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James Bowie
April 10, 1796(1796-04-10) – March 6, 1836 (aged 39)
Nickname	Jim Bowie
Place of birth	Logan County, Kentucky (USA)
Place of death	the Alamo, San Antonio, Republic of Texas
Allegiance	United States of America Republic of Texas
Service/branch	Texas Rangers, Republic of Texas Militia
Years of service	1835, 1836
Rank	Colonel
Unit	Texian volunteer army
Commands	the Alamo, San Antonio
Battles/wars	siege of the Alamo

James "Jim" Bowie (April 10, 1796 – March 6, 1836) was a nineteenth century American pioneer and soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution and was killed at the Battle of the Alamo. His style of knife was widely copied and became known as the Bowie knife. Stories of his frontier spirit have made him one of the most colorful folk heroes of Texas history.

Bowie was born in Kentucky and spent most of his life in Louisiana. For several years he worked as a land speculator, but many of his land deals were discovered to rely on forged titles. He gained fame in 1827 when newspapers printed details of the Sandbar Fight, in which Bowie killed the sheriff of Rapides Parish with a large knife. Within the next few years Bowie's fame, and that of his knife, spread around the world.

In 1830, Bowie moved to Texas, where he became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the then-vice governor of the province. Bowie was often away from home in the early years of his marriage, and spent several months looking for the lost San Saba Mine. With the outbreak of the Texas Revolution, Bowie joined the Texas militia, leading a force at the Battle of Concepcion and at the Grass Fight. In January 1836, he joined the Texian army at the Alamo in San Antonio. Although he was officially commander of the volunteer forces at the Alamo, an illness kept him bedridden, leaving William B. Travis to command both the regular army and the volunteer forces. He died with the other Alamo defenders on March 6. Witness reports gave conflicting accounts of his manner of death, but the "most popular, and probably the most accurate"^[1] accounts maintain that he died in his bed after emptying his pistols into several Mexican soldiers.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Land speculator 3 Bowie knife 4 Establishment in Texas 5 San Saba Mine 6 Texas Revolution 6.1 Texian rumblings 6.2 Battle of Concepcion 6.3 Grass Fight and commission difficulties 6.4 The Alamo 7 Legacy 8 Notes 9 References

James Bowie was born April 10, 1796 in Logan County, Kentucky (USA), the ninth of ten children born to Rezin Bowie and Elve Ap-Catesby Jones. His father had been injured while fighting in the American Revolution, and in 1782 married the young woman who had nursed him back to health. The Bowies moved a great deal, first settling in Georgia, where they had six children, and then moving to Kentucky. At the time of Bowie's birth, his father owned 8 slaves, 7 horses, 11 head of cattle, and 1 stud horse. The following year the family acquired 200 acres (80 ha) along the Red River. In 1800, Rezin Bowie sold his property and relocated to Missouri. They moved to Spanish Louisiana in 1802, settling on Bushley Bayou in Rapides Parish.^[2][3][4]

The Bowie family moved again in 1809, settling on Bayou Teche in Louisiana before finding a permanent home in Opelousas in 1812.^[5] Each of their homes was on the frontier, and even as a small child Bowie was expected to help clear the land and plant crops. He and his siblings were educated at home and learned to read and write in English. Bowie and his elder brother Rezin could also speak, read, and write Spanish and French fluently.^[6] The children were also taught how to survive on the frontier, as well as how to fish and run a farm and plantation. Bowie became proficient with a pistol, rifle, and knife.^[7] He had a reputation for fearlessness, and as a boy one of his Indian friends taught him how to rope alligators.^[8]

In late 1814, Bowie and his brother Rezin enlisted in the Louisiana militia in response to Andrew Jackson's plea for volunteers to fight the British. The War of 1812 ended on December 24, 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, and the Bowie brothers arrived in New Orleans too late to participate in the fighting.^[9] After mustering out of the militia, Bowie settled in Rapides Parish,^[3][10] where he supported himself by sawing planks and lumber and floating it down the bayou for sale.^[3][11] In June 1819, he joined the Long expedition in an effort to free Texas from Spanish oversight.^[12][13] The group encountered little resistance and, after capturing Nacogdoches, declared Texas an independent republic. The depth of Bowie's participation is unclear, but he returned to Louisiana before the invasion was repelled by Spanish troops.^[14][15]

