When this formidable fleet appeared at Sabine Pass, Captain Odlum was absent and Lieutenant Dowling was in command of Fort Griffin. His whole force consisted of forty-two men. He ordered the “Davys,” as they were called, to stay in the bombproofs until he himself should fire the first gun. Then, hidden by the earthwork, he watched the approach of the gunboats. The _Clifton_ steamed in and opened the attack from her pivot gun, throwing a number of shells which dropped into the fort and exploded. The _Sachem_ and the _Arizona_ followed, pouring in broadsides from their thirty-two-pound cannon. No reply came from the fort, which seemed to be deserted. The gunboats came nearer and nearer. Suddenly a shot from the fort clove the air and fell hissing into the water beyond the _Arizona_. The fight at once became furious. The _Clifton_ and the _Arizona_ moved backward and forward, vomiting huge shells which tore the earthwork of the fort and filled the air with dust. Ships and fort seemed wrapped in flame. The _Sachem_ meanwhile was stealing into the Pass toward the unprotected rear of the fort. But a well-aimed shot from Dowling’s battery struck her, crushing her iron plating and causing her to rise on end and quiver like a leaf in the wind. She was at the mercy of the fort, and her flag was instantly lowered. The _Clifton_ kept up the fight with great skill and bravery. But she soon ran aground in the shallows, where she continued to fire until a shot passed through her boiler, completely wrecking her. A white flag was run up at her bow, and the battle was over. The _Arizona_ and the _Granite City_ steamed out to the transports, whose men had watched the fight with breathless interest. The fleet at once retired, leaving the _Sachem_ and the _Clifton_ to the “Davys.”[41] Three hundred Union soldiers were taken prisoners. Captain Crocker of the _Clifton_ came ashore with a boat’s crew, and, mounting the parapet, asked for the commanding officer. Lieutenant Dowling, covered with the dust of the fort, presented himself as the person sought. The gallant Federal in his handsome uniform could hardly believe that this dirty little boy was his conqueror, or that the handful of men before him comprised the force which had so calmly awaited a hostile fleet and defeated it.[42] Eight months afterward the United States gunboats, the _Granite City_ and the _Wave_, were captured at Sabine Pass.