Battle of the Neches

[Craig Tx]

From the Texas State Historical Association

Texans rout Cherokees in battle of the Neches

On this day in 1839, some 500 Texas troops under Kelsey H. Douglass routed 700 to 800 Cherokees led by Chief Bowl in what is now Henderson County.

The battle of the Neches was the principal engagement of the Cherokee War; it resulted in the expulsion of the hostile Indians from East Texas and virtually ended Indian troubles in the settled portion of the state.

More than 100 Indians, including Duwali, were killed, and the remaining Cherokees were driven across the Red River into Indian Territory. Among the prominent Texans who participated in the battle were Thomas J. Rusk, Edward Burleson, David G. Burnet, Albert Sidney Johnston, and John H. Reagan. The Cherokee War was the culmination of years of friction between Cherokee, Kickapoo, and Shawnee Indians and white settlers in Northeast Texas.


Craig

[Caddo]

Thanks Craig, again a lot of folks forget about the settlers in East Texas during this time. The revolution gets all the press but those folks had other problems as well. Sam Houston was able to keep the lid on it to a point due to his friendship with some of the tribes but once he was out of power that was it for the indians of the eastern part of the republic.