Shortly before Bowie's father died in 1818 or 1819 he gifted Bowie and his brother Rezin each 10 servants, horses, and cattle. For the next seven years the brothers worked together to develop several large estates in Lafourche Parish and Opelousas.^[11] Louisiana was gaining population rapidly, and the brothers wished to take advantage of rising land prices by speculating in land but did not have the capital required to buy large tracts.^[16] To raise money they entered into partnership with pirate Jean Lafitte in 1818. The United States had previously outlawed the importation of slaves, and, to encourage citizens to report the unlawful activity, most southern states allowed anyone who informed on a slave trader to receive half of what the imported slaves would earn at auction. Bowie made three trips to Lafitte's compound on Galveston Island, where he bought smuggled slaves, then brought the slaves directly to a customhouse and informed on himself. The customs officers offered the slaves for auction, and Bowie would buy them back. Due to the state laws, he would receive half of the price he had paid. He could then legally transport the slaves and resell them in New Orleans or areas further up the Mississippi River.^[17][18] The brothers continued this scheme until they had collected $65,000, then began speculating in land.^[19][18]

In 1825, the two brothers joined with their younger brother Stephen to buy Acadia, a plantation near Alexandria. Within two years they had set up the first steam mill in Louisiana to be used for grinding sugar cane.^[3][11][20] The plantation became known as a "model estate", but on February 12, 1831 they sold it and 65 slaves for $90,000. With their profits, Bowie and Rezin bought a plantation in Arkansas.^[11]

Bowie and his brother John were involved in a large court case in the late 1820s over their land speculation. When the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the country promised to honor all former land grant claims. For the next 20 years, they tried to determine who owned what land. In May 1824, Congress authorized the superior courts of each territory to hear suits from people who claimed they had been overlooked. The Arkansas Superior Court received 126 claims in late 1827 from Arkansas residents who claimed to have purchased land in former Spanish grants from the Bowies. Although the Superior Court originally confirmed most of these claims, these decisions were reversed in February 1831 when further research showed the land had never belonged to the Bowies and that the original land grant documentation was forged. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rejection in 1833.^[21][22] When the disgruntled purchasers considered suing the Bowies, they discovered that the documents in the case had been removed from the court; left with no evidence, they declined to pursue a case.^[23]

Bowie became famous as a result of a feud with Norris Wright, the sheriff of Rapides Parish. The two had participated on opposite sides of political party squabbles and competed against each other in land speculation ventures. Bowie had supported Wrights's opponent in the race for sheriff, and Wright, a bank director, had been instrumental in turning down Bowie's loan application.^[24] After a confrontation in Alexandria one afternoon, Wright fired a shot at Bowie. The uninjured Bowie was enraged and tried to kill Wright with his bare hands. Wright's friends intervened and stopped the attack, and Bowie resolved to carry his hunting knife on his person from then on.^[25] The knife he carried had a huge blade that was nine and one-quarter inches long and one and one-half inches wide.^[26]

The following year, on September 19, 1827, Bowie and Wright attended a duel on a sandbar outside of Natchez, Mississippi. Bowie supported duelist Samuel Levi Wells III, while Wright supported Wells's opponent, Dr. Thomas Harris Maddox. The duelists each fired two shots, and, as neither man had been injured, resolved their duel with a handshake.^[27][28] Other members of the groups, who had various reasons for disliking each other, began fighting. Bowie was shot in the hip; after regaining his feet he drew his knife, described as a butcher knife, and charged his attacker. The attacker hit Bowie over the head with his empty pistol, breaking the pistol and knocking Bowie to the ground. Wright shot at and missed the prone Bowie, who returned fire and possibly hit Wright. Wright then drew his sword cane and impaled Bowie. When Wright attempted to retrieve his blade by placing his foot on Bowie's chest and tugging, Bowie pulled him down and disemboweled Wright with his knife.^[29][30] Wright died instantly, and Bowie, with Wright's sword still protruding from his chest, was shot again and stabbed by another member of the group. The doctors who had been present for the duel managed to retrieve the bullets and patch Bowie's other wounds.^[31]

