Biography of Jim Bowie in the Battle of Alamo By Christopher Minster Biography of Jim Bowie: James Bowie (1776-1836) was an American frontiersman, slave trader, smuggler, Indian fighter and soldier in the Texas Revolution . He was among the defenders at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, where he perished along with all of his comrades. Despite his somewhat checkered personal history, Bowie is considered one of Texas' greatest heroes. Early Life, Slave Trading and Land Speculation: James Bowie was born in Kentucky on April 10, 1796: as a child he lived in present-day Missouri and Louisiana. He enlisted to fight in the War of 1812 , but joined too late to see any action. He was soon back in Louisiana, selling timber. With the proceeds, he bought some slaves and expanded his operation. He became acquainted with Jean Lafitte, the legendary Gulf Coast pirate, who was involved in illegal slave smuggling. Bowie and his brothers bought smuggled slaves, declared that they had "found" them, and kept the money when they were sold at auction.

continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Later, he came up with a scheme for getting land for free: he made up some French and Spanish documents claiming that he had purchased land in Louisiana. The Sandbar Fight: On September 19, 1827, Bowie was involved in the legendary “Sandbar Fight” in Louisiana. Two men, Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Harris Maddox, had agreed to fight a duel, and each man had brought several seconds along. Bowie was there on behalf of Wells. The duel ended after both men shot and missed twice, and they had decided to let the matter drop, but a brawl soon broke out among the seconds. Bowie fought like a demon in spite of being shot at least three times and stabbed with a sword-cane. The wounded Bowie killed one of his opponents with a massive knife: this later became famous as the “Bowie Knife.” Move to Texas: Like many frontiersmen at the time, Bowie became intrigued by the idea of Texas. He went there and found plenty to keep him busy, including another land speculation scheme and the charms of Ursula Veramendi, the well-connected daughter of the mayor of San Antonio.

By 1830 Bowie made the move to Texas, staying one step ahead of his creditors back in Louisiana. When he fought off a vicious Tawakoni Indian attack while searching for a silver mine, his fame and reputation as a tough frontiersman grew. In 1831 he married Ursula and took up residence in San Antonio: she would soon die tragically of cholera along with her parents. Action in Nacogdoches: When disgruntled Texans attacked Nacogdoches in August of 1832 (they were protesting a Mexican order to give up their arms), Stephen F. Austin asked Bowie to intervene. Bowie arrived in time to capture some fleeing Mexican soldiers. This made Bowie a hero of those Texans who favored independence, although it is not necessarily what Bowie intended, as he had a Mexican wife and a lot of money in land in Mexican Texas. In 1835 open war broke out between rebellious Texans and the Mexican army. Bowie went to Nacogdoches, where he and Sam Houston were elected leaders of the local militia. He acted quickly, arming the men with weapons seized from the local Mexican armory.

Assault on San Antonio: Bowie and other volunteers from Nacogdoches caught up with a rag-tag army led by Stephen F. Austin and James Fannin: they were marching on San Antonio, hoping to defeat Mexican General Cos and end the conflict quickly. In late October 1835 they laid siege to San Antonio , where Bowie's contacts among the population proved extremely beneficial: many residents of San Antonio joined the rebels, bringing valuable intelligence with them. Bowie and Fannin and some 90 men dug in on the grounds of Concepción Mission just outside the city: General Cos, spotting them there, attacked . The Battle of Concepción and capture of San Antonio: Bowie told his men to keep their heads and stay low. When the Mexican infantry advanced, the Texans devastated their ranks with accurate fire from their long rifles. The Texan sharpshooters also picked off artillerymen who were shooting the Mexican cannons. Disheartened, the Mexicans fled back to San Antonio: Bowie was once again hailed a hero. He was not there when Texan rebels stormed the city in the early days of December 1835, but he returned shortly after.

General Sam Houston ordered him to demolish the Alamo, a fortress-like old mission in San Antonio, and retreat from the city. Bowie, once again, disobeyed orders, instead mounting a defense and fortifying the Alamo. Bowie, Travis and Crockett: In early February, William Travis arrived to San Antonio: he would take over nominal command of the forces there when the ranking officer left. Many of the men there were not enlisted: they were volunteers, which meant that they answered to no one. Bowie was the unofficial leader of these volunteers and he did not care for Travis: this made things tense at the fort. Soon, however, famous frontiersman Davy Crockett arrived. A skilled politician, Crockett was able to defuse the tension between Travis and Bowie. The Mexican Army, commanded by Mexican President/General Santa Anna , showed up in late February: this common enemy also united the defenders. The Battle of the Alamo and Death of Jim Bowie: Bowie became very ill sometime in late February. Historians disagree what illness he suffered from: it may have been pneumonia or tuberculosis. It was a debilitating illness, and Bowie was confined, delirious, to his bed.

