The San Sabá fight was an armed encounter between a heavily outnumbered group of American prospectors led by James Bowie and a band of

Tawakoni The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita ...

Waco Waco ( ) is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a U.S. census estimated 2024 population of 146,608, making i ...

and

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, who ...

Indians, which took place on the

San Saba River The San Saba River is a river in Texas, United States. It is an undeveloped and scenic waterway located on the northern boundary of the Edwards Plateau. Course The river begins in two primary branches. The North Valley Prong runs east throu ...

Mexican Texas Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its Mexican War of Independence, war against Spain, whi ...

, on November 21, 1831.Brown (1893), p. 170.

Background

Shortly after settling and marrying in

with an eye to business, James "Jim" Bowie became fascinated with the local story of the long abandoned and lost silver mines of Los Almagres, said to be northwest of San Antonio, near the ruin of the Spanish Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba.Kennedy (1841), pp. 122–128. According to legend, the mine had been operated by local Indians before being seized by the Spanish. After Mexico won independence from Spain, government interest in mining waned. A number of native groups roamed the area, including

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

, and

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

. Without government troops to keep hostile natives at bay, mining and mineral exploration were impossible. Some believed that the Lipan had taken over the mine after the Mexican citizens left the area.Hopewell (1994), p. 72. The Indians apparently wished to prevent another influx of miners and adventurers into their hunting grounds — a condition that brought about the fate of the San Saba Mission, when its inmates, the miners, and people there congregated, were displaced by Indians in 1758.De Shields (1912), p. 76.

The fight

After obtaining permission from the Mexican government to mount an expedition into Indian territory to locate and re-open the silver mines, Bowie, his brother

Rezin Rezin of Aram (, ; ; *''Raḍyan''; ) was an Aramean King ruling from Damascus during the 8th century BC. During his reign, he was a tributary of King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria. Lester L. Grabbe, ''Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How ...

, and ten others set out for San Saba on November 2, 1831. Organized, equipped and led by the Bowie brothers, the exploring party consisted of Rezin P. and James Bowie, David Buchanan, Robert Armstrong, Jesse Wallace, Matthew Doyle, Thomas McCaslin, C. K. Ham, James Coryell (for whom Coryell county was named), and two servant boys, Charles, a black, and Gonzales, a Mexican. Six miles (10 km) from their goal, the group stopped to negotiate with a large raiding party—reportedly more than 120 Tawakoni and

, plus another 40

. The attempts at

parley A parley (from – "to speak") is a discussion or conference, especially one designed to end an argument or hostilities between two groups of people. As a verb, the term can be used in both past and present tense; in present tense the term ...

failed, and Bowie and his group fought for their lives for the next 13 hours. When the raiding party finally retreated, Bowie reportedly had lost only one man, while more than 40 Indians had been killed and 30 were wounded.Peatfield ''et al.'' (1889), p. 175. In the meantime, a party of friendly Comanche rode into San Antonio bringing word of the raiding party, which outnumbered the Bowie expedition by 14 to 1. The citizens of San Antonio believed the members of the Bowie expedition must have perished, and Ursula Bowie began wearing widow's weeds.Edmondson (2000), p. 116.

Aftermath

To the town's surprise, the surviving members of the group returned to San Antonio on December 6. James Bowie's report of the expedition, written in Spanish, was printed in several newspapers, further establishing his reputation.Hopewell (1994), p. 75. He set out again the following month, with a larger force, but returned home empty-handed after months of searching.Williamson (1952) In 1832 another, better known account of the encounter was published in a Philadelphia paper by Rezin Bowie.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{Cite encyclopedia , title=Bowie, James (1796–1836) , encyclopedia=Handbook of Texas , url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bowie-james , last=Williamson , first=William R. , date=March 24, 2017 , orig-date=1952 , edition=online Texas–Indian Wars 1831 in North America November 1831