Newspapers picked up the story, which became known as the Sandbar Fight. Bowie's fighting prowess and his knife were described in detail. Witness accounts agreed that Bowie did not attack first, and the others had focused their attack on Bowie because "they considered him the most dangerous man among their opposition."^[32] The fight cemented Bowie's reputation across the South as a superb knife-fighter.^[20]

There is disagreement among scholars as to whether the knife used in this fight was the same kind of knife now known as a Bowie knife. Many different accounts exist of who designed and built the first Bowie knife. Some claim that Bowie designed it and others attribute the design to noted knifemakers of the time.^[33] However, in a letter to The Planter's Advocate, Rezin Bowie claimed to have invented the knife,^[34] and many Bowie family members and "most authorities on the Bowie knife tend to believe it was invented by" Rezin.^[35] Rezin Bowie's grandchildren, however, claimed that Rezin merely supervised his blacksmith, who actually created the knife.^[36]

After the Sandbar Fight and subsequent battles in which Bowie successfully used his knife to defend himself, his knife became very popular. Many craftsman and manufacturers made their own versions of the knife, and many major cities of the Southwest had "Bowie knife schools", which taught "the art of cut, thrust, and parry."^[37] His fame, and that of his knife, spread to England, and by the early 1830s many British knife manufacturers were producing Bowie knives, shipping many of them to the United States for sale.^[38] The design of the knife continued to evolve, and it is generally agreed to have a blade 8.25 inches (21.0 cm) long and 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) wide, with a curved point. It had a "sharp false edge cut from both sides" and a cross-guard to protect the user's hands.^[39]

After fully recovering from the wounds he suffered in the Sandbar Fight, in 1828 Bowie decided to move to Texas, now a state in the Mexican federation.^[40] The 1824 Constitution of Mexico banned religions other than Roman Catholicism, and gave preference to Mexican citizens in receiving land.^[41] Bowie was baptized into the Roman Catholic faith in San Antonio on April 28, 1828, sponsored by the alcade of San Antonio, Juan Martin de Veramendi and his wife Josefa Navarro.^[42] After that Bowie returned to his travels in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1829, he became engaged to Cecilia Wells, but she died in Alexandria on September 29, two weeks before their wedding.^[20][43]

On January 1, 1830, Bowie and friends left Louisiana for permanent residency in Texas. They are documented as having 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 Stephen F. Austin from Thomas F. McKinney, one of the Old Three Hundred colonists. On February 20 Bowie took an oath of allegiance to Mexico and then proceeded to San Antonio de Bexar.^[20] At the time, San Antonio de Bexar, known as Bexar, had a population of 2,500 people, mostly of Mexican descent, and Bowie's fluency in Spanish helped him to establish himself in the area.^[44]

Later that year, Bowie was elected a commander of the Texas Rangers. Although the Rangers would not be officially organized until 1835, Stephen F. Austin founded the group by employing up to 30 men to help keep the peace, primarily by chasing Indians. Other areas began similar volunteer militias, and Bowie had been elected by a group of the volunteers.^[45]

Bowie became a Mexican citizen on September 30, 1830, after promising to establish textile mills in the province of Coahuila y Tejas.^[46] Bowie entered into partnership with Veramendi to build cotton and wool mills in Saltillo.^[47] With his citizenship assured, Bowie now had the right to buy up to 11 leagues of public land. He convinced 14 or 15 other citizens to apply for land and turn it over to him, giving him 700,000 acres (2,834 km²) of land to speculate with. Bowie may also have been the first to induce settlers to apply for empresario grants and then buy the land from them.^[47][48] The Mexican government passed laws in 1834 and 1835 that stopped much of the land speculation.^[49]

On April 25, 1831 Bowie married nineteen-year-old Maria Ursula de Veramendi, the daughter of his business partner, who had become the vice-governor of the province. Several days before the ceremony, he signed a dowry contract, promising to pay his new bride 15,000 pesos in cash or property within two years of the marriage. At the time, Bowie claimed to have a net worth of $223,000, most of it in land with questionable titles. Bowie also lied about his age, claiming to be 30 rather than 35.^[50] The couple built a house in San Antonio, on land Veramendi had given them near the San José Mission. After a short time, however, they moved into the Veramendi Palace, living with Ursula's parents, who supplied them with spending money.^[51] The couple had two children, Marie Elve, born March 20, 1832, and James Veramendi, born July 18, 1833.^[52]

