I don't behave like a swashbuckler and prefer a more elegant southern living attitude gentleman.

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Jim Bowie

The history of early New Orleans is full of swashbucklers, adventurers, and characters of all stripes. They frequented the cafes and coffee houses and mingled with the Creole merchants easily. Many made their way to New Orleans from Texas. One such character was James Bowie.

Although it is still uncertain whether he was born in Georgia or Kentucky, what is known is that his parents brought him to Louisiana in 1802 as a small child when the family settled in Catahoula Parish. In 1818 he became part of the band of slave smugglers headed by Jean Lafitte, but parted ways after two years, earning $65,000 (about $1.5 million today) for his trouble.

In the summer of 1827, he became involved in a dispute between Dr. Maddox and Samuel Wells, both of Natchez and served as a second in a duel to be held on a sandbar in the Mississippi River near the Louisiana state line. The generally accepted version of the story has it that Maddox and Wells, single-shot smooth-bore pistols in each hand, squared off. Both missed with their first shot and with their second. The Code of Honor satisfied, the two relieved duelists shook hands and made peace. That’s when the fight between the seconds erupted.

Gen. Samuel Cuny, a Wells supporter, decided to settle scores with Maddox supporter Col. Robert Crain. Crain and Cuny drew their sidearms and fired. Crain’s first shot missed Cuny and struck Bowie in the hip, knocking him to the ground. An exchange of second shots resulted in Cuny being fatally wounded and Crain slightly wounded. Bowie rose to his feet, drew his knife, and charged Crain. Crain defended himself by crashing his pistol onto Bowie’s head, breaking the pistol, and knocking Bowie to the ground. Maddox supporter Norris Wright rushed up and fired his pistol at Bowie, missing. He then drew his sword cane and stabbed Bowie in the chest, its tip glancing off Bowie’s sternum and burying itself in his lung. As Wright tried to yank the blade free, Bowie gutted Wright with his knife, killing him instantly. With part of the sword cane still protruding from his chest, Bowie staggered to his feet. He was stabbed by one attacker and shot at by two others, with one bullet hitting him in the arm. Bowie managed to slice off part of one assailant’s forearm with his knife. So ended a fight that lasted about 10 minutes, leaving two men dead and four wounded, all of which followed a duel in which the principals were totally unharmed.

Everyone expected Bowie to die, but somehow he survived. Detailed stories of the fight quickly became a national sensation that spread across the ocean. Demand in America for knives based on Bowie’s design skyrocketed. Bowie repeatedly redesigned the knife, ultimately creating the style known today. He would later die in the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, a dramatic death that only added to the legend of the knife he made famous.

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Thomas Williams

I don't behave like a swashbuckler and prefer a more elegant southern living attitude gentleman. But that is alright because to each his own, and I will stay around my friends, leaving them alone.

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