Texas
historians have written volumes about Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo,
but what people remember most about him is a big hunting blade he carried--a weapon
known in history simply as the Bowie Knife.
In 1838, two years after the
Alamo’s fall, Rezin Bowie,
Jim’s brother, claimed he made the first Bowie knife while the Bowie family lived
in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. He designed it as a hunting knife and gave it
to Jim after he had been shot in a fight.
But the man who actually made
the famous knife, was Jesse Clifft, a blacksmith who was a friend and neighbor
of the Bowies.
The
Bowie knife gained widespread popularity after the celebrated sandbar fight on
September 19, 1827, near Natchez, Mississippi.
On that date Samuel Levi
Wells confronted Dr. Thomas Maddox on the sandbar. After firing pistols at each
other without effect, Wells and Maddox shook hands and started off the field.
But members of the Maddox group suddenly fired at Wells’ followers, which included
Bowie. Bowie fell, shot through a lung. An arch-enemy, Norris Wright, who along
with Alfred Blanchard, stabbed Bowie repeatedly with sword canes. Bowie raised
himself, grabbed Wright and sank his big knife into Wright’s heart, killing him
instantly.
Newspapers across the nation printed lurid and detailed stories
of the Sandbar Fight. The public reveled in the prowess of Bowie and his knife.
Later, W.W. Bowie, a kinsman, wrote that Bowie gave his Sandbar Fight knife to
the famous actor Edwin Forrest, whom Bowie had met in New Orleans in February,
1824.
In
the history of American arms, three weapons stand out above all the rest: the
Kentucky rifle, the Colt revolver, and the Bowie knife. Each became an American
legend.
What happened to the original Bowie knife after Bowie died at
the Alamo?
It’s a mystery.
One supposed original is on display at the Alamo.
Another was supposedly lost by Bowie when he left it on the ground after killing
a deer near Goliad,
returned to retrieve it, but could not find it. And a museum in Arkansas claims
it has the original in its collection of knives.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
June 26, 2011 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers |
