The Forgotten History of Natchitoches

25/11/2019

Life for the Creole planter class, in Natchitoches and the Cane River Country, improved throughout the Early American period. With the development of the cotton gin, agriculture switched from being to***co based to cotton based and the demand for cotton resulted in fortunes being made throughout the old south and in the old southwest (Natchitoches was on the southwestern border of the United States at the time). The plantation class moved from simple ground floor Creole cottages with just two or 4 rooms to Raised Creole style cottages. The Raised Creole Cottage was in appearance like a simple ground floor cottage with the exceptions being that it was built on an above ground cellar, had numerous bedrooms drawing room/dining room, and some had garçonnières (bachelor quarters) for their unmarried sons on the outer corners of the house.

Since the plantations were mostly far from town, and often business had to be conducted in town a town house was kept in town as a place to stay while there. Often Creole ladies didn’t enjoy living on the plantation and they lived most of the time in town along with a house servant to care for the townhouse. Young Creole gentlemen often would live in town to attend the St Joseph College Seminary on the campus of the Parish Cathedral in Natchitoches and would live in the townhouse.

The term townhouse can be confusing because there is an architectural style called Creole Townhouse and there is the Plantation townhouse defined by its purpose and not by its style. The Metoyer Townhouse on Jefferson St is a Creole Townhouse style home that serves as a plantation townhouse. I often refer to the Creole townhouse style structures which have more Spanish influences than French with its construction of brick sometimes covered with stucco as Creole Commercial architecture. That style has a shop on the bottom story and residence above. The Creole Commercial style houses on front street have carriage way passages leading to a courtyard bounded by the house to the front and a carriage house topped with servants’ quarters to the back. Entry to the main house was off the courtyard. The only structure in Natchitoches that still has the courtyard with carriage house is the Ducourneau townhouse on Front Street. While the carriage house is still standing, the quarters has been removed from the top and replaced by a flat roof. The Creole Townhouse became popular in New Orleans when most of the Creole cottages made from cypress and bousillage burned down in the fires of 1788 and 1794. The buildings were replaced under the guidance of the Spanish Colonial Government which required the buildings be brick and more fire resistant. Natchitoches’ great fire occurred in 1728 when a candle in the cathedral set a drapery on fire. Natchitoches’ New Orleans appearance came over 30 years later than New Orleans and under an American administration. The Creoles of Natchitoches considered themselves as part of New Orleans culture and society well into the American period.

The infrastructure of a plantation included a gin, store, workshops for craftsmen, homes for slaves and staff, stables, pidgin cotes, barns, and an outdoor kitchen. The purpose of the kitchen being outside is often explained as being to keep the odors of cooking out of the house. If that is so why did they move kitchens indoors when more modern kitchen appliances were developed? The actual purpose was to protect the home and its contents from fire.

While most slaves on the plantations were farm laborers many were skilled tradesmen. There were blacksmiths, carpenters brick makers and masons. There were gin operators, cowboys and sheep herders, cooks, house servants, spinners, weavers, seamstresses, and even hunters trusted with guns to keep food on the tables of the other slaves. Some plantations were managed by overseers while the owners managed businesses or had professional jobs in town. Cane River Plantation owners were for the most part hands on operators of their plantations.

The Cane River plantation country became known as the Cote Joyous or Joyful coast (the term coast was applied by the early French to River shorelines as well as seashores) and a community of both European Creoles and Creoles of Color lived happily side by side. The Creoles of Color didn’t define themselves by their racial parts but by their genteel manors, ambition, and work ethic. When it came to formal balls and other formal social events there was a class difference between the two cultures. Since the Creoles of Color were so proud and confident, I’ve often wondered if they considered themselves as dissing the whites rather than the other way around. When it came to hunting fishing and racing horses there was camaraderie between the two cultures. There was also respect and cooperation between the two cultural groups.

Both cultures lived harmoniously until the American Civil War removed the joy that defined the Cote Joyous.

17/10/2019

While I have covered the men of the Alamo that did or may have had a connection to Natchitoches, I’m going to go ahead and tell the story of the battle and the war because the Texas War for Independence would have a significant impact on Natchitoches, the primary gateway into Texas.

