B and G of the 75th New York, under Lieutenants Root and
Cox, was then sent aboard the _Clifton_, and to the _Sachem_ an
officer and 25 men from the 161st New York.

About daylight on the 7th, Crocker became convinced that he had
overrun his distance and gone beyond Sabine Pass; but when all the
vessels had put about and for three or four hours had been steering
to the eastward, he found himself off the entrance to the Calcasieu,
thirty miles east of the Sabine. Then he and Weitzel agreed that,
under the circumstances, the best thing to be done was to intercept
the remainder of the expedition, supposed to be following, under
the immediate command of Franklin, and assembling the whole force
where they were to wait until the next morning, the 8th of September,
for the attempt at Sabine Pass. But the arrangement had been that
the attack by the gunboats to cover Weitzel's landing was to be
made early on the morning of the 7th. Accordingly Franklin, with
his part of the fleet, carrying the supporting force, had already
passed Berwick Bay; in fact, at eleven o'clock he was off Sabine
Pass; and the _Suffolk_, bearing the headquarters flag of the
Nineteenth Corps, had crossed the bar and was about to run in, the
others following, when Franklin perceived that his advance had not
yet come up, and therefore stopped the movement. In the afternoon
Weitzel, seeing nothing of Franklin's fleet, made up his mind that
he must have gone by, and once more setting his face toward the
west, joined Franklin off the Sabine about nine o'clock that
evening.

After the full and open notice thus given the enemy, all thought
of anything like a surprise was at an end; yet it was agreed to go
on and make the attempt the next morning. Accordingly, at daylight
on the 8th, Crocker, with the _Clifton_ and the other gunboats,
followed by Weitzel with the 75th New York on the transport steamer
_Charles Thomas_, entered the harbor, and after reconnoitring the
landing-place and the defences, signalled the rest of the fleet to
run in. Weitzel put a picked force of five hundred men on the
transport _General Banks_, and following in the wake of the four
gun-boats, made ready to land about a thousand yards below the fort.

Shortly before four o'clock the gunboats moved to the attack.
Above the swamp through which the Sabine finds an outlet to the
Gulf, the shore lies low and barren. The fort or sand battery was
placed at the turn about one half mile