184 Years Ago Today: Jim Bowie Wins 'Sandbar Fight'!

On September 19, 1827, knife fighter Jim Bowie gained national fame for his role in what became known as "the Sandbar Fight." This armed brawl outside of Natchez, Mississippi, exploded in the wake of an organized duel that ended with its antagonists shaking their hands and walking away.

Bowie was considered to be the most dangerous man in the faction he was part of and some of the men opposing it tried to kill him right away. One of them shot him in the hip and then hit him in the head with the emptied pistol so hard that it broke, knocking Bowie to the ground.

Sheriff Norris Wright of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, with whom Bowie had a running feud, took advantage of his enemy’s predicament and also took a shot at him but missed, upon which Bowie returned fire and may or may not have struck Wright. The sheriff then attacked the prone Bowie with a sword cane and ran him through, embedding the blade in his body. When Wright planted his foot on Bowie’s chest to dislodge his weapon, Bowie grabbed him, pulled him to the ground, and fatally disemboweled him, possibly with one of the long, broad-bladed knives that bears his name.

Bowie was both shot and stabbed at least once more each before the fracas was dispersed but survived his injuries and was lauded in newspapers that covered the incident.

Bowie appears in the chapter "Rogues of the Alamo," one of the "Scandal" section chapters in Texas Confidential, where he warrants inclusion for his role as a slaver in the early 19th century.