In the first years of his marriage, Bowie was often away from home, either pursuing Indians with the Rangers, or arranging business deals and silver mine hunts.^[52] Shortly after his marriage he became fascinated with the story of the "lost" Los Almagres Mine, said to be west of San Antonio near the ruin of Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission.^[26] The mine had been operated by the local Indians before being seized by the Spanish. After Mexico won independence from Spain, government interest in the mines waned. A number of hostile Indian tribes roamed the area, including Comanche, Lipan Apache, and Karankawa, and without government troops to keep the tribes at bay, mining ceased. It was believed that after the Mexican citizens left the area, the Lipan Apaches took over the mines.^[52]

Bowie quickly obtained permission from the Mexican government to mount an expedition into Indian territory to search for the legendary silver mine. On November 2, 1831 with his brother Rezin and nine others, Bowie set out for San Saba. Six miles (ten kilometers) from their goal the group realized that they were being followed by a large Indian raiding party and stopped to negotiate. The attempts at parley failed, and Bowie and his group were forced to fight for their lives for the next thirteen hours. When the Indians finally retreated Bowie had reportedly lost only one man, while over forty Indians had been killed and thirty more wounded.^[19][26][53] In the meantime, a party of friendly Comanche Indians rode into San Antonio, bringing word of the raiding party, which outnumbered the Bowie expedition by 15–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.^[54]

To the surprise of the town, the surviving members of the group returned to San Antonio on December 6.^[54] Bowie's report, written in Spanish, of the expedition was later printed in several newspapers, further establishing Bowie's reputation.^[55] The following month Bowie set out again with a larger force. After two and a half months of searching, the group returned home with nothing to show for their efforts.^[20] The Indians had learned they were coming and fled, and although Bowie and his group rode for several hundred miles, they "never saw an Indian".^[56]

Despite his increasing fame, Bowie never talked of his exploits.^[57] Captain William Y. Lacey, who spent eight months living in the wilderness with Bowie, described him as an humble man who never used profanity or vulgarities.^[58]

Tension was beginning to rise between the Mexican officials and the mainly Anglo citizenry as the Mexican legislature passed new laws between 1830 and 1832 that seemed to discriminate against American colonists in the province of Coahuila y Tejas. In response to the rumblings Mexican troops established military posts in several locations within the province, including San Antonio de Bexar.^[59] In July 1832 Bowie, who was in Natchez, heard that the Mexican commander of Nacogdoches, Jose de las Piedras, had demanded that all residents in his area surrender their arms.^[20] Bowie returned to Texas and on August 2, 1832 joined a group of other Texans in marching into Nacogdoches to "present their demands" to Piedras.^[59] Before the group reached the building housing the town officials, they were attacked by a force of 100 Mexican cavalry. The Texans returned fire, and, after the cavalry retreated, initiated a siege of the garrison.^[59] After a second battle in which Piedras lost thirty-three men, the Mexican army evacuated during the night. Bowie and eighteen companions ambushed the fleeing army, and, after Piedras fled, marched the soldiers back to Nacogdoches.^[20] Bowie later served as a delegate to the Convention of 1833, which drew up a document formally requesting independent statehood in Mexico.^[60]

Several months later, a cholera epidemic struck Texas, and many feared the disease would reach San Antonio. Believing his family would be safer in the mountains, Bowie sent his pregnant wife and their daughter to the family estate in Monclova in the company of her parents and brother. The cholera epidemic reached Monclova, and between September 6 and September 14, Ursula, her children, her brother, and her parents died of the disease. Bowie, on business in Natchez, heard of his family's deaths in November. From then on, he drank heavily and became "careless in his dress".^[60]

Bowie returned to land speculation in Texas in 1834 after the Mexican government passed new laws allowing land sale in the state. He was appointed a land commissioner, tasked with promoting settlement in the area purchased by John T. Mason. His appointment ended in May 1835, when Santa Anna abolished the Coahuila y Tejas government and ordered the arrest of all Texans (including Bowie) doing business in Monclova. Bowie was forced to flee Mexico and return to the San Felipe-Nacogdoches area of Texas.^[20]

