Bowie-Armed Burglar in New York City

This story about a New York City burglar armed with a bowie knife was published in the New York Times, August 7, 1860:

Police Reports.
ARREST OF AN ALLEGED BURGLAR--DEADLY ASSAULTS.
On the night of the 28th of February last, the dwelling house and liquor-shop of Frank Hughes, No. 103 Cherry street, was burglariously entered by means of false keys, and robbed of  $350 in bank bills and gold coin. The burglar, who is alleged to be Pat Conway, was seen in the act of breaking into the premises by a woman named Mary Johnson, but before she could sound the alarm and get help, Conway had escaped with the treasure. Search was made for the fellow, but he was not seen again till the 30th ult., when James Donovan, of No. 33 Cherry street, met Conway. They had a few words together concerning the burglary, whereupon Conway drew a bowie knife of immense size, with which he struck Donovan across the arm, inflicting a very severe wound. The assailant then escaped, and kept out of the way till Sunday night, when he was arrested by Officer Creighton of the Fourth Ward. The moment he was seized, Conway showed fight, and struck at the officer with the same bowie knife with which he attempted the life of Donovan, but fortunately without doing any damage. He was secured after a severe struggle, and subsequently taken before the magistrate at the Tombs, and committed for a hearing on two charges of assault and battery, and likewise for burglary.

DSC Awarded to Vietnam-War Bowie-Knife Fighter

The following account of an action involving a bowie knife during the Vietnam War appeared in the Oakland Tribune, March 1, 1967:

LT. GEN. RICHARDSON PINS MEDAL ON SGT. HALE'S UNIFORM
Hand-to-Hand Combat With a Pistol and a Bowie Knife
DSC for Heroic Sergeant 

A Buena Park soldier who charged a Viet Cong bunker armed with a bowie knife and  a pistol, killed two enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat, then later on shot two more to death after he was critically wounded, has won the nation's second highest award for valor -- the Distinguished Service Cross. The DSC was pinned on Staff Sgt. Richard M. Hale, 27, by Lt. Gen. J. L. Richardson, Sixth Army Commanding General, in rites yesterday at Letterman General Hospital where Hale is a patient.

Sgt. Hale, a native of Ada, Okla., was leading a six-man squad in Operation Attleboro near Tay Ninh, last Nov. 19 when their armored personnel carrier ran into a strong, entrenched Viet Cong Force.

When the First Battalion Mechanized of the 25th Infantry Division came under heavy fire, said his citation, "Sergeant Hale immediately ordered his personnel carrier into the center of the action." When grenade fragments felled one of his men, said the citation, Hale ordered the rest of the squad to evacuate their wounded comrade.

"Then, with complete disregard for his safety, while armed only with a bowie knife and a pistol, he charged the hostile emplacement alone. Dauntlessly running 30 meters through intense hostile fire, he leaped into the bunker and engaged the two insurgents in fierce, hand-to-hand combat.

"After killing both Viet Cong, (he) reorganized his squad and continued to search the area until he was shot in the chest by a sniper. Although painfully wounded and weak from the loss of blood, he gallantly crawled to the hostile position and killed two more more insurgents with his pistol."

Sergeant Hale was serving his second tour of duty in Vietnam. He spent five months in 1964 as a door gunner on the helicopter "gun ships" in Vietnam.

General W.T. Sherman and the Bowie Knife

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 - 1891) had an interesting pre-Civil War career, bouncing around between a number of jobs. Among other things, he made an official expedition to California in 1848 to survey the territory and to verify that gold had indeed been discovered. In 1859, he accepted a position as superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, the kind of institution where parents sent their boys as a last resort. (It later became Louisiana State University.)  In January, 1860, Sherman was forced to expel a student who had drawn a knife on another. He described the weapon as a "dirk knife . . . of the bowie pattern," illustrating how vaguely defined those terms were in the 19th century. Here is the letter Sherman wrote:

W. T. SHERMAN TO G. MASON GRAHAM SEMINARY OF LEARNING,
Jan. 30, 1860.
SIR:
A case has this day arisen requiring my prompt action under the paragraph of regulations quoted below: "In extraordinary cases of resistance to authority, calling for immediate action, the superintendent may adopt the measures necessary to maintain order and good discipline, but in all such cases he shall forthwith submit to the Board of Supervisors his report in writing of all the facts and reasons for his action."

Cadet D. F. H---h was reported to the commandant of cadets, by Cadet S. M. H---s, acting as sergeant for some delinquency. He made an excuse in writing, which the commandant of cadets referred to Mr. H---s for explanation. Just before drill this p.m., Mr. H---s spoke to Cadet H---h about the excuse; some words passed resulting in Mr. H---s using the word "lie." H---h retorted the same when H---s struck. H---h then went to his room and returned with a dirk knife, and renewed the altercation with the knife open, and threatening to use it. I have the knife and it is of the bowie knife pattern. Mr. Smith happening to be near, interfered and caused Mr. H---h to go to his room and remain there during drill. At the moment I was showing some visitors through the building. As soon as the matter was reported to me, I forthwith informed Mr. H---h that no possible cause or provocation could justify or palliate the use or display by a member of this Seminary of a deadly weapon: and that he must leave. I made an order to that effect, and although I told him he could remain till morning, still he preferred to leave to-day. I will to-morrow cause the whole truth to be determined and recorded, and if Mr. H---s is to blame, he too must be punished according to the degree of offence. The word "lie" must never be used here, with impunity, but I assert the broad principle, that no word, or even blow must for a moment give a pretext for the use of a deadly weapon.

ORDER OF DISMISSAL SEMINARY OF LEARNING, January 30, 1860. ORDER No. 9. Cadet D. T. H---h, having in an angry controversy with another cadet drawn a dirk or a bowie knife, is hereby summarily dismissