Battle of the Neches The Battle of the Neches , the main engagement of the Cherokee War of 1838 – 1839 ( part of the Texas - Indian Wars ) , took place on the 15th and 16 July in 1839 in what is now the Redland community ( between Tyler and Ben Wheeler , Texas ) . It came about as a result of the Cordova Rebellion , and Texas President Lamar ' s determination to remove the Cherokee from Texas . Background . During Sam Houston ' s first term as President of Texas , while maintaining the Rangers to police rogue Indians , Houston used diplomacy and presents to keep the peace on the frontier with the Comanche and Kiow a , and treated with his allies , the Cherokee . Houston had lived with the Cherokee , and had earned his reputation among Native Americans for fairness and decency due to his relations with the Cherokee . The Cherokee were unhappy that the promises to give them title to their lands , which he had made them to secure their neutrality during the Texas Revolution , had not been fulfilled . Houston negotiated a settlement with them in February 1836 , though he was unable to get the Legislature to ratify the portion of the treaty confirming the Cherokee ' s land titles . This was neither the first nor last time the legislature refused to ratify agreements Houston made with the Indians . In 1838 , word arrived from several sources that Mexico was seeking an arrangement with the Cherokee which would give them title to their land in exchange for assistance in joining a war of extermination against the Texian s . Nacogdochians looking for a stolen horse found a camp of around one hundred armed Tejano s . Rather than allow the local militia to act , Houston ( who was in Nacogdoches at the time ) prohibited both sides from assembly or carrying of weapons . Local alcalde Vicente Córdova and eighteen other leaders of the revolt issued a proclamation with a number of demands to be met before their surrender . After being joined by around three hundred Indian warriors , they moved towards the Cherokee settlements . Despite Houston ' s orders he should not cross the Angelina to interfere , General Rusk sent on a party of 150 men under Major Henry Augustine , who defeated the rebels near Seguin , Texas . Despite the involvement of the Cherokee and the discovery of documents directly implicating The Bowl on two separate Mexican agents over the next six months , Houston professed to believe the chief ' s denials and refused to order them arrested . In his several letters of reassurance to The Bowl during the unrest , Houston again promised them title to their land on the Neches . Warriors believing their lands to be violated by the legal settlers then perpetrated the Killough Massacre , killing eighteen . In the wake of this and the publication of Rachel Plummer ' s narrative of her captivity among the Comanche , Texas ' s second president , Mirabeau B . Lamar , was less sympathetic toward the tribe and convinced that the Cherokees could not be allowed to stay in Texas . Stating that " the white man and the red man cannot dwell in harmony together , " as " Nature forbids it , " Lamar ' s answer , should the Cherokee refuse compensation for their removal and resist , was : The removal of the Cherokee was one of the first acts of his presidency . The Battle of the Neches . Lamar demanded that the Cherokee , who had never possessed legal title to their lands , accept a payment in cash and goods for it and their improvements and move beyond the Red River into the United States Indian Territory . Houston protested , but in vain . Gen . Kelsey Douglass was charged with ensuring the removal and camped with about 500 Texan soldiers six miles south of the principal Cherokee settlement . On July 12 , 1839 , he sent a peace commission to negotiate for the Indians ' removal . The Cherokee initially agreed to sign a treaty of removal guaranteeing them the profit from their crops and the cost of the removal , but delayed for two days over a clause requiring them to be escorted from Texas under armed guard . On the third day , the commissioners told the Indians the Texians were marching on their village immediately and those willing to leave peacefully should fly a white flag . On 15 July 1839 , the Texan army advanced up Battle Creek , with Capt . Willis Landrum crossing the Neches to cut off possible reinforcement and intercept any Indians fleeing northward from the battle . The Cherokees were waiting on high ground and attacked The Indians were driven back and retreated into a nearby ravine . Landrum failed to block them , having been misled by his guide . The battle then continued sporadically through the day , at the end of which three Texans had been killed and five wounded against eighteen Cherokee . The Cherokee retreated several miles overnight before Col . James Carter ' s spy company discovered them near the Neches headwaters in modern Van Zandt County . The Cherokee attacked after the company had been joined by Col . Edward Burleson ' s company and Gen . Rusk ' s soon joined them on the left . The Texians charged the Indian position across open terrain , then pursued their retreat into the Neches bottom . The Texian losses were two killed and 27 wounded ( 3 fatally ) to an estimated hundred dead Cherokee and Delaware . Among the Texian injured were serving Vice President David G . Burnet and Secretary of War Albert Sidney Johnston , both cited in the commander ' s report " for active exertions on the field " and " having behaved in such a manner as reflects great credit upon themselves . " Gen . Hugh McLeod and Maj . David Kaufman were also wounded , and John Reagan was also a participant . The Bowl was shot from his horse still carrying a sword given to him by Sam Houston . McLeod later presented his hat as a gift to Houston . After the battle , the Cherokee made one last attempt to reach Mexico by skirting the north of the Texian settlements , before being removed to Arkansaw Territory , modern Oklahoma .