In the vicinity of Harris' place
Winona, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the vicinity of Harris' place scouts from the Army of the Republic of Texas were dispatched from the present county of Van Zandt after the battle with Cherokees and associate tribes July 16, 1839 in which Chief Bowles was killed. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The events remembered here mark the violent expulsion of the Cherokee from Texas, a pivotal and painful chapter in the young republic's dispossession of Native peoples.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1839 Texas was an independent republic, only three years past its revolution against Mexico. Its leaders were deeply divided over how to treat the Native peoples living within its claimed borders. Sam Houston, the republic's first president, had long ties to the Cherokees and favored peace. His successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, took a far harder line and sought to remove Native nations from Texas altogether.
The Cherokees in East Texas had come there in the early 1800s, after being pushed west from their homelands in the southeastern United States. They settled and farmed in the region and sought secure title to their land, first from Spanish and Mexican authorities and then from the new republic. Those hopes were never made good.
Fear and suspicion ran high in the summer of 1839, with accusations that the Cherokees were in contact with Mexican agents. Lamar's government sent troops to force them out. The result was the campaign this marker remembers.
People & events
The central figure is Chief Bowles, the aged and respected leader of the Texas Cherokees. For years he had tried to secure a peaceful place for his people in Texas. When the republic's army came, the Cherokees and allied tribes fought, and on July 16, 1839, Bowles was killed. Accounts remember him as an elderly man who died on the battlefield, a powerful and painful image in Texas history.
The encounter is known as the Battle of the Neches, fought in what is now Van Zandt County. After it, the marker tells us, scouts of the Army of the Republic of Texas were sent out and passed through the vicinity of Harris' place, near present-day Winona. They were tracking the retreating Cherokees and their allies through the East Texas woods.
This marker, then, is about the aftermath: a people driven from their homes, and soldiers following their trail. The defeat ended the Cherokee presence as an organized community in Texas, and survivors moved north toward Indian Territory.
Its place in the American story
The expulsion of the Texas Cherokees belongs to a much larger American story of removal. In the same years, the United States was forcing the Cherokee Nation and other southeastern peoples west along the Trail of Tears. The Texas Cherokees had already been pushed once; in 1839 they were pushed again.
The episode also shows how the young Texas republic defined itself. Its policies toward Native peoples, especially under Lamar, set a harsh pattern that continued after Texas joined the United States. The debate between Houston and Lamar over peace or removal echoes arguments heard across the country.
Markers like this one were placed in 1936 for the Texas Centennial, a moment of great state pride. Reading it today, you can hold both views at once: a record of a military campaign and a reminder of what that campaign cost the people it drove away.
If you visit
This is a roadside marker in the quiet, wooded country of East Texas. Take a moment to picture the landscape in 1839, when scouts moved through these pine and hardwood forests following a defeated people.
You can build a meaningful day around this chapter of history. The battle site itself lies to the west in Van Zandt County, and the wider region around Tyler holds more of East Texas's early story. Seeing several related markers helps the whole sequence of events come together.
Approach it thoughtfully, especially if you are traveling with children. It is a good place to talk about how history can be told from more than one side, and about the Cherokee families whose lives changed forever in the summer of 1839.
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
Related events
- · Battle of the Neches
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
On Burleson Lake_Camp of the Army of the Republic of Texas
Lindale, TX
In the summer of 1839 the young Republic of Texas waged war on the Cherokee and allied tribes living in its eastern reaches, culminating in the Battle of the Neches in mid-July. Nearby, on Burleson Lake, stood the last camp of the Republic's army under generals Douglass, Rusk, and Burleson before Secretary of War Albert Sidney Johnston ordered it mustered out. From here the soldiers departed for home on July 25, leaving behind a campaign that drove the Cherokees from Texas.
John Crane
Chandler, TX
A Virginia-born veteran of the War of 1812, John Crane joined Joseph Vehlein's colony and moved his family to Texas in 1834, fighting at the Siege of Bexar and serving through the Texas Revolution. In July 1839 he rode with Republic forces under Douglass, Burleson, and Rusk against Chief Bowles and the Cherokee at the Battle of the Neches, where he was killed. Bowles fell the next day, and his death led to the expulsion of the Cherokee from Texas.
Here Was the Camp of the Army of the Republic of Texas
Garden Valley, TX
In July 1839 the army of the young Republic of Texas encamped here under generals including Thomas J. Rusk and Edward Burleson during the campaign against Chief Bowles and the Cherokees and their allies. After the decisive fighting in nearby Van Zandt County on July 16, the soldiers disbanded and returned home nine days later. The state marked the spot during the 1936 Texas Centennial.
Nicholas Wren
Winona, TX
Nicholas Wren came to Texas in 1833 and joined its army in 1836, later commissioned a lieutenant of Rangers by President Sam Houston. He fought during the Vasquez and Woll incursions of the Republic era and reportedly had a horse shot from under him at the Battle of the Hondo. Settling in Smith County by its organization in 1846, he died in the Mount Carmel community in 1859, his grave later marked by his grandsons.