The Texas Revolution occurred because the agreements made by Moses and Stephen Austin with the Spanish government ended up null and void when Mexico finally won their independence from Spain. While a liberal federal republican constitution had been established for Mexico in 1824 protecting citizen’s rights, those rights were curtailed over time. In December of 1835 during the early stages of the revolution, the American Texans and their Tejano partners defeated the small Mexican Army Garrisons in Texas and sent the Mexican soldiers back to Mexico.

The military dictator of Mexico, Santa Ana, known as the Napoleon of the West, vowed to return honor to the Mexican Army. Santa Ana sent an army up the Texas Coast engaging the Texans as he went. In Goliad, a massacre occurred when Texans who surrendered at the Battle of Coleto were taken from their prisons then lined up and executed. the Mexicans made their first mistake. Chinese Military strategist Sun Szu said that if an army is placed on death ground he will fight with everything he has knowing his life is dependent upon it. At San Antonio de Bexar Santa Ana made the same mistake but Texans made a mistake there too.

Sam Houston was chosen to lead the Texas Army made up of American Texans, Tejanos, and American volunteers. Sam Houston was a Tennessean who had lived for a time with the Cherokee. His military career had included serving under Andrew Jackson in the war of 1812 in the campaign against Britain’s allies the Creek Nation. I’m not sure how Houston became the strategist that he was. Possibly some of that knowledge was acquired from his adopted people the Cherokee. I suspect he was doing a lot of reading. I don’t think Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was available to Houston but if it was, I’m pretty sure he read it. Being a Southerner I suspect he was familiar with Nathanial Greene’s southern campaign of the American Revolution, a campaign Greene won not by winning battles against a superior force but by wearing the enemy down. A subject I believe Houston read about was Napoleon’s Russia campaign. One thing Houston was certain of was that the war would not be won by trying to defend fixed fortifications. He sent Col. James Bowie to oversee the evacuation of the Alamo.

When Bowie arrived at the Alamo, Col William Barrett Travis convinced Bowie the post was defendable. There would be a tension between Bowie and Travis as the troops that mistrusted Travis looked to Bowie for leadership. Col David Crockett’s arrival at the post helped reduce the tension through Crockett’s diplomacy. In March of 1836, the Texans residing in San Antonio De Bexar sought protection in the Alamo from the advancing Mexican Army lead by Santa Ana. A siege lasted for 13 days and during that time many pleas for assistance were sent out in hopes of being reinforced or rescued. The actual battle resulted in the death of all the defenders with only the women, children and slaves being spared. The Death toll was approximately 183 for the Texans and 400 for the Mexicans
Again, Santa Ana put the Texans on death ground. For the rest of the war, the battle cry was “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” The defenders of the Alamo did buy time for Houston to train an Army. The brutality of the Mexicans gave the Texans an assurance of the morality of the war they were fighting. Santa Ana unknowingly determined the outcome of the war at the Alamo just as Banastre Tarleton determined the outcome of the American Revolution at the Battle of Waxhaws.

I suspect that Houston chose not to relieve the Alamo knowing that such an action would bring about an early end to the conflict and not in favor of the Texans. Houston lead Santa Ana on a long chase.

This phase of the war is the part that leads me to believe that Houston studied how the Russian commanders defeated Napoleon. In Napoleon’s Russia campaign the Russians retreated from the beginning of the war using a scorched earth strategy. This prevented the French from being able to live off the land as they advanced. It meant that a steady supply of food and munitions had to be brought by wagon trains over long distances. As the Russians retreated Napoleon became more confident and although logistics problems increased, he was certain victory was his. When the Russian Army was almost to Moscow they turned and fought. That just happened to be when the cold Russian winter set in. Napoleon retreated from Moscow like Horatio Gates at the Battle of Camden in the American Revolution putting as much distance between himself and his enemies as fast as possible. French soldiers starved and froze on their long slow retreat.

Sam Houston in Texas didn’t have a terrible winter to assist in the defeat of his enemies but what he did have was long distances to make supply difficult and in southeast Texas, he had both an over grown thicket and a hot humid summer climate. That was two things that the Mexicans were not familiar with, but the Indian fighters from the American Southeast were. Houston led his troops in that direction destroying food supplies that couldn’t be carried with them denying the Mexicans of any supplies they may find useful in the campaign. Along the way, he gathered up the Texas settlers to prevent them from being abused by the Mexicans.
During the retreat, Houston’s men begged him to stop and fight but he refused. For the full duration of the retreat, Houston dealt with low morale.

