Okla-homey
9/19/2007, 07:07 AM
September 19, 1827: Jim Bowie slaughters a Louisiana banker with his famous knife
180 years ago today in 1827, a duel on a sandbar just outside Natchez, MS turns into an all-out brawl and 31 year-old Jim Bowie disembowels a banker from Alexandria, LA near Natchez, Mississippi with an early version of his famous Bowie knife.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/27193/2002349990058608684_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002349990058608684)
Memorialized by a State of Mississippi Historical marker near the site of the fandango
Bowie was born in Logan County, Kentucky (now Simpson County) on April 10, 1796 but spent most of his childhood in Louisiana. He was the son of Rezin (or Reason) Bowie and Elve Ap-Catesby Jones (or Johns). The family moved to New Madrid in what is now Missouri in 1800, before settling in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in 1801 when Jim was only 5.
Bowie spent his youth on and around the river encountering, and probably participating, in all manner of thuggery. Big knives were a necessity for those who lived fast and loose. In the era before reliable revolvers when you only got one shot before your pistol became a club, you better have had a dependable pig-sticker on your person if you decided to attend a knock-down, drag-out throw-down.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1617/bowie7js.jpg
Jim Bowie, painted during his lifetime
This fight, called the "Sandbar Fight," fought on the Vidalia sandbar, a spit of dry sand on the Mississippi River, snowballed from a duel between Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Maddox. Bowie and several others were there mostly just to gawk.
The two men shot at each other with no ill effect. An onlooker, named Alexander Crain, fired at another bystander, Samuel Cuny, who was hit.
Bowie then shot at Crain, but missed hitting him. A local banker named Norris Wright fired and hit Bowie in the lower chest. Bowie, ignoring the injury, chased banker Wright brandishing his Bowie Knife. The whole affair then rapidly degraded into a gang fight.
During the skirmish, several people maimed Bowie with their knives or sword canes, but Bowie, bleeding profusely from several wounds, stabbed them back with his own blade.
The banker managed to skewer Bowie's thigh with a sword cane (two foot blade, concealed within a straight walking cane) but that just made Jim madder. Before Jim was done, the banker lay dead on the riverbottom's sandy bank, his guts spilled out beside him in a steaming pile as Bowie had opened him up from breastbone to crotch and from side to side.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7551/dddddddddddddddddchev010zdqo4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bowie's knife probably looked a lot like this. No one knows for sure, since it was not recovered at the Alamo where Bowie died.
Bowie promptly passed out from his wounds, but lived. He decided it would be best to light out for Mexican texass when word got around the duel hadn't been conducted exactly "according to Hoyle."
The actual inventor of the Bowie knife, however, was probably not Jim Bowie, but rather his equally belligerent brother, Rezin Bowie, who reportedly came up with the design after nearly being killed in a vicious knife fight. He commissioned his design with a local blacksmith who fashioned it from a steel file.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5630/k2gx1rgs1wk.jpg
Actors portraying Travis, Crockett and Bowie in the box office flop "The Alamo."
The Bowie brothers engaged in more fights than the typical frontiersman of the day, but such violent duels were not uncommon events on the untamed margins of American civilization. In the early nineteenth century, most frontiersmen preferred knives to guns for fighting, and the Bowie knife quickly became one of the favorites.
Rezin Bowie had invented such a nasty looking weapon that the mere sight of it probably discouraged many would-be robbers and attackers. Designs varied somewhat, but the typical Bowie knife sported a 9- to 15- inch blade sharpened only on one side for much of its length, though the curved tip was sharpened to a point on both sides.
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2439/1519265qk.jpg
You can buy modern Bowie knife "reproductions."
The double-edged tip made the knife an effective stabbing weapon, while the dull-edge combined with a brass hand guard allowed the user to slide a hand down over the blade as needed. The perfect knife for close-quarter fighting, the Bowie knife became the weapon of choice for many westerners before the reliable multi-shot Colt's revolver took its place in the mid to late 19th century.
Fast forward to the Civil Woah...
25 years after Bowie's death at the Alamo, many western Conferederates went to war bearing what where referred to as "side knives." The heavy knives were often equipped with hand guards which were presumably added to serve as a rudimentary "brass knuckles" to faciltate their use to punch the crap out of an enemy soldier before slicing his gizzard.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1440/dddddddddddddddddd1235428bjf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Cornfed side knife close-up view of its "d-guard"
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3369/dddddddddddddddddcivilwarknifeheaderil4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Fanciful period depiction of western Confederates in the Army of Mississippi in their early war camp getting in a little knife practice. This engraving appeared in Harper's Weekly.