According to legend, Travis drew a line in the sand and told the men to cross it if they would stay and fight; Bowie, too weak to walk, asked to be carried over the line. After two weeks of siege, the Mexicans attacked on the morning of March 6. The Alamo was overrun in less than two hours and all of the defenders were captured or killed, including Bowie, who reportedly died in his bed, still feverish. Legacy of Jim Bowie: Bowie was an interesting man in his time, a renowned hothead, brawler and troublemaker who went to Texas to escape his creditors in the USA. He had become famous due to his fights and his legendary knife, and once fighting broke out in Texas, he soon became known as a solid leader of men with a cool head under fire. His lasting fame, however, came about as a result of his presence at the fateful Battle of the Alamo. In life he was a con man and slave trader: in death he became a great hero, and today he is revered in Texas. Much more so than his brothers-in-arms Travis and Crockett, Bowie was redeemed in death.

The city of Bowie and Bowie County, both in Texas, are named for him, as are countless schools, businesses, parks, etc. Bowie is still well-known in popular culture. His knife is still popular and he appears in every movie or book about the Battle of the Alamo. He was portrayed by Richard Widmark in the 1960 movie The Alamo (which starred John Wayne as Davy Crockett ) and by Jason Patric in the 2004 movie of the same name. Sources: Brands, H.W. Lone Star Nation: the Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United States.New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.

The Defenders The Defenders 300 Alamo Plaza • San Antonio, Texas • 78205 Regular Hours: 9:00am - 5:30pm Summer Hours: 9:00am - 7:00pm from Memorial Day through Labor Day Closed Christmas Eve & Christmas Day CONTACTS Rank: Colonel Birthplace: Kentucky James Bowie was born near Terrapin Creek (now Spring Creek) where it crosses Bowie's Mill Road (Turnertown Road), nine miles northwest of Franklin, Logan County (now Simpson County), Kentucky, probably on April 10, 1796. He was the son of Reason (or Rezin) and Elve Ap-Catesby Jones (or Johns) Bowie. In 1794 Reason Bowie had moved his family from Tennessee to Logan County, where he farmed and operated a gristmill with the help of eight slaves. In February 1800 he moved to Madrid, in what is now Missouri. On May 2, 1801, at Rapides, Louisiana, Reason Bowie and his brothers David, Rhesa, and John swore allegiance to the Spanish government.

In October the families settled on farms in what is now Catahoula Parish. There Reason's sons, James, John J., Stephen, and Rezin P. Bowie, grew to manhood. The family took an active part in community affairs and the elder Bowie reportedly became the largest slaveowner in his locale, with twenty slaves. About 1809 the Bowie clan moved to the Atakapa country in southeastern Louisiana; there Reason purchased 640 acres on the Vermilion River near the mouth of Little Bayou. He then developed a plantation near Opelousas, where he grew cotton and sugarcane, raised livestock, and bought and sold slaves. Reason Bowie died there around 1821. In his teens James Bowie worked in Avoyelles and Rapides parishes, where he floated lumber to market. He invested in property on the Bayou Boeuf and traded in 1817–18 at what is now Bennett's Store, south of Cheneyville. He was fond of hunting and fishing, and family tradition says that he caught and rode wild horses, rode alligators, and trapped bears.

When grown, Bowie was described by his brother John as "a stout, rather raw-boned man, of six feet height, weighed 180 pounds." He had light-colored hair, keen grey eyes "rather deep set in his head," a fair complexion, and high cheek-bones. Bowie had an "open, frank disposition," but when aroused by an insult, his anger was terrible. During the War of 1812, James and Rezin joined the Second Division, Consolidated, a unit that contained the Seventeenth through Nineteenth regiments, drawn from Avoyelles, Rapides, Natchitoches, Catahoula, and Ouachita parishes. In January 1815, according to family records, the brothers were on their way to join Andrew Jackson's forces at New Orleans when the war ended. After the war they traded in slaves. They bought them from the pirate Jean Laffite, who captured slave shipments in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and ran a slave market on Galveston Island. Laffite landed slaves at Bowie's Island in Vermilion Bay, and the Bowies took the slaves up the Vermilion and sold them in St. Landry Parish.

When they had $65,000 they quit the business. James and Rezin also dabbled in land speculation and developed friendships with local wealthy planters. James became engaged to Cecelia Wells (b. 1805), who died on September 7, 1829, in Alexandria, two weeks before their wedding was to take place. He also made enemies. Norris Wright, Rapides parish sheriff and local banker, refused to make a loan that Bowie sorely needed. In 1826 Bowie met Wright in Alexandria, where tempers flared and Wright fired point-blank at Bowie; but the bullet was deflected. After this encounter, Rezin gave his brother a large butcher-like hunting knife to carry. On September 19, 1827, near Natchez, Jim Bowie participated in the Sandbar Fight, which developed at a duel between Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Maddox. After the principals had exchanged shots without effect, two observers continued the affair. Alexander Crain fired at Samuel Cuny, and when Cuny fell, Bowie fired at Crain but missed.

Wright shot Bowie through the lower chest, and Bowie, said an eyewitness, "drew his butcher knife which he usually wears" and chased Wright. The Blanchard brothers shot Bowie in the thigh, and Wright and Alfred Blanchard stabbed him in several places. As Wright bent over him, Bowie plunged the knife into his assailant's breast, then raised himself and slashed Blanchard severely. All the witnesses remembered Bowie's "big butcher knife," the first Bowie knife. Reports of Bowie's prowess and his lethal blade captured public attention, and he was proclaimed the South's most formidable knife fighter. Men asked blacksmiths and cutlers to make a knife like Jim Bowie's. During the late 1820s Bowie's land speculations centered on the southern Louisiana parishes; he lived in New Orleans, enjoying its excitement and pleasures. James and his brothers Rezin and Stephen established the Arcadia sugar plantation of some 1,800 acres near the town of Thibodaux, where they set up the first steam-powered sugar mill in Louisiana. Rezin was elected to the Louisiana state legislature.

James spent little time at Arcadia, however; in the late 1820s he traveled to the eastern cities, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi. On February 12, 1831, the brothers sold Arcadia and other landholdings and eighty-two slaves to Natchez investors for $90,000. When Bowie first entered Mexican Texas is unknown. He possibly was recruited in 1819 in New Orleans with Benjamin R. Milam and others for the Long expedition. If he did, he was not among those captured. On January 1, 1830, Bowie and a friend left Thibodaux for Texas. They stopped at Nacogdoches, at Jared E. Groce's farm on the Brazos River, and in San Felipe, where Bowie presented a letter of introduction to empresario Stephen F. Austin from Thomas F. McKinney, one of the Old Three Hundred colonists. On February 20 Bowie and his friend Isaac Donoho took the oath of allegiance to Mexico. Bowie, age thirty-four, was at his prime. He was well traveled, convivial, loved music, and was generous.

He also was ambitious and scheming; he played cards for money, and lived in a world of debt. He reached San Antonio with William H. Wharton and Mrs. Wharton, Isaac Donoho, Caiaphas K. Ham, and several slaves. They carried letters of introduction to two wealthy and influential Mexicans, Juan Martín de Veramendi and Juan N. Seguín.qqv Bowie's party continued on to Saltillo, the state capital of Coahuila and Texas. There Bowie learned that a Mexican law of 1828 offered its citizens eleven-league grants in Texas for $100 to $250 each. (A league was 4,428.4 acres.) Bowie urged Mexicans to apply for the eleven-league grants, which he purchased from them. He left Saltillo with fifteen or sixteen of these grants, and continued to encourage speculation in Texas lands. His activities irritated Stephen F. Austin, who hesitated to approve lands Bowie wanted to locate in the Austin colony but eventually allowed the tracts there. In San Antonio Bowie posed as a man of wealth, attached himself to the wealthy Veramendi family, and was baptized into the Catholic Church, sponsored by the Veramendis.

In the autumn of 1830 he accompanied the family to Saltillo, and on October 5 officially became a Mexican citizen. The citizenship was contingent on his establishing wool and cotton mills in Coahuila. Through his friend Angus McNeill of Natchez, he purchased a textile mill for $20,000. On April 25, 1831, in San Antonio, Bowie married Ursula de Veramendi. He had appeared before the mayor, declared his age as thirty-two (he was actually thirty-five), and pledged to pay Ursula a dowry of $15,000. He valued his properties at $222,800. But the titles to his 60,000 arpents of Arkansas land, valued at $30,000, were fraudulent. Walker and Wilkins of Natchez owed Bowie $45,000 for his interest in Arcadia Plantation, and had given McNeil $20,000 for the Saltillo mill.

Bowie borrowed $1,879 from his father-in-law and $750 from Ursula's grandmother for a honeymoon trip to New Orleans and Natchez. The Bowies settled in San Antonio. Veramendi family tradition says Bowie spent little time at home. He apparently became fascinated by tales of the "lost" Los Almagres Mine, said to be west of San Antonio near the ruin of Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission. Bowie obtained permission from Mexican authorities for an expedition into Indian country financed by the Veramendis, and on November 2, 1831, he left San Antonio with his brother Rezin and nine others. On the nineteenth they learned that a large Indian war party was following them, and six miles from San Saba, Bowie camped in an oak grove. An attempt to parley failed. Bowie's men fought for their lives for thirteen hours. The Indians finally drew off, reportedly leaving forty dead and thirty wounded. Bowie lost one man killed and several wounded. The party returned to San Antonio. On January 23, 1832, Bowie made another foray to the west.

He now carried the title of "colonel" of citizen rangers. He left Gonzales with twenty-six men to scout the headwaters of the Colorado for Tawakonis and other hostile Indians. After a fruitless search of 2½ months, he returned home. In July, in Natchez, he learned that José de las Piedras, Mexican commander at Nacogdoches, had visited the towns of Anahuac and Velasco to quiet the antagonisms between the government and the mainly Anglo citizens. Upon his return, Piedras demanded that all citizens in his jurisdiction surrender their arms. The colonists rejected the demand. Bowie hurried to Nacogdoches, and on August 1 accompanied James W. Bullock and 300 armed men in their siege of the garrison there. Piedras chose to fight. During the night he evacuated his men and marched south, having lost thirty-three killed. Bowie and eighteen men ambushed the Mexican column, and Piedras fled. Bowie marched the soldiers back to Nacogdoches (see NACOGDOCHES, BATTLE OF).

On March 9, 1833, Monclova replaced Saltillo as the state capital. When the two towns raised small armies to contest the change, Bowie favored Monclova. On one occasion when the forces confronted each other, he rode out and tried to precipitate a battle. He believed that the fortunes of Texas land speculators lay with Monclova. In September, Veramendi, his wife Josefa, and Ursula Bowie died of cholera at Monclova. Ursula died on the tenth. A Bowie relative and Veramendi family tradition say Ursula and one child died in the epidemic. A Bowie family friend reported that Ursula had two children, but both died young. Bowie was ill with yellow fever in Natchez and unaware of the deaths. On October 31 he dictated his last will, in which he bequeathed half of his estate to his brother Rezin and half to his sister Martha Sterrett and her husband. Mexican laws passed in 1834 and 1835 opened the floodgates to wholesale speculation in Texas lands, and Texas-Coahuila established land commissions to speed sales, since the state treasury was empty.

Bowie was appointed a commissioner to promote settlement in John T. Mason's purchase. The governor also was empowered to hand out 400-league parcels for frontier defense. The sale of these large tracts angered some colonists, who also resented a rumored plan by speculators to make San Antonio the capital. They questioned Bowie's handling of Mason's 400-league purchase. One traveler met Bowie and Mason en route from Matamoros to Monclova with $40,000 in specie to pay the last installment on Mason's land. Bowie also sold Mason land certificates to his friends in Natchez. In May 1835, however, Santa Anna abolished the Coahuila-Texas government and ordered the arrest of all Texans doing business in Monclova. Bowie fled the capital for Texas. On June 22 he wrote a friend in Nacogdoches that all communication between Mexico and Texas had been cut, that troops were boarding ships at Matamoros for the Texas coast, and that Mexican forces were en route from Saltillo toward the Rio Grande. In July, Bowie and others in San Felipe and Nacogdoches were beating the drum for war.

Bowie led a small group of Texas "militia" to San Antonio and seized a stack of muskets in the Mexican armory there. On July 31, 1835, William B. Travis wrote Bowie that Texans were divided and that the Peace Party appeared the stronger. Travis was a leader of the War Party. Bowie had hired Travis as early as 1833 in San Felipe to prepare land papers, and in June 1834 Travis represented Bowie and Isaac Donoho in a case filed by Francis W. Johnson. Travis also did legal work for Bowie's friend Jesse Clifft, a blacksmith who is often credited with making the first Bowie knife. The War Party sought military support among the Indian tribes in East Texas. On August 3, Bowie reported on a recent tour of several villages where he found many of the Indians on drunken sprees and all reluctant to cooperate. On September 1, Austin arrived home from a long imprisonment in Mexico City. On October 3, Santa Anna abolished all state legislatures in Mexico. After being elected to command the volunteer army, Austin issued a call to arms.

On October 16 his forces camped on Cibolo Creek twenty miles from San Antonio. Bowie arrived with a small party of friends, principally from Louisiana, and Austin placed him on his staff as a colonel. Travis and others joined the army. Gen. Sam Houston, in command of the Texas regular army, arrived and condemned the idea of attacking Bexar. He maintained that Austin's army, weak and ill-trained, should fall back to the Guadalupe or Colorado river. Bowie and Capt. James W. Fannin, at Austin's orders, scouted south of Bexar for a new campsite. On their way, Bowie drove off a Mexican patrol. On October 26, Austin moved 400 men to San Francisco de la Espada Mission. Bowie took ninety-two horsemen and inspected area of Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña Mission, near Bexar. At dawn on the twenty-eighth, in a heavy fog, the Mexicans attacked Bowie with 300 cavalry and 100 infantry. Bowie fought for three hours.

"Bowie was a born leader," Noah Smithwick wrote years later of the battle of Concepción, "never needlessly spending a bullet or imperiling a life. His voice is still ringing in my old deaf ears as he repeatedly admonished us. Keep under cover boys and reserve your fire; we haven't a man to spare." Bowie captured a six-pounder cannon and thirty muskets. He lost one man, while the Mexicans left sixteen on the field and carried off as many. Bowie, Fannin, and the detachment remained in the immediate area south of Bexar while Austin moved his army and established headquarters on the Alamo Canal. Three days after the battle Austin sent Travis and fifty men to capture some 900 horses being driven south to Laredo, and asked Bowie to create a diversion to cover the escape of Mexican soldiers who wanted to desert. Bowie made a display of force, yet the soldiers failed to come out. On October 31 Bowie notified Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos that he would join Austin in an attack on Bexar. On November 1 Austin demanded that Cos surrender; he refused. Austin hesitated.

On November 2, Austin's officers voted 44 to 3 against storming Bexar. Bowie did not vote. He asked the same day to be relieved of command and again tried to resign on November 6. He had earlier served in a volunteer ranger group, fought Indians, and was the type of officer who served the community in time of need. He apparently had little interest in a formal command. Provisional governor Henry Smithqv and Houston wanted him to raise a volunteer group and attack Matamoros, but the General Council declared that Bowie was not "an officer of the government nor army." Bowie left the army for a brief trip to San Felipe in mid-November. He was back in San Antonio on November 18, and on the twenty-sixth he and thirty horsemen rode out to check on a Mexican packtrain near town, while Burleson followed with 100 infantry. Bowie met the train and charged its cavalry escort. He fought off several assaults by Mexican infantry, and the Mexicans retired with the loss of sixty men. As the train was loaded with bales of grass for the garrison livestock, the clash was called the Grass Fight.

Bowie subsequently proceeded to Goliad to determine conditions there. During his absence, Burleson attacked Bexar on December 5 and forced the Mexican garrison to surrender and retire to the Rio Grande. The volunteers left for home. Bowie received a letter from Houston dated December 17, suggesting a campaign against Matamoros. If that was impossible, Houston suggested, Bowie could perhaps organize a guerilla force to harass the Mexican army. The Matamoros expeditionqv was approved, but the issue of command was muddied by the political rivalry between Governor Smith and the council, and Houston soon found another assignment for Bowie. On January 19, 1836, Bowie arrived in Bexar from Goliad with a detachment of thirty men. He carried orders from Houston to demolish the fortifications there, though some historians believe these orders were discretionary. The situation was grim. Col. James C. Neill, commander of a contingent of seventy-eight men at the Alamo, stated that his men lacked clothing and pay and talked of leaving. Mexican families were leaving Bexar. Texas volunteers had carried off most of the munitions and supplies for the Matamoros expedition.

On February 2 Bowie wrote Governor Smith, urging that Bexar be held because it was a strategic "frontier picqet guard." Travis, promoted to lieutenant colonel, arrived with thirty men on February 3; David Crockett rode in with twelve men on the eighth. The garrison had some 150 men. On February 11, Neill gave his command to Travis and left. The volunteers preferred Bowie as commander and insisted on holding an election on February 12. The volunteer vote placed Bowie in command, and he celebrated by getting drunk. While under the influence Bowie ordered certain prisoners set free and paraded the volunteers under arms in Bexar. Travis took his regulars from the Alamo to the Medina River to escape implication in the disgraceful affair. On February 13 Bowie and Travis worked out a compromise giving Travis command of the regulars, Bowie command of the volunteers, and both men joint authority over garrison orders and correspondence. On February 23 Bowie and Travis learned that some 1,500 Mexican cavalrymen were advancing on Bexar, and sent a dispatch to Goliad asking Fannin for help.

