DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Now, the actual site is fifteen miles southeast of where you're standing — or rolling, as it were — but the story it marks is big enough to reach you right here. We're talking about the Battle of the Neches, the main engagement of the Cherokee War, fought on July 15 and 16, 1839.
Two days. Two days that shook the eastern part of Texas down to its roots. On one side, eight hundred Indians — Cherokee, yes, but also Delawares and Shawnees fighting alongside them.
On the other, five hundred troops of the Republic of Texas. Now you do the math on those numbers and you already feel the weight of what was coming. Here's where the story gets genuinely strange, and I mean strange in the way that only Texas history can manage.
Fighting in that battle, taking active parts in the fighting — not watching from a tent, not signing papers — were David G. Burnet, vice president of the Republic of Texas, Albert Sidney Johnston, secretary of war, and two other high officials of the Republic. Four men who ran the government of Texas were out there in the field.
You almost have to stop and let that settle. And then there's Chief Bowles. The aged Cherokee leader.
When he was killed in that battle, he was carrying a sword. Not just any sword — a sword that had been given to him by General Sam Houston. Whatever that sword meant, whatever weight it carried between those two men, it was on him when he fell.
After the defeat of the tribes, they scattered, and that scattering, the marker tells us, virtually ended Indian troubles in the settled eastern part of Texas. The Battle of the Neches. A sword, a vice president in the field, and two days in July of 1839 that closed a chapter on this land for good.
What the marker says
(Site 15 miles southeast) Main engagement of Cherokee War; fought July 15 and 16, 1839, between 800 Indians (Including; Delawares and Shawnees) and 500 troops of the Republic of Texas. An extraordinary fact is that David G. Burnet vice president of the Republic; Albert Sidney Johnston, secretary of war; and two other high officials took active parts in the fighting. When killed, Chief Bowles, aged Cherokee leader, carried a sword given him by Gen. Sam Houston. After the defeat of the tribes, they scattered, thus virtually ending Indian troubles in the settled eastern part of Texas. (1968)