Santa Ana, also believing Houston was a coward, split his forces sending some to pursue the Texas government officials at Harrisburg while Santa Ana himself pursued Houston’s army. The two armies faced off across a prairie at the junction of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. Houston’s army was made up of about 900 men and Santa Ana had 1300. Santa Ana, believing that Houston would only fight when forced to decided to wait for his army to be reinforced. He even allowed his men to take a siesta. During the afternoon of April 21, 1836, Houston formed his men up in the Prairie. The resting soldiers in the Mexican Camp were awakened to the sound of “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” In 18 minutes, the battle was decided but the bloodletting went on for an hour. Most of the Mexicans were killed but many escaped to be rounded up later.

The following day a group of prisoners were brought into camp for interrogation. A prisoner already in the American camp suddenly kneeled showing reverence to an NCO. Santa Ana was unwittingly betrayed by an admirer.

Texas independence was the ransom for the life of Santa Ana. Texas was an independent republic for nearly a decade

16/10/2019

Did David Crockett and his Tennessee Volunteers pass through Natchitoches on their way to the Alamo? For about six years I told the story that he and his Tennessee volunteers did come to Natchitoches by way of steamboat then went from Natchitoches to the Alamo. That information was passed to me from an associate historian tour guide and came from a book called Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas, written by himself. Six years later I came in possession of a book called Three Roads to the Alamo by William C Davis. That book taught me not to just take the word of other historian tour guides.

Davis had Crockett traveling by Steamboat from West Tennessee down to the Mouth of the Arkansas then up the Arkansas to Little Rock. The first phase of the journey in the so-called autobiography was the same. This makes sense because the delta lands in Arkansas is wide and made much wider by the tributaries of the Arkansas, White, and St Francis Rivers. Travel in the Delta was more easily done by boat than on foot.

The next phase of the journey in both books was by horse to Washington, Arkansas (now called Old Washington) where the famous Bowie knife was crafted. This is where the two narratives diverge. Davis has Crockett continuing by horse to Nacogdoches and from there contacting Daniel Cloud to come from Natchitoches to join up. The autobiography has Crockett and his men selling their horses at Fulton Arkansas and traveling by steamboat from Fulton to Natchitoches, then buying horses again for traveling along the old El Camino Real to Nacogdoches.

Davis’ version makes greater sense because Southwest Arkansas is Caddo country. Caddo towns had major trails connecting the many Caddo villages in the region. That meant there was a trail connecting the Caddo of Southwest Arkansas to the Kadohadacho village near the great bend in the Red River and a trail connected that village with the Hasinai at Nacogdoches. When that road became a major road for Texas travelers of American extraction it became known as the Trammel Trace. Nicholas Trammel was a mustanger who smuggled horses along that trail as early as 1813.

The Red River flows South Southeast through Louisiana to get to Natchitoches. That’s traveling away from Nacogdoches in such away that the next equestrian phase of the trip is not a great deal shorter than had they continued on by horse from Arkansas. It doesn’t seem rational to make the journey in horse steamboat, horse steamboat phases. What convinced me the book was written by someone that had never traveled by steamboat from Fulton to Natchitoches at that particular time in history was when he wrote:

“Nothing of any consequence occurred in our passage down the river, and I arrived at Natchitoches in perfect health and in good spirits.” Crockett, David. Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas, Written by Himself (1848) . Unknown. Kindle Edition.

In the narrative what isn’t mentioned is the Great Red River Raft and the fact that removal was just starting around the time of his journey. There is no mentioned that getting from the area around present-day Shreveport to Natchitoches the steamboat would have had to cross a flooded area and make its way down Bayou Pierre to get to Natchitoches. The next thing that made me doubt the author had ever been to Natchitoches was this statement:

“Natchitoches is a post town and seat of justice for the parish of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and is situated on the right bank of the Red River. The houses are chiefly contained in one street, running parallel to the river…” Crockett, David. Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas, Written by Himself (1848) . Unknown. Kindle Edition.

Natchitoches was on the main channel of Red River at the time but one block off of Front street the land rises to form the western edge of the Red River Valley. The forts were on the hills, much of the Catholic Church facilities were on the hills, and it was on the high ground many people preferred to live. The streets in the south part of the historic district are laid out in a pattern that was the traditional pattern for French towns meaning that second street and the streets between second street and the river were developed long before this narrative was written.