Within hours the Mexicans marched into Bexar and requested a parley. Without consulting Travis, Bowie asked for and received terms: the Texans must surrender. These terms were rejected. On February 24 Bowie, who was suffering from a disease "of a peculiar nature," which has been diagnosed as pneumonia or typhoid pneumonia but probably was advanced tuberculosis, collapsed, ending his active participation in commanding the garrison. Most historians no longer believe that he fell from a platform while attempting to position a cannon. He was confined to a cot and urged the volunteers to follow Travis. He was occasionally carried outside to visit his men. On March 6 the Mexicans attacked before dawn, and all 188 defenders of the Alamo perished. Santa Anna asked to see the corpses of Bowie, Travis, and Crockett, and Bexar mayor Francisco Ruiz identified the bodies. Bowie lay on his cot in a room on the south side. He had been shot several times in the head. During his lifetime he had been described by his old friend Caiaphas K.

Ham as "a clever, polite gentleman...attentive to the ladies on all occasions...a true, constant, and generous friend...a foe no one dared to undervalue and many feared." Slave trader, gambler, land speculator, dreamer, and hero, James Bowie in death became immortal in the annals of Texas history. See also ALAMO, BATTLE OF THE. BIBLIOGRAPHY: James L. Batson, James Bowie and the Sandbar Fight (Madison, Alabama: Batson Engineering and Metalworks, 1992). William Campbell Binkley, ed., Official Correspondence of the Texan Revolution, 1835–1836 (2 vols., New York: Appleton-Century, 1936). Walter W. Bowie, The Bowies and Their Kindred: A Genealogical and Biographical History (Washington: Cromwell Brothers, 1899). J. Frank Dobie, "James Bowie," American West, Spring 1965. John S. Ford, Memoirs (MS, John Salmon Ford Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin).

Heroes of Texas: Featuring Oil Portraits from the Summerfield G. Roberts Collection (Waco: Texian Press, 1964). John H. Jenkins, ed., The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835–1836 (10 vols., Austin: Presidial Press, 1973). A. R. Kilpatrick, "Early Life in the Southwest—The Bowies," DeBow's Southern and Western Review 1 (October 1852). Walter Lord, A Time to Stand (New York: Harper, 1961; 2d ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978). Raymond W. Thorp, Bowie Knife (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1948). 5 Notable Alamo Deaths - Listverse 5 Notable Alamo Deaths Nic Swaner February 25, 2012 Lasting from February 23 to March 6, 1836, the Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution.

Following a siege that had lasted for 13 days, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar. With a strength of 2,400 soldiers to the Alamo Mission’s approximated force of 182-260 Texian defenders, all but two Texian defenders were killed (the casualties are estimated to be around 400-600 killed and wounded for the Mexican army). The merciless defeat and the cruelty of the Mexican general inspired both Texas settlers and adventurers from the United States to join the Texian Army. The revolution ended later that year on April 21, at the Battle of San Jacinto, where the Mexican army was defeated by the Texians. During the Battle of the Alamo, the Alamo Mission and San Antonio de Béxar became the final resting place for many. The list that follows is of five notable deaths of people who died during the Battle of the Alamo. Keep in mind that accounts of their deaths are at best, purported to be, and should not be considered definitive. This list borrows text from Wikipedia.

5 Micajah Autry 1793 – March 6, 1836 Born in North Carolina, Autry was an American merchant, poet and lawyer who volunteered for military service in the War of 1812 against the British. He marched to Wilmington, North Carolina, as a member of a volunteer militia company and later joined the United States Army at Charleston, South Carolina. He remained in Charleston in the company of Captain Long until the Treaty of Ghent was signed in 1815. Bad health forced Autry to quit farming and become a teacher. He moved to Hayesboro, Tennessee, in 1823 and studied law. In 1828 Autry was admitted to the bar in Nashville, Tennessee. He practiced law in Jackson, between 1831 and 1835 in a partnership with Andrew L. Martin. Autry and Martin later started an unsuccessful mercantile business in Nashville. He soon heard of the opportunities in Texas.

