Another legend of the famed Bowie knife

There are two, lieutenant-colonel of militia James Bowie legends - the man himself and his mythical knife. Both are inseparable and yet the knife has a mythical tale to its, near-Excalibur creation.

Many, many years ago, I read an article in my local newspaper which carried a new tale of the fate of the Bowie knife.

After the fall of the Alamo, the victorious Mexican Army had many opportunities for looting and war trophies. The Bowie knife fell into Mexican hands, which would be perfectly logical. The newspaper story goes, a Mexican lieutenant took possession of the Bowie knife, another logical assumption, given the quality of the knife. The Mexicans probably knew next to nothing of the frontiersman reputation of Jim Bowie and his famous knife. All they knew is that he was another Anglo troublemaker leading American invaders to help the Texas secessionists. From there the Bowie knife disappears from history.

I have a speculation. The Mexican lieutenant, if he survived the following campaigns, returned to Mexico with his war trophy. One of two things happened. One, he left the knife at his home where the family cook probably picked it up and used it in the kitchen. Two, the lieutenant gave it to his father as a present. It ended up used in the kitchen as a meat cleaver. Neither the lieutenant nor his father would have had any awestruck value of the Bowie knife. Being of upper class society, fighting is done with swords and pistols not with vulgar knifes. The Bowie knife ended its history as a kitchen meat cleaver. The Bowie knife rusted away and lies discarded, buried deep in some forgotten land disposal over which is a town or city by today.