they were directly under the guns
of the fleet and in the city.7 Pickets were posted at the corners
of the main streets and patrols were sent out through the city,
while a lookout was kept from the cupalo of the Hendley building,
which overlooked the city and suburbs. At night, the pickets were
withdrawn to the gangway leading to the wharf and the patrols
were recalled. Confederate cavalry entered the town every night,
coming by way of the Gulf beach where the sand dunes concealed
them. They rendezvoused at Schmidt's garden, a picnic park, at
Twenty-first Street and Avenues N-O, and left for Fort Eagle
Grove and Virginia Point before daylight."
This fleet remained on guard and blockade duty until January
1, 1863, several times bombarding the city because of alarms of
Confederate attacks. The alarms were mostly baseless and were
due to the ovestrained nerves of pickets, who had been imposed
upon by so-called Union sympathizers. One instance is de-
scribed thus by W. P. Doran. There was a well known character
in Galveston, Tom Barnet-better known as "One-armed Tom"-
who had lost his arm in the naval service of the Republic of Texas,
and who was very bitter against the invaders. One dark night in
December, 1862, Doran accompanied Tom to see the sights.
Reaching Parry's Foundry near the wharf, two Federal sentinels
hailed them. Tom drew and leveled his six-shooter. The senti-
nels fled toward the barricade, the drums beat the alarm, a signal
rocket was fired, and the gunboat Clifton, anchored off the wharf,
fired several broadsides into the city.9
Though nominally in the hands of the United States forces, the
city was practically free to the Confederate forces which were en-
trenched at Fort Eagle Grove, three miles west of the city and at
Virginia Point, northwest of the city seven or eight miles at the
mainland end of the railroad bridge. Food supplies were doled
out by a. committee of subsistence at Houston, and sent over, un-
'Long to Houston, January 10, 1863, Official Records, War of the Re-
bellion, 'Ser. I, Vol. XV, 208. From all the information I can gather, a
force was on this wharf from the first days of occupation in October.
8Long to Houston, loc. cit.
9Galveston News, July 5, 1891. I have heard the same story from P.
J. Willis, of Galveston, and others.363
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/369/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.