 The California Column occupied the region around El Paso from 1862 to the end of the war.The most notable military battle in Texas during the war happened on September 8, 1863.At the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small garrison of 46 Confederates from the mostly-Irish Davis Guards under Lt. Richard W. Dowling, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, defeated a much larger Union force from New Orleans under Gen. William B. Franklin.