Santa Anna began preparing for war, sending large numbers of Mexican troops to Texas as the Anglos in Texas began agitating for war. Bowie worked with William B. Travis, the leader of the War Party, to gain support for war, with Bowie even visiting several Indian villages in East Texas to try to convince the reluctant tribes to fight against Mexico.^[20]

Stephen F. Austin returned to Texas in September 1835 and was soon elected the commander of the volunteer army in Texas.^[20] The Texas Revolution began on October 2, 1835 with the Battle of Gonzales. Austin formed an army of 500 men and planned to march on the Mexican forces in San Antonio with the cannon that had been the cause of the Battle of Gonzales. On October 22 he asked Bowie, who had reached the rank of colonel in the Texas Rangers, and James W. Fannin to scout the area around the missions of San Francisco de la Espada and San José y San Miguel de Aguayo. Austin hoped that Bowie and Fannin could find supplies for the volunteer forces.^[61] The scouting party left with 92 men, many of them members of the New Orleans Grays who had just arrived in Texas. After discovering a good defensive position near Mission Concepción, the group requested that Austin's army join them.^[62]

On the foggy morning of October 28, Mexican General Martín Perfecto de Cos led a force of 300 infantry and cavalry soldiers and 2 small cannon against the Texian forces.^[63][64] Although the Mexican army was able to get within 200 yds (183 m) of the Texians, their defensive position was so good that the Texians were protected from fire. As the Mexicans stopped to reload their cannon the Texians were able to climb a bluff and pick off some of the soldiers. The stalemate ended shortly after Bowie led a charge to seize one of the Mexican cannons, at that time only 80 yds (73 m) away. Cos finally retreated with his troops, ending the Battle of Concepcion. One  Texian had been killed, while ten Mexican troops had died.^[63][65] One of the men under Bowie's command during the battle later praised him "as a born leader, never needlessly spending a bullet or imperiling a life, who repeatedly admonished...Keep under cover boys, and reserve your fire; we haven't a man to spare."^[65]

An hour after the battle ended, Austin arrived with the rest of the Texian army, and they began a siege of Cos and his men.^[66] Two days later, Bowie resigned from Austin's army. His resignation was in part due to the fact that he did not have an official commission in the army, and he also disliked the "minor tasks of scouting and spying".^[67]

On November 3, 1835, Texas declared itself an independent state, and a provisional government was formed with Henry Smith of Brazoria elected provisional governor. Austin requested to be relieved of his command of the army, and Sam Houston was named army chief. Edward Burleson was chosen as temporary commander of the troops in San Antonio. Bowie appeared before the council at some point and spoke for an hour, asking for a commission for himself.^[68] The council refused Bowie's request, likely from lingering animosity over his land dealings.^[69]

Houston then offered Bowie a commission as an officer on his staff but Bowie turned down the opportunity, explaining that he wanted to be in the midst of the fighting.^[69] Instead, Bowie enlisted in the army as a private under Fannin.^[67][20] He distinguished himself again in the Grass Fight on November 26. Cos had sent 100 soldiers to cut grass for the horses.^[70] As they returned to San Antonio, Bowie took 60 mounted men to intercept the party,^[71] which they believed carried valuable cargo.^[70] The Mexican troops quickened their pace in the hopes of reaching the safety of the city, but Bowie and his cavalry chased them. At the end of the fight, the Texians had two wounded men, but had captured many horses and mules.^[71]

Shortly after Bowie left San Antonio, Ben Milam led an assault on the city. In the ensuing fighting, the Texians had suffered only a few casualties, while the Mexican army lost many troops to death and desertion. Cos chose to surrender and return to Mexico, taking with him the last Mexican troops in Texas. Believing the war was over, many of the Texian volunteers chose to leave the army and return to their families for the remainder of the winter.^[72] In early January 1836, Bowie went to San Felipe and asked the council to allow him to recruit a regiment. He was again turned down, as he "was not an officer of the government nor army."^[73]

