Clark, Joseph L. A History of Texas, Land of Promise. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1939.
The Battle of Sabine Pass and Dick Dowling’s role in the battle are both briefly addressed in Clark’s book. It is mostly just a presentation of facts though, with little commentary. The book does not editorialize about how heroic or impressive the Confederate victory was. Clark does provide facts about how many men Dowling had compared to the Union side though, so it’s pretty clear that Dowling was the underdog in the battle (p. 345). Clark only spends a few paragraphs total addressing the Civil War in Texas.
Most of the discussion in the book about the Civil War is related to reconstruction and how “radical” Republicans tried to impose their political policies on the South. Clark clearly has a very negative view of Northern reconstruction policies and Republicans in general. In fact, at one point, he makes the claim that whites and blacks in Texas would have found a way to get along following the Civil War, but the North interfered by setting up Union Leagues to help former slaves. According to Clark, the Ku Klux Klan became active in Texas in order to offset the influences of these leagues (p. 349). The problems between whites and former slaves in Texas are blamed solely on the “meddlesome North” by Clark (p. 350).
Fondren Library only had one edition of A History of Texas, Land of Promise by Joseph L. Clark and it was the first edition. The book was intended to be used as a textbook because it included a place inside the front cover for pupils to fill in their name from year to year. It was published in Boston by D.C. Heath and Company, which was a publishing company that specialized in text books. It was first published in 1939. At that time, the United States was nearing the end of the Great Depression and Hitler was becoming a growing threat overseas.
According to the first page of the book, Joseph L. Clark was the Director of the Division of Social Science at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, Texas at the time the book was published. In 1969, Sam Houston State Teachers College became Sam Houston State University. According to the Handbook of Texas, Clark was a long-time history professor and administrator at SHSU beginning in 1910. There is no mention of any other editor or compiler involved in putting the book together besides Clark.
Transcription from p.345-346 about Dowling and the Battle of Sabine Pass:
On September 8, 1863 Fort Griffin, a small Confederate post near the present city of Port Arthur, was in the line of operations of the northern General Banks. He sailed from New Orleans to Sabine Pass with 5000 troops, intending to land there and move through Beaumont to Houston and then to the interior of the state. As the convoys and gunboats approached the fort, fire was opened from the battery under the command of Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling, who had with him at the time forty-seven men of the First Texas Heavy Artillery. Without losing a man, Dowling captured two gunboats with thirteen cannons, took 350 prisoners, and repulsed the other ships of the squadron. Those that were not captured eventually returned to New Orleans.