Now that I have laid out this evidence, I’m going to add that the History Channel has listed the autobiography among the greatest frauds of historic literature.

For these reasons I don’t believe that Crockett came to Natchitoches on his way to the Alamo. Do I believe that Crockett never came to Natchitoches? I believe there was a good chance that he did.

David Crockett was not born on a mountain top in Tennessee. He was born in an Appalachian valley near Greenville Tennessee. He lived for a period of his life in Middle Tennessee along the Western Highland Rim and then migrated to the Mississippi River of Western Tennessee.
Crockett was a man that was always looking west. Crocket was a long hunter who spent long periods of time hunting the wilderness collecting deer, bison, and bearskins, as well as bear lard that at the time had a number of purposes from axal lubricant and cooking oil to soap and perfume ingredients. The Delta country south of Memphis and across the river in Arkansas was a prime country for deer and bear.

West of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana, on the pine ridges, was land that the Indians had been managing for numerous generations by seasonal fires which made pyrophyte plants like longleaf pine and prairie grasses the dominant plants in the region. These savannahs created wonderful grazing areas and on that land, the bison were found.

While the long hunter was the prelude to the mountain men of the Rocky Mountains, they had an advantage that the Mountain men didn’t have. There were many deep navigable rivers in their hunting range and practically every port had a trading post. This meant that the long hunter could sell his goods while out on the hunt, rather than at an annual rendezvous. You can be certain that they would seek out socialization with folks like the Clouds at settlements on the Cumberland or Tennessee, or the Luckys and Martins on the Tombigbee when at the posts. It isn’t unfeasible to me that after those families arrived in Northeast Natchitoches Parish finding bison competing with their domestic cattle on their range and being so massive that the could push over the fences that protect their gardens and cash crops that they invited the long hunters including Crockett to come help them with their problem.

Cloud family tradition has Crockett visiting the family. I believe if he visited them, he visited them to hunt. I also suspect that he sold his skins at Natchitoches and like all people with an adventurous spirit, knowing Natchitoches had a long history at the time, wanted to check out the town while he was here.

So, while all you Natchitoches area locals that are angry at me for destroying the legend of Crockett passing here on the way to the Alamo, keep in mind that it doesn’t mean he wasn’t ever here.

09/10/2019

This is the concluding episode of my Steamboat History series. It tells the story of river gunboats in the Trans Mississippi theater.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erw4mk_d-l0&feature=youtu.be

This is the concluding episode of my Steamboat History series. It tells the story of river gunboats in the Trans Mississippi theater.

03/10/2019

This episode runs a little longer than most of the previous episodes because the subject just demands it. In fact, it demands it to the point that I'm going to have to do a Part 2 of Civil War Steamboats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nbyHkIBvf0&feature=youtu.be

Steamboats in the Civil War from Fort Henry to Vicksburg.

24/09/2019

“According to a tradition, previous preserved in the Cloud family on Louisiana, John Cloud, the Revolutionary Soldier, was six feet two inches tall, weighed two hundred pounds, and had one of his eyes of blue color and the other eye black. The family also asserts the fact that he had fought as an English soldier, under General Wolfe, at the siege of Quebec, and had kept as a souvenir a piece of the rock on which General Wolfe died after his victory over the French. It is also asserted that he fought at Bunker Hill, and that after the Revolution he came to South Carolina, and entered 400 acres on Brier Creek, at what is now known as Cherokee Pond, South Carolina. It is said that his sons, Noah Cloud, was born there. The family tradition asserts that John Cloud, the Revolutionary soldier, married Elizabeth Lacey on the Cumberland River, in Kentucky, and later on moved with her and his family to Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi, then to Natchitoches, Louisiana then to Texas, then to Arkansas, then to West Monroe, Louisiana, where he lived for a number of years, then to Gainesville, Winn Parish, Louisiana, where he had many sheep and cattle, then to what is known as the 'Clifton Place', across Sabine Bayou, near the 'Cloud Crossing', in Winn Parish, Louisiana. and eventually to Natchitoches Parish, where he died in 1840.” Quoted from the Cloud family genealogy site http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/histories/kerngen_rec.php

An error in this writing puts the family on Sabine Bayou when in actuality Clouds Crossing is on the Saline Bayou between Winn and Natchitoches Parish. The Cloud Family also operated a ferry over Black Lake near Campti, Louisiana providing a short overland route from Northeast Natchitoches Parish into the Town of Natchitoches.