Houston received word that Santa Anna was coming to San Antonio with a large force of soldiers. Bowie volunteered to lead volunteers to defend the Alamo from the expected attack, and 30 men agreed to accompany him. They arrived on January 19,^[74] where they found a force of 104 men with a few weapons and a few cannons but little supplies and gunpowder.^[75] Houston knew that there were not enough men to hold the fort in an attack and had given Bowie orders to remove the artillery and blow up the fortification. Bowie and the captain of the forces, James C. Neill, decided they did not have enough oxen to move the artillery someplace safer, and they did not want to destroy the fortress. On January 26, one of Bowie's men, James Bonham, organized a rally which passed a resolution in favor of holding the Alamo. Bonham signed the resolution first, with Bowie's signature second.^[76]

Through Bowie's connections due to his marriage and his fluency in Spanish, the predominantly Mexican population of San Antonio often furnished him with information about the movements of the Mexican army. He learned that Sana Anna had 4500 troops and was heading for the city.^[76] Bowie wrote several letters to the provisional government asking for help in defending the Alamo, especially "'men, money, rifles, and cannon powder'".^[77] In another letter, to Governor Smith, he reiterated his view that "'the salvation of Texas depends in great measure on keeping Bexar out of the hands of the enemy. It serves as the frontier picquet guard, and if it were in the possession of Santa Anna, there is no stronghold from which to repel him in his march toward the Sabine.'"^[77] The letter to Smith ended, "'Colonel Neill and myself have come to the solemn resolution that we will rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy.'"^[77]

On February 3, William Barret Travis arrived with an additional 30 troops, and several days later Davy Crockett appeared with 12 Tennesseans. Neill went on furlough on February 17 to visit his sick family, leaving Travis, a member of the regular army, in command.^[77] Bowie was older than Travis with a better reputation and considered himself a colonel, thus outranking Travis. He refused to answer to Travis, who called an election for the men to choose their own commander. They chose Bowie, infuriating Travis.^[78] Bowie celebrated his appointment by getting incredibly drunk and causing havoc in San Antonio, releasing all prisoners in the local jails and harassing citizens. Travis was disgusted, and two days later the men agreed to a joint command; Bowie would command the volunteers and Travis would command the regular army and the volunteer cavalry.^[78][20]

Fearing for the safety of his wife's relatives in San Antonio, Bowie asked her cousins Getrudis Navarro and Juana Navarro Alsbury, as well as Alsbury's 18-month-old son, Alijo, to come to stay inside the walls of the Alamo.^[79] Bowie had been ill, and two doctors, including the fort surgeon, were unable to diagnose his illness.^[77] He was confined to his bed, and Travis became the sole commander of the forces.^[80] Santa Anna and his army reached the outskirts of San Antonio de Bexar several days later,^[81] and the army began a siege of the Alamo on February 24. Santa Anna raised a red flag to alert the men that he would give no quarter.^[82]

Travis sent Juan Seguin to recruit reinforcements on February 25, and 32 additional men were able to join the Texians in the fort.^[83] According to Louis "Moses" Rose, the only man known to have deserted the Texian forces at the Alamo, when Travis realized that the Mexicans would prevail in the upcoming battle, Travis drew a line in the sand and asked those willing to die for the cause to cross the line. All of the men crossed the line except for Rose and Bowie, who was lying on his cot in the courtyard. Bowie asked that his cot be carried over the line, and Crockett and several others assisted him in joining the others.^[84] After its initial publication, this account was confirmed by several other eyewitnesses^[85][86], but the story can only be authenticated by the word of the reporter, who admitted to embellishing other articles, "and thus many historians refuse to believe it."^[86]

Bowie perished with the rest of the Alamo defenders on March 6, when the Mexicans attacked.^[20] After the conclusion of the battle, Santa Anna ordered the alcade of San Antonio, Francisco Antonio Ruiz, to confirm the identities of Bowie, Travis, and Crockett.^[87] Santa Anna first gave orders for Bowie to be buried, saying he was too brave a man to be burned like a dog,^[88] but later changed his mind and had Bowie's body placed with those of the other Texians on the funeral pyre.^[87]

