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July 16, 2025
Today in Texas History
On this day in 1839, 500 Texas troops concluded the second day of a two-day attack on a Cherokee village a few miles west of present-day Tyler. The Battle of the Neches was the principal engagement of the Cherokee War, a conflict that began when President Mirabeau B. Lamar refused to recognize earlier treaties with the Cherokee who lived in East Texas, and called for an “exterminating war” on Native Americans in the state.
The Texas troops, commanded by Thomas J. Rusk, overwhelmed a village of 700 to 800 Cherokees led by Chief Bowl (Duwali), ending in a fight on the headwaters of the Neches River. Grossly outnumbered, an estimated 100 Native Americans were killed, among them Chief Bowl. The massacre resulted in the forced removal and relocation of the surviving Cherokee people from their ancestral lands, also known as the Trail of Tears.
The Texas troops, commanded by Thomas J. Rusk, overwhelmed a village of 700 to 800 Cherokees led by Chief Bowl (Duwali), ending in a fight on the headwaters of the Neches River. Grossly outnumbered, an estimated 100 Native Americans were killed, among them Chief Bowl. The massacre resulted in the forced removal and relocation of the surviving Cherokee people from their ancestral lands, also known as the Trail of Tears.