Site of Indian Battle

Rezin Bowie, older brother of James, was born in Tennessee in 1793 and grew up on the Louisiana frontier. He was best known in his century as inventor of the Bowie knife, and he had fine examples made by cutlers to carry and give to friends. With his brothers he bought enslaved people from Jean Laffite for resale, speculated in land and built Arcadia, a sugar plantation with the first steam-powered sugar mill in Louisiana. He served three terms in the Louisiana legislature. In Philadelphia in 1832 a publisher persuaded him to write his account of this fight.

What the plaque says

Site of Indian Battle In this vicinity On November 21, 1831 James Bowie, Rezin P. Bowie, David Buchanan, Cephas D. Hamm, Matthew Doyle, Jesse Wallace, Thomas McCaslin, Robert Armstrong, James Coryell with two servants, Charles and Gonzales, held at bay for a day and a night, 164 Caddos and Lipans. After 80 warriors had been killed, the Indians withdrew Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio de San Saba — 19 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.
• Fort Mason — 21 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.

More markers nearby

• Pegleg Crossing on the San Saba — 9.8 mi
• Peter's Prairie School — 12 mi
• Site of Camp San Saba — 13 mi
• Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy — 13 mi