At this site was the camp of the Army of the Republic of Texas
Flint, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At this site was the camp of the army of the Republic of Texas under Generals Edward Burleson, Thomas J. Rusk, Albert Sidney Johnston, Hugh McLeod, Kelsey H. Douglass and Colonel Willis H. Landrum just before they engaged Chief Bowles of the Cherokees and associated tribes in the decisive battle on July 16, 1839, by which the Indians were forever driven from East Texas Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In July 1839 the army of the young Republic of Texas gathered at this site under commanders including Edward Burleson, Thomas J. Rusk, and Albert Sidney Johnston before marching against Chief Bowles and his Cherokee and allied warriors. The clash on July 16, 1839, ended the Cherokees' presence in East Texas as the Republic forced them from their lands. The battle was a decisive and bitter chapter in the Republic's Indian policy.
Why it matters
The campsite marks the prelude to the Battle of the Neches, the expulsion that drove the Cherokees out of East Texas and shaped the Republic's fraught relations with Native nations.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1839 the Republic of Texas was barely three years old, an independent nation still struggling to secure its borders and its finances. Its second president, Mirabeau B. Lamar, had taken a hard line toward Native peoples, reversing the more conciliatory approach of Sam Houston, his predecessor.
East Texas was home to a number of Native communities, including Cherokees who had moved into the region in the early 1800s after being pushed westward from their homelands in the southeastern United States. They farmed, raised livestock, and had sought secure title to their land from Mexican and then Texan authorities, but that title was never confirmed.
Fear and suspicion ran high. Texan leaders worried that Mexico might enlist Native allies against the Republic, and incidents in the late 1830s deepened distrust. In that tense climate, the Republic moved to force the Cherokees out of East Texas.
People & events
The men named on this marker read like a who's who of early Texas. Thomas J. Rusk was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Edward Burleson was a veteran frontier commander. Albert Sidney Johnston was then the Republic's secretary of war, and would later become one of the most prominent Confederate generals of the Civil War. Hugh McLeod, Kelsey H. Douglass, and Willis H. Landrum also led troops in the campaign.
On the other side stood Chief Bowles, known to his own people as Duwali, an elderly leader who had guided his community for years and had long sought a peaceful settlement. He had been a friend of Sam Houston, and Houston had negotiated a treaty with the Cherokees in 1836, but the Texas Senate never ratified it.
The Texan army camped here before marching into battle. On July 16, 1839, the fighting ended in defeat for the Cherokees and their allies. Chief Bowles was killed during the battle. In the aftermath, the Cherokees were driven from East Texas, most of them moving north toward Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma.
Its place in the American story
The Battle of the Neches is part of a much larger American story: the removal of Native nations from their lands in the 1830s. In the same years that the United States forced the Cherokee Nation west along the Trail of Tears, the Republic of Texas expelled the Cherokees who had settled within its borders.
The marker's 1936 wording, describing the Indians as forever driven from East Texas, reflects how the event was celebrated at the time it was written, during the Texas Centennial. Today many historians and visitors read the same events as a tragedy: the loss of homes, farms, and a respected leader who had tried to secure his people's future through negotiation.
The campsite is also a window into how early Texan leaders shaped the Republic's policy toward Native peoples, a policy whose consequences would echo through Texas and the Plains for decades.
If you visit
This is a quiet place to reflect on a hard chapter. As you stand at the marker, imagine the army's camp spread across the East Texas landscape, with its rolling ground and pine and hardwood forest, on the eve of a battle that would change the region.
The marker's 1936 language is itself a historical artifact. Reading it with fresh eyes is a good way to talk with kids about how the way we tell history changes over time, and about whose stories get told.
If you are exploring East Texas history, this stop pairs well with other sites connected to the Republic era and to the region's Native past. Take a moment to remember Chief Bowles and the Cherokee families whose lives were upended here.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Chief Bowles
- · Thomas J. Rusk
- · Edward Burleson
- · Albert Sidney Johnston
Related events
- · Battle of the Neches (1839)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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During the years of the Republic of Texas, conflict between settlers and Native peoples flared repeatedly across the eastern frontier. On October 16, 1838, General Thomas J. Rusk led about 200 Texans in an attack on a band of Native Americans and allied Mexicans near this spot, dispersing them in what became known as the Kickapoo battle. The clash was one of many in the Republic's campaigns to push Indigenous nations from the settlement line.
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This site recalls the aftermath of the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839, when forces of the Republic of Texas defeated the Cherokees and allied tribes, killing their leader Chief Bowles. Army scouts fanned out through the surrounding country in the days that followed. The 1936 state marker commemorates that campaign, which drove the Cherokees from East Texas.