Battle of Neches

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Neches
partof=the Indian Wars
date=July 15-16, 1858
place=Chandler, Texas along Battle Creek
result=Texas Victory
combatant1=
combatant2=Cherokee Delaware
commander1= General K.H. Douglass Ed Burleson Albert Sidney Johnson David G. Burnet
commander2=Chief Bowles
strength1=Approximately 500;
strength2=1,000
casualties1=3
casualties2=100 killed, including Chief Bowles

The Battle of Neches took place on July 15-16 1839 in what is now the Redland community( between Tyler and Ben Wheeler,TX). It came about as a result of the Cordova Rebellion, and Texas President Lamar’s determination to remove the Cherokee from Texas, and open their lands to Anglo settlement.

Background

Sam Houston’s first term as President of Texas was focused on maintaining Texas as an independent state, and he had no resources to fight a war with the Indians. Therefore he did not try to. While maintaining the Rangers to police rogue Indians, Houston used diplomacy and presents to keep the peace on the frontier with the Comanche and Kiowa, and treated with his friends the Cherokee. Houston had lived with the Cherokee, and had earned his reputation among Native Americans for fairness and decency due to his relations with the Cherokee. [ Kreneck, Thomas (2000). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/fho73.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.] The Cherokee were unhappy that the promises to give them title to their lands, which had been promised for their neutrality during the Texas Revolution, had not been done. Houston negotiated a settlement with the Cherokee in February 1836, and until the Cordova rebellion, had no further trouble with the “civilized” tribes, though he was unable to get the Legislature to ratify the portion of the treaty confirming the Cherokees land titles. This would not be the last time the legislature refused to ratify treaties Houston reached with the Indians. [ Kreneck, Thomas (2000). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/fho73.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.]

The first Houston administration was highlighted by the Cordova Rebellion, named after one of the participants. Evidence existed that a widespread conspiracy of Cherokee Indians and Hispanics had united to rebel against the new Republic of Texas, and rejoin Mexico. Houston refused to believe that his friends the Cherokee were involved, and refused to order them arrested. The Cordova Rebellion was highlighted by Houston’s ability to squash it without bloodshed or wide unrest [ Kreneck, Thomas (2000). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/fho73.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.] Thus, when he left office, the Republic was at peace with Native Americans. That did not last.

Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas, made no secret of his feelings for the Indians, and he made it public policy, declaring the policy of his administration in 1839: "The white man and the red man cannot dwell in harmony together," Lamar said. "Nature forbids it." His answer to the “Indian Problem” was:

::"to push a rigorous war against them; pursuing them to their hiding places without mitigation or compassion, until they shall be made to feel that flight from our borders without hope of return, is preferable to the scourges of war." [ Dial, Steve (2005). [http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/dieiscast.html] . "Texas Beyond History: The Die is Cast September 7 2007.] Lamar has the dubious honor of being the first official of Texas, while it was an independent Republic, or a state of the United States, to attempt to what the government of the United States euphemistically called "removal," the deportation of Indian tribes to places beyond the reach of white settlers. As carried out by the United States, the policy assumed there could be such a thing as a permanent Indian frontier, i. e., a line beyond which the various "removed" tribes would be able to carry on their lives free from white settlement or attacks. [ Dial, Steve (2005). [http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/dieiscast.html] . "Texas Beyond History: The Die is Cast September 7 2007.] . Fehrenbach, T.R. "“Comanches, The Destruction of a People "]

President Lamar became convinced that the Cherokees could not be allowed to stay in Texas after their part in the Cordova Rebellion. The Cherokee War and subsequent removal of the Cherokees from Texas began shortly after Lamar took office. [ Herring, Rebecca (2002). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/jcc3.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.]

The Cherokee War:1838-1839

Lamar demanded that the Cherokee, who had been promised title to their land if they remained neutral during the Texas War of Independence, voluntarily relinquish their lands and all their property, and move to the United States to the Oklahoma Indian Territories. Houston, who had promised them they would be given their promised titles during the Cordova Rebellion, protested, but in vain. [ Herring, Rebecca (2002). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/jcc3.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.]

After the discovery, in May 1839, of a letter in the possession of Manuel Flores, an agent of the Mexican Government, exposing plans by the Mexican government to enlist the Indians against the Texas settlers, Lamar, supported by popular opinion, determined to expel the East Texas Indians. Lamar was determined the Indians would be removed. When they refused, he used force to compel their removal. [http://www.forttours.com/pages/toccherokeewar.asp] On July 12, 1839, the Militia sent a peace commission to negotiate for the Indians' removal. The Cherokee reluctantly agreed to sign a treaty of removal that guaranteed to them the profit from their crops and the cost of the removal. During the next 48 hours the Cherokee insisted they would leave peacefully, but refused to sign the treaty because of a clause in the treaty that would require that they be escorted out of Texas under armed guard. [ Herring, Rebecca (2002). [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/jcc3.html] . "Texas Handbook Online September 7 2007.] On July 15, 1839, under orders from the Militia, the commissioners told the Indians that the Texans would march on their village immediately and that those willing leave peacefully should fly a white flag. On July 15th and 16th of 1839, a combined Militia force under General K.H. Douglass, Ed Burleson, Albert Sidney Johnson and David G. Burnet attacked the Cherokees, Delaware, and Shawanee under Cherokee Chief Bowles at the Battle of the Neches.

The Battle of Neches

On Jul y 15, 1839, the Militia advanced up Battle Creek approximately 7 miles, where the Indians awaited them. Despite their efforts to hold the high ground, the Indians were driven off the hill, and retreated into a ranvine. The next morning, on July 16, 1839, they reformed about half a mile from the Neches, and attempted to give battle. Approximately 100 Indians were killed, to only three Militia. When killed, Chief Bowles was carrying a sword given to him by Sam Houston. After the battle, the Cherokee fled to Arkansas, and East Texas was virtually free of organized communities of Native Americans, and their lands were given to Anglo settlers. [http://www.forttours.com/pages/toccherokeewar.asp]

References

* Fehrenbach, Theodore Reed "The Comanches: The Destruction of a People". New York: Knopf, 1974, ISBN 0394488563. Later (2003) republished under the title "The Comanches: The History of a People"
* Foster, Morris. "Being Comanche".
* Frazier, Ian. "Great Plains". New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1989.
* Lodge, Sally." Native American People: The Comanche". Vero Beach, Florida 32964: Rourke Publications, Inc., 1992.
* Lund, Bill. "Native Peoples: The Comanche Indians". Mankato, Minnesota: Bridgestone Books, 1997.
* Mooney, Martin. "The Junior Library of American Indians: The Comanche Indians". New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1993.
* [http://www.nativeamericans.com/Comanche.htm Native Americans: Comanche] (August 13, 2005).
* Richardson, Rupert N. "The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement: A Century and a Half of Savage Resistance to the Advancing White Frontier". Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1933.
* Rollings, Willard. "Indians of North America: The Comanche". New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
* Secoy, Frank. "Changing Miliitary Patterns on the Great Plains". Monograph of the American Ethnoligical Society, No. 21. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1953.
* Streissguth, Thomas. "Indigenous Peoples of North America: The Comanche". San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporation, 2000.
* [http://www.texasindians.com/comanche.htm "The Texas Comanches" on Texas Indians] (August 14, 2005).
* Wallace, Ernest, and E. Adamson Hoebel. "The Comanches: Lords of the Southern Plains". Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952.

External links

*http://www.forttours.com/pages/antelope.asp
*http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/county/ellis/littlerobe.html