Battle of the Neches

Part of the Texas-Indian Wars

Date	July 15 & 16, 1839
Location	West of modern Tyler, Texas
Result	Texan Victory

Belligerents

Republic of Texas
Tonkawa Indians

Cherokee Nation
Delaware Nation

Commanders and leaders

Gen. Kelsey Douglass
Gen. Thomas Rusk
Col. Edward Burleson
Chief Plácido

The Bowl†
Big Mush†

Strength

Approx. 500

600–700

Casualties and losses

8 killed
29 wounded,
incl. Vice President Burnet

More than 100 killed

The Battle of the Neches, the main engagement of the Cherokee War of 1838–1839 (part of the Texas-Indian Wars), took place on 15-16 July in 1839 in what is now the Redland community (between Tyler and Ben Wheeler, Texas). It resulted from the Córdova Rebellion and Texas President Lamar's determination to remove the Cherokee people from Texas. Many had migrated there from the American Southeast to avoid being forced to Indian Territory in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma.

During Sam Houston's first term as President of Texas, 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 allies, 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. The Cherokee were unhappy that the promises to give them title to their lands, which he had made them to secure their neutrality during the Texas Revolution, had not been fulfilled. Houston negotiated a settlement with them in February 1836, though he was unable to get the Legislature to ratify the portion of the treaty confirming the Cherokee's land titles. This was neither the first nor last time the legislature refused to ratify agreements Houston made with the Indians.

In 1838, word arrived from several sources that Mexico was seeking an arrangement with the Cherokee which would give them title to their land in exchange for assistance in joining a war of extermination against the Texians. Nacogdochians looking for a stolen horse found a camp of around one hundred armed Tejanos. Rather than allow the local militia to act, Houston (who was in Nacogdoches at the time) prohibited both sides from assembly or carrying of weapons. Local alcalde Vicente Córdova and eighteen other leaders of the revolt issued a proclamation with a number of demands to be met before their surrender. After being joined by around three hundred Indian warriors, they moved towards the Cherokee settlements. Despite Houston's orders he should not cross the Angelina to interfere, General Rusk sent on a party of 150 men under Major Henry Augustine, who defeated the rebels near Seguin, Texas. Despite the involvement of the Cherokee and the discovery of documents directly implicating The Bowl on two separate Mexican agents over the next six months, Houston professed to believe the chief's denials and refused to order them arrested. In his several letters of reassurance to The Bowl during the unrest, Houston again promised them title to their land on the Neches. Warriors believing their lands to be violated by the legal settlers then perpetrated the Killough Massacre, killing eighteen.

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Wikipedia