Camp Bowie

Camp Bowie, the principal encampment of the Army of the Republic of Texas from April 22 through the middle of June 1837, was located on the east side of the Navidad River at Red Bluff, one mile below Texana. The site is near Red Bluff Cemetery, eight miles southeast of the Jackson County community of Edna. The camp's first commander was Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, commanding general of the army. When Johnston left the republic for the United States on May 7, he was succeeded in command by Col. Joseph H. D. Rogers of the First Regiment, Permanent Volunteers, who was in turn replaced by Col. H. R. A. Wiggington, commander of the Second Regiment of Permanent Volunteers, early in June. Camp Bowie was named for Alamo defender James Bowie. It was the site of the murder, on the night of May 5, 1837, of Col. Henry Teal, following which President Sam Houston issued indefinite furloughs to almost all of the men of the dangerously undisciplined and mutinous army. In the latter part of May, Secretary of War William S. Fisher issued furloughs and travel orders to 1,200 troops, two-thirds of the army. By the third week in June the 200 men remaining at Camp Bowie had been transferred to Camp Crockett, and the post was abandoned.