“Had the commanding general of the [Union] expedition not proved himself both incompetent and cowardly, the expedition doubtlessly would have been a brilliant success.” (“Dick Dowling and the Battle of Sabine Pass”, 195)

This statement by late Rice professor Andrew Muir in 1958 belittles the military victory of Dowling at Sabine Pass, once called by Jefferson Davis “The Confederacy’s Thermopylae”, by attributing the Union defeat to atrocious leadership.  Only 55 years early hough, the Dick Dowling Memorial Association had amassed a large sum of money to buy a huge 7-foot statue of precious Italian Carrara marble to proclaim the exact opposite of Muir.  What happened between these two acts to cause this shift in opinion? The documents of the archive, especially news clippings post-1905 show a gradual shift in public opinion away from the triumphant image of Dick Dowling as “The Hero of Sabine Pass” to Dick Dowling as “the model Irish citizen” and downplaying his Confederate past.  Jocelyn and Alex both wondered how the statue has been maintained and with what sentiments it was viewed over time. The documents of the archive answer these questions in part by giving glimpses of public opinion from 1905 to 1997 at key points in the statues history.  They also provide a great jumping point for further study of trends in popular remembrance of the Civil War in the 20^th century.

In 1905, on Saint Patrick’s Day, the statue to Dowling was dedicated with the fervor of a New York ticker-tape parade. Articles from the Houston Chronicle document that the “cavalcade…was gay with color” and the line of the march was “thronged with people…bent upon witnessing the ceremony”. (RGA33-b2f27-53) Amongst the speakers were important politicians of the day, such as John Kirby and Texas Governor SWT Lanham, who “referred to the deeds of the past and then to the work of Dowling at Sabine Pass [and] recited the record evidence of the greatness of the achievement” (RGA33-b2f27-54) In 1905, this monument was above all a remembrance of the Confederate cause.  While the journalist writes that ‘veterans of the Lost Cause’ will march alongside the ‘sons of Erin’ (an Irish Heritage club), he notes the monument was not only a monument to Sabine Pass, but also a monument to the patriotism of the [Confederate] citizens of the city and the members of the UCV Dick Dowling Camp 197.

Furthermore, what I originally assumed to be neglect that caused the statue to be moved from City Hall in 1939 was probably not the cause for the statue’s first location transfer.  Instead the program of the 1997 re-dedication ceremony leads us to believe that Dowling’s memory was still in high regard in 1939. It writes that the statue’s 1939 relocation to Sam Houston Park coincides with City Hall’s movement to the same area. (SC1268-01-03)

In the 1950s, however, it appears that public opinion shifted definitively against the Confederate memory of Dowling.  In 1957, the statue was put in storage during restoration of Sam Houston Park, and it was decided to not be returned to its old spot.  Instead, the statue was planned to be erected (and actually its pedestal was already placed) in the current location of George Hermann’s statue [at the corner of Fannin and Cambridge]. (RGA33-b2f27-59) However,  the memory of Dowling did not have the popular support at the time to sway Hermann’s estate from using the spot  and relegating Dowling’s statue to its unpopular spot at the Southwestern corner of the park. Since then, apart from a 1966 ceremony by the SCV and UDC, the statue has taken a strongly Irish memory.

When the statue was restored and rededicated in 1997, credit for its funding was devoid of Confederate interests. Instead, money was provided by the Houston Public Art Commission and the Dick Dowling Irish Heritage Society.  The Master of Ceremonies was Larry Miggins, an Irish-American who was featured in the Houston Chronicle 12 years earlier as being the sole conservator of the statue, and the keynote speaker was a historian from Tuam, Ireland.  (RGA33-b2f27-05). Apart from a brief summary of the Battle of Sabine Pass, the only reference to his military exploits is a Military Salute by the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 858) at the conclusion of the ceremony. Clearly, in 1997, the organizers found it more prudent to emphasize his civic accomplishments and Irish pride, rather than using his status as war-hero to remember the Civil War.

In brief, the archive has a very valuable compilation of newspaper articles that trace the monument’s memory across the 20^th century. Of course, as with any good summary, a better understanding of the overall trends begs the question: why. Why was Dowling’s statue not replaced in Sam Houston Park in 1958 with other monuments to Houston’s past? Was the Civil Rights movement a causative factor for this shift in public memory of the monument?  (see RGA33-b2f27-44 for an idea of African-American backlash to Dowling’s statue) On the other hand, why did in 1966, a consortium of 5 UDC and SCV camps create a large plaque dedicated to Dowling near his statue that called him “leader in victory, unparalleled in world history”, overestimate the Union force by 10,000, and call no attention to his civic roles as a Houstonian? Was it simply backlash to the tarnished name of the Confederacy during Civil Rights, or was there a larger upsurge in Civil War remembrance? Could this have a possible tie in with Ijames’s “Black Confederates” argument that 20^th century amateur historians have distorted the confederate memory to make it more heroic or palatable?