John Cloud had a first cousin twice removed named Daniel William Cloud. Daniel Cloud was an attorney who left his home in Kentucky in 1835 along with his friend and fellow attorney Peter J Baily to seek out a place where he could farm and practice law. He traveled and assessed the regions of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. While in Arkansas he met folks headed to Texas and he learned of a Republican Revolution taking place there. Before he himself followed these folks into Texas he decided to travel to the home of his kinfolks in Winn and Natchitoches Parishes. While there he wrote a letter to his brother that beautifully expresses the spirit and dedication to liberty and republicanism of the young men of America born in the days following the American Revolution. Cloud entered the Army of Texas January 14th 1836 and was assigned to the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers. Daniel William Cloud would Die March 6th 1836 in the Battle of the Alamo.

I started to post a photo copy of the Daniel Cloud letter but found this wonderful reading by one of the Cloud family members from Texas. I decided to post it instead.

http://mykindred.com/cloud/documents/dwcletteraudio.php

Daniel William Cloud wrote this letter to his brother from Natchitoches, Louisiana as he traveled to join the Texas revolution

22/09/2019

This episode looks at the steamboats of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska's Yukon Basin. If you like this video and please like it both on my forgotten history page and my YouTube channel. And please share it if you like it. I need to increase my viewership..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9fM6goA2yA&feature=youtu.be

A Look at steamboats of the Columbia Basin, Fraser River and Puget Sound of British Columbia, and the Yukon Basin of Alaska, and the Yukon Territory of Canada.

20/09/2019

California Steamboats is shorter than normal. I started out with the intentions of titling it Pacific Rivers steamboats but decided I needed to break the subject down to keep the episode from being discouragingly long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncnP1zzshPs&feature=youtu.be

I'm trying to keep these short so that viewers may be more likely to take a few minutes and watch. I had intended to give a brief history of all of the pacif...

17/09/2019

Did James Bowie frequent Natchitoches? One of the local legends is that James Bowie pulled a knife on a patron of the Phoenix Saloon on Horn St in Natchitoches and was run out of town. I have found no evidence that this legend is true but knowing about Bowie’s nature I wouldn’t dismiss it either. One thing for certain was that Bowie spent time in probably every land office in Louisiana and Natchitoches had one. It was called the pioneer Bank and Land office and was in the building that is now the Pioneer Pub located where Washington St becomes Front Street in Natchitoches. Bowie’s legend centers around his lawlessness and the fact that he survived many attempts on his life.

Bowie was born in Kentucky but spent time in his childhood in Missouri. Bowie came of age in Louisiana and Louisiana was where his legend grew. Bowie was ambitious and wanted to be a man of wealth and property. He began his journey toward building a fortune by selling cypress lumber cut and milled from the Louisiana swamplands. He began his climb toward legendary status when he met the pirate Jean Lafitte. At a time when the importation of slaves was illegal Jean Lafitte was seizing them from ships and importing them into Louisiana by way of Texas. Lafitte needed to be able to launder his contraband and Bowie provided a way. Bowie would bring slaves from the Sabine River across the prairie lands of southwest Louisiana, a region where few people ventured because the Atakapa Indians of the region were said to be cannibals. Arriving in Opelousas Bowie would report that he found slaves running free in the wilderness. At the slave market it was understood locally that only Lafitte’s agents were allowed to bid on those slaves. Once they were purchased and registered as belonging to American citizens, they were no longer considered contraband and were salable in American Markets.

Bowie was also involved in the marketing of slaves to the Cane River Plantation owners which were sold clandestinely where Negreet Creek flows into the Sabine River. Coded messages were posted on printed posters tacked to trees and fence posts announcing when a sale would be held. The Cane River plantation owners would meet at the announced time at Lafitte’s regularly used landing, purchase slaves on auction, and then bring their new slaves back avoiding the authorities in Natchitoches.

Bowie’s next criminal enterprise was fraudulently acquiring land that belonged to absentee landlords of lands granted to them through Spanish land grants prior to the Louisiana Purchase. Methods he employed ranged from forging bills of sale on the properties to encouraging squatters to lay claim to lands then purchasing those claims at a low price. Lands he did manage to acquire were sold to land speculators.