These knives, like Bowie's original, were often fashioned from bastard files by local blacksmiths. The dang things were heavy and most were discarded by the boys who bore them before too long.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2905/dddddddddddddddddddd2defendersfu3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Jim Bowie (the tallest guy in the center) a part of the monument to the Alamo defenders in San Antone.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/515/insane7zozw3.jpg
180 years ago today in 1827, a duel on a sandbar just outside Natchez, MS turns into an all-out brawl and 31 year-old Jim Bowie disembowels a banker from Alexandria, LA near Natchez, Mississippi with an early version of his famous Bowie knife.
http://aycu34.webshots.com/image/27193/2002349990058608684_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002349990058608684)
Memorialized by a State of Mississippi Historical marker near the site of the fandango
Bowie was born in Logan County, Kentucky (now Simpson County) on April 10, 1796 but spent most of his childhood in Louisiana. He was the son of Rezin (or Reason) Bowie and Elve Ap-Catesby Jones (or Johns). The family moved to New Madrid in what is now Missouri in 1800, before settling in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in 1801 when Jim was only 5.
Bowie spent his youth on and around the river encountering, and probably participating, in all manner of thuggery. Big knives were a necessity for those who lived fast and loose. In the era before reliable revolvers when you only got one shot before your pistol became a club, you better have had a dependable pig-sticker on your person if you decided to attend a knock-down, drag-out throw-down.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1617/bowie7js.jpg
Jim Bowie, painted during his lifetime
This fight, called the "Sandbar Fight," fought on the Vidalia sandbar, a spit of dry sand on the Mississippi River, snowballed from a duel between Samuel Levi Wells III and Dr. Thomas Maddox. Bowie and several others were there mostly just to gawk.
The two men shot at each other with no ill effect. An onlooker, named Alexander Crain, fired at another bystander, Samuel Cuny, who was hit.
Bowie then shot at Crain, but missed hitting him. A local banker named Norris Wright fired and hit Bowie in the lower chest. Bowie, ignoring the injury, chased banker Wright brandishing his Bowie Knife. The whole affair then rapidly degraded into a gang fight.
During the skirmish, several people maimed Bowie with their knives or sword canes, but Bowie, bleeding profusely from several wounds, stabbed them back with his own blade.
The banker managed to skewer Bowie's thigh with a sword cane (two foot blade, concealed within a straight walking cane) but that just made Jim madder. Before Jim was done, the banker lay dead on the riverbottom's sandy bank, his guts spilled out beside him in a steaming pile as Bowie had opened him up from breastbone to crotch and from side to side.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7551/dddddddddddddddddchev010zdqo4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Bowie's knife probably looked a lot like this. No one knows for sure, since it was not recovered at the Alamo where Bowie died.
Bowie promptly passed out from his wounds, but lived. He decided it would be best to light out for Mexican texass when word got around the duel hadn't been conducted exactly "according to Hoyle."
The actual inventor of the Bowie knife, however, was probably not Jim Bowie, but rather his equally belligerent brother, Rezin Bowie, who reportedly came up with the design after nearly being killed in a vicious knife fight. He commissioned his design with a local blacksmith who fashioned it from a steel file.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5630/k2gx1rgs1wk.jpg
Actors portraying Travis, Crockett and Bowie in the box office flop "The Alamo."
The Bowie brothers engaged in more fights than the typical frontiersman of the day, but such violent duels were not uncommon events on the untamed margins of American civilization. In the early nineteenth century, most frontiersmen preferred knives to guns for fighting, and the Bowie knife quickly became one of the favorites.
Rezin Bowie had invented such a nasty looking weapon that the mere sight of it probably discouraged many would-be robbers and attackers. Designs varied somewhat, but the typical Bowie knife sported a 9- to 15- inch blade sharpened only on one side for much of its length, though the curved tip was sharpened to a point on both sides.
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/2439/1519265qk.jpg
You can buy modern Bowie knife "reproductions."
The double-edged tip made the knife an effective stabbing weapon, while the dull-edge combined with a brass hand guard allowed the user to slide a hand down over the blade as needed. The perfect knife for close-quarter fighting, the Bowie knife became the weapon of choice for many westerners before the reliable multi-shot Colt's revolver took its place in the mid to late 19th century.
Fast forward to the Civil Woah...
25 years after Bowie's death at the Alamo, many western Conferederates went to war bearing what where referred to as "side knives." The heavy knives were often equipped with hand guards which were presumably added to serve as a rudimentary "brass knuckles" to faciltate their use to punch the crap out of an enemy soldier before slicing his gizzard.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1440/dddddddddddddddddd1235428bjf6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Cornfed side knife close-up view of its "d-guard"
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/3369/dddddddddddddddddcivilwarknifeheaderil4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Fanciful period depiction of western Confederates in the Army of Mississippi in their early war camp getting in a little knife practice. This engraving appeared in Harper's Weekly.
These knives, like Bowie's original, were often fashioned from bastard files by local blacksmiths. The dang things were heavy and most were discarded by the boys who bore them before too long.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/2905/dddddddddddddddddddd2defendersfu3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Jim Bowie (the tallest guy in the center) a part of the monument to the Alamo defenders in San Antone.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/515/insane7zozw3.jpg