From Natchitoches, Louisiana on December 13 he wrote: “About 20 men from Tennessee formed our squad… The war [in Texas] is still going on favorably to the Texians, but it is thought that Santa Anna will make a descent with his whole force in the Spring, but there will be soldiers enough of the real grit in Texas by that time to overrun all of Mexico… We have between 400 and 500 miles to foot it to the seat of government, for we cannot get horses, but we have sworn allegiance to each other and will get along somehow.” He was in Nacogdoches, Texas, on January 13, 1836, where he enlisted in the Volunteer Auxiliary Corps. His letter to his wife written on that date indicated that he had set out for Washington-on-the-Brazos with David Crockett and others under the command of Capt. William B. Harrison. He arrived in San Antonio de Béxar with this company on February 9 and joined the Alamo garrison under the command of Lt. Col. William Barrett Travis.

After the siege lasting 13 days, Autry was killed with the rest of the Alamo garrison after the Mexican army stormed it on March 6, 1836. 4 James Bonham February 20, 1807 – March 6, 1836 James Bonham was an outspoken soldier in the Texas Revolution. But even previously, his outspokenness got him into sticky situations. He was expelled from his college his senior year along with the rest of his class for leading a protest over harsh attendance regulations and the poor food served at the college boardinghouse. In 1830, Bonham practiced law in Pendleton, but was found in contempt of court after caning an attorney who had insulted one of Bonham’s clients. When ordered to apologize by the sitting judge, he refused and threatened to tweak the judge’s nose. Bonham was sentenced to ninety days for contempt of court. He also openly condemned Andrew Jackson and Washington politicians, but his bold opinions earned him the position of Lieutenant Colonel. Bonham organized a militia in Mobile, Alabama that went on to serve in the Texas Revolution in 1834.

On January 19, 1836 Bonham traveled to San Antonio de Béxar and the Alamo along with James Bowie. On January 26 he was appointed one of a committee of seven to draft a preamble and resolutions on behalf of the garrison in support of Governor Henry Smith. On February 1 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the election of delegates to represent the Béxar garrison at the Texas constitutional convention. He was sent to obtain aid for the garrison, visiting Goliad, which was unable to provide assistance. Bonham returned to the Alamo on March 3, bearing through the Mexican lines and the ongoing siege with a letter from Robert McAlpin Williamson assuring Travis that help was on its way and urging him to hold out. Bonham died three days later on March 6, 1836. He is believed to have died manning one of the cannons in the interior of the Alamo chapel. The town of Bonham, Texas, is named for him and in World War II, the United States liberty ship SS James B. Bonham was named in his honor.

3 James Bowie April 10, 1796 – March 6, 1836 James Bowie was an American pioneer, land speculator, and soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. Stories of him as a fighter and frontiersman, both real and fictitious, have made him a legendary figure in Texas history and a folk hero of American culture. Bowie was born in Kentucky, but spent most of his life in Louisiana, where he was raised and later worked as a land speculator. His rise to fame began in 1827 on reports of the Sandbar Fight. What began as a duel between two other men who agreed to a draw deteriorated into a melee in which Bowie, having been shot and stabbed, killed the sheriff of Rapides Parish with a large knife. This, and other stories of Bowie’s prowess with a knife, led to the widespread popularity of the Bowie knife. Whether or not he invented the knife, is a matter of speculation, as many experts attribute the invention of the Bowie knife to notable knife-makers of the time. Bowie’s reputation was cemented by his role in the Texas Revolution.

After moving to Texas in 1830, Bowie became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the vice governor of the province. His fame in Texas grew following his failed expedition to find the lost San Saba mine, during which his small party repelled an attack by a large Indian raiding party. At the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, Bowie joined the Texas militia, leading forces at the Battle of Concepción and the Grass Fight. In January 1836, he arrived at the Alamo, where he commanded the volunteer forces until an illness left him bedridden. Bowie died with a majority of other Alamo defenders on March 6. Despite conflicting accounts of the manner of his death, the most accurate account is considered the most reliable as it is believed that he died in his bed after emptying his pistols into several Mexican soldiers. 2 William Travis August 1, 1809 – March 6, 1836 In early 1836, Governor Henry Smith ordered William Travis to raise a company to reinforce the Texans at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio de Béxar.

Travis considered disobeying his orders, writing to Smith: “I am willing, nay anxious, to go to the defense of Béxar, but sir, I am unwilling to risk my reputation… by going off into the enemy’s country with such little means, so few men, and with them so badly equipped.” Nonetheless, Travis arrived on February 3 in San Antonio de Béxar with eighteen men as reinforcements. On February 12, as the next highest ranking officer, Travis became the official commander of the Alamo garrison. He took command of the regular soldiers from Col. James C. Neill, of the Texian army. Neill had to leave to care for his ill family, but he promised to be back in twenty days. He shared command with James Bowie, who would command the volunteers as Travis commanded the regulars. A few days before the final Mexican assault, it was reported that Travis gathered all of the Alamo’s defenders in the main plaza of the fort. Announcing that reinforcements would not be coming, Travis unsheathed his sword and drew a line in the dirt.

He then told those men who were willing to stay and die with him to cross the line; those who wanted to leave could do so without shame. All but two soldiers crossed the line, and James Bowie, who was confined to a cot with typhoid, asked to be carried across the line. One of the two soldiers was Moses Rose, a French veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. Rose later declared, “By God, I wasn’t ready to die,” scaled a wall that night and escaped, thus preserving the story of Travis’s line in the sand. On March 6, 1836, following a thirteen-day siege, Travis was killed in a predawn attack along with approximately 188-250. The Mexicans overran the fort, surrounded it, used ladders to climb over the walls and broke down the fort’s defenses. There are reports that Travis died early in the assault, of a single gunshot wound to the forehead while defending the north wall. A freed former slave of Travis, who was present during the final assault as a noncombatant, stated afterward that he saw Travis stand on the wall and fire into the attackers.

He saw Travis shoot and kill a Mexican soldier climbing over the wall from a ladder, with Travis falling immediately afterward. This is the only dependable account of Travis’ death. When Santa Anna came into the fort he asked the alcalde of San Antonio de Béxar, Francisco A. Ruiz, to identify the bodies of the rebel leaders to him. Ruiz later said that the body of Travis was found on a gun carriage on the north wall. 1 Davy Crockett August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836 Davy Crocket, an American congressman, frontiersman, soldier and folk hero, opposed many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, most notably the Indian Removal Act. Crockett’s opposition to Jackson’s policies led to his defeat in the 1834 elections, prompting his angry departure to Texas shortly thereafter. He arrived in Nacogdoches, Texas, in early January 1836.

On January 14, 1836, Crockett and 65 other men signed an oath before Judge John Forbes to the Provisional Government of Texas for six months: “I have taken the oath of government and have enrolled my name as a volunteer and will set out for the Rio Grande in a few days with the volunteers from the United States.” On February 6, Crockett and about five other men rode into San Antonio de Béxar and camped just outside the town. They were later greeted by co-commander James Bowie. On February 23, the Mexican army arrived. The Mexican soldiers immediately initiated a siege. Santa Anna ordered his artillery to keep up a near-constant bombardment. The guns were moved closer to the Alamo each day, increasing their effectiveness. On February 25, 200-300 Mexican soldiers crossed the San Antonio River and took cover in abandoned shacks approximately 90 yards (82m) to 100 yards (91m) from the Alamo walls. The soldiers intended to use the huts as cover to establish another artillery position, although many Texians assumed that they actually were launching an assault on the fort.

Several men volunteered to burn the huts. To provide cover, the Alamo cannons fired grapeshot at the Mexican soldiers, and Crockett and his men fired rifles, while other defenders reloaded extra weapons for them to use in maintaining a steady fire. Within two hours, the battle was over, and the Mexican soldiers retreated. Inside the Alamo, the stores of powder and shot were limited. On February 26, Travis ordered the artillery to stop returning fire so as to conserve precious ammunition. Crockett and his men were encouraged to keep shooting, as they were unusually effective. The siege ended on March 6, when the Mexican army attacked just before dawn while the defenders were sleeping. The daily bombardment by artillery had been suspended, perhaps a ploy to encourage the natural human reaction to a cessation of constant strain. But the garrison awakened and the final fight began. Most of the noncombatants gathered in the church sacristy for safety. According to Dickinson, before running to his post, Crockett paused briefly in the chapel to say a prayer. When the Mexican soldiers breached the north outer walls of the Alamo complex, most of the Texians fell back to the barracks and the chapel, as previously planned.

Crockett and his men were too far from the barracks to take shelter and were the last remaining group in the mission to be in the open. The men defended the low wall in front of the church, using their rifles as clubs and relying on knives, as the action was too furious to allow reloading. After a volley and a charge with bayonets, Mexican soldiers pushed the few remaining defenders back toward the church. The Battle of the Alamo lasted almost 90 minutes. Within a few hours of the final gunshots being fired, Santa Anna ordered a company of soldiers to gather wood and burn all the Texians’ bodies. The bodies were taken to a nearby stand of trees where they were stacked together and wood piled on top. By five o’clock that evening, the bodies of Travis, Crockett, Autry, Bowie and Bonham were burned along with the other defenders. More Great Lists

Question: What type of fighting knife is named after a frontiersman who died at the Battle of the Alamo?
Answer: Bowie Knife