I’ve read several stories about Bowie’s iconic blade. One Opelousas version of the legendary blade based the development of the Bowie knife on a bear hunting tradition that took place in Louisiana. The early Americans belonged to militia units and drilled regularly. The sport of bear hunting wasn’t just to put meat on the table. The English Foxhunt of the old south took on a new dimension in Louisiana which at the time was the old southwest. Instead of pursuing fox on horseback and getting the fox from the hounds before they tore it apart. In Louisiana the bear hunt was considered a way of training for Cavalry operations and moving in and killing the bear with a knife before the bear tore the hunter apart was a way to develop martial skills and demonstrate courage. The knives they used were Old Hickory Butcher knives which lacked a hilt. The Old Hickory would work just fine until the hunter missed hitting the bear between two ribs or under the rib cage. When the knife hit a bone, the blade stopped but the hunter’s hand would continue moving forward down the blade cutting the hand just before the bear did a little more cutting on the hunter himself. The source of this explanation of the development of the Bowie knife said the significance of the blade was that it was shaped similar to a butcher knife but had a hilt to keep the hand from sliding over the blade and a clip point with a sharpened back side to the knife that could cut in a back slash. So many knives were made given the name of Bowie knife that the original style and dimensions are uncertain but two things I’m certain of . One is that the blade was made of carbon steel and not stainless like the mass-produced knives of today, and secondly the original blade wasn’t made from a meteorite. James Bowie’s brother Rezin had the original Bowie Knife made by a smith in Washington, Arkansas (Now Old Washington State Park north of Hope) named James Black. Rezin described the knife as 9 1⁄2 inches long, 1⁄4-inch-thick and 1 1⁄2 inches wide and straight backed like a large butcher. While the mass-produced Bowies today are stainless, the old time Arkansas knife makers will tell you that if a knife doesn’t rust it won’t sharpen properly,

The Natchez explanation or possibly legend of the development of the knife and its significance is a little different. According to Historians in Natchez Bowie came into Alexandria and was told that a Judge Wright had been slandering him while he was away. Bowie went to Wright’s office to confront him and give him a good thrashing. While the men brawled Wright drew a pistol and Bowie pulled a folded pocket knife. It isn’t certain who drew their weapon first. Bowie struggled to get his folded blade open with his teeth but with only one hand Bowie could not keep Wright from firing his weapon shooting Bowie for the first time. While Bowie recovered two political factions in central Louisiana began a violent feud with Bowie belonging to one side and Wright to the other. While James was recovering from his gun shot, he asked Rezin to have a sheath knife made for him that he could wear on the back of his hip and not have to open his blade in a fight. From the time Bowie received the knife it never left his hip and Bowie became noted for starting a fashion trend with the gentlemen of the region wearing their knives in stylish sheaths even when wearing their finest clothes. Bowie would encounter Wright one more time when a member of one of the political factions challenged a member from the other to a duel. The location for the duel was a sandbar in the Mississippi River somewhere near Vidalia, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. Neither state claimed jurisdiction over the temporary land mass that had popped up from the river. Each of the participants had an entourage of men from their faction. When Wright saw that Bowie was there, he stayed back away from where the duel was being faught, frightened that Bowie would seek revenge for the first shooting. After both duelists missed on a second shot the two men decided to settle their differences peacefully. Deciding that they all needed to go to Natchez Under the Hill and have a drink, the group decided to walk to where their boats were landed. Judge Wright became more fearful as Bowie approached and his fear caused him to lapse into bad judgement. He pulled his gun and shot Bowie. Wright’s mistake was not killing Bowie. Bowie pulled his blade from his sheath and drove it through Judge Wright. The incident turned into a melee that became famous as the Sandbar fight.

After recovering from Wright’s second shooting of Bowie, Bowie was to eventually make his way to Texas and get shot a third time. That shooting occurred during an expedition in search of the San Saba mines when Bowie’s party was attacked by Tawakoni, Waco, and Caddo Indians. Bowie recovered from that incident in time for the Texas War for independence. Having married into a Spanish family Bowie developed bonds with the Tejanos and convinced them to side with the Americans in their war for independence from Mexico. Bowie engaged in a series of conflicts leading up to his death at the Alamo. That conflict will be discussed in another posting.

First picture is James Bowie, 2nd Rezin, two styles of Bowies made in the 19th century, and the old Hickory butchers from which they were patterned. I think the first style is closest to original.