When Bowie's mother was informed of his death she calmly stated "I'll wager no wounds were found in his back."^[89] Various eyewitnesses to the battle gave conflicting accounts of Bowie's death. According to a newspaper article, a Mexican soldier claimed to have seen Bowie brought from his room on his cot, alive, after the conclusion of the battle. The soldier maintained that Bowie verbally castigated a Mexican officer in fluent Spanish, and the officer ordered Bowie's tongue cut out and his still-breathing body thrown onto the funeral pyre. This account has been disputed by numerous other witness and it thought to have been invented by the reporter.^[90] Other witnesses maintained that they saw several Mexican soldiers enter Bowie's room, bayonet him, and carry him, alive, from the room.^[91] Various other stories circulated, with witnesses claiming that Bowie shot himself, and others saying he was killed by soldiers while too weak to lift his head.^[92] Alcade Ruiz, however, said that Bowie was found "dead in his bed."^[92] The "most popular, and probably the most accurate"^[93] version is that Bowie died on his cot, "back braced against the wall, and using his pistols and his famous knife."^[92] One year after the battle, Juan Seguin returned to the Alamo and gathered the remaining ashes from the funeral pyre. He placed these in a coffin inscribed with the names of Bowie, Travis, and Crockett. The ashes were interred at the Cathedral of San Fernando.^[94]

Despite his continual pronouncements of wealth, after Bowie's death his actual estate was found to be very small. His possessions were auctioned and brought for only $99.50.^[95] His larger legacy is his position as "one of the legendary characters of the American frontier".^[13] Bowie left a "frustratingly sparse paper trail" of his life, and, for many, "where history failed, the legends prevailed."^[96] Although Bowie's name and his knife were well-known during his lifetime, his legend grew beginning in October 1852, when DeBow's Review published an article written by his brother John Jones Bowie, called "Early Life in the Southwest—The Bowies." The article focused primarily on the exploits of Bowie.^[97] Beginning with that article, "romanticized stories" about Bowie began appearing in national press.^[96] In many cases, "these stories were pure melodrama, with Bowie rescuing some naive planter's son or damsel in distress."^[96]

A number of films have depicted the events of the Battle of the Alamo,^[98] and Bowie has appeared as a character in each. From 1956–1958, Bowie was the subject of a television show, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, which was set in 1830s Louisiana Territory.^[99] The show, which starred Scott Forbes, was based on the 1946 novel Tempered Blade.^[100]

Bowie is also the namesake of rock star David Bowie, who was born David Robert Jones. Jones changed his name in the 1960s because he feared his name was too similar to Davy Jones, a member of already famous The Monkees. He chose the surname Bowie because he admired James Bowie and the Bowie knife.^[101]

History of Texas
Spanish Texas
French Texas
Mexican Texas
Republic of Texas
State of Texas
Slavery

• Buckley, David [1999] (2000). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin. ISBN 075350457X. 
• Chariton, Wallace O. (1992), Exploring the Alamo Legends, Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press, ISBN 1556222556
• Edmondson, J.R. (2000), The Alamo Story-From History to Current Conflicts, Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press, ISBN 1-55622-678-0
• Hopewell, Clifford (1994), James Bowie Texas Fighting Man: A Biography, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, ISBN 0890158819
• Groneman, Bill (1990), Alamo Defenders, A Genealogy: The People and Their Words, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, ISBN 089015757X
• Groneman, Bill (1996), Eyewitness to the Alamo, Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press, ISBN 1556225024
• Jennings, Frank W. (1998), San Antonio:The Story of an Enchanted City, San Antonio, TX: San Antonio Express-News, ISBN 1890346020
• Kennedy, William (1841). Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. R. Hastings. 
• Nofi, Albert A. (1992), The Alamo and the Texas War of Independence, September 30, 1835 to April 21, 1836: Heroes, Myths, and History, Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, Inc., ISBN 0938289101
• Peatfield, Joseph Joshua; Hubert Howe Bancroft, Henry Lebbeus Oak, William Nemos (1889). History of the North Mexican States. A.L. Bancroft and Company. 
• Sears, Edward S. (2000), "The Low Down on Jim Bowie", in Boatright, Mody C. & Day, Donald, From Hell to Breakfast, Publications of the Texas Folklore Society Number XIX, Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, ISBN 1574410997

Persondata
NAME	Bowie, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bowie, Jim
SHORT DESCRIPTION	pioneer, soldier
DATE OF BIRTH	10 April 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH	Logan County, Kentucky, United States
DATE OF DEATH	6 March 1836
PLACE OF DEATH	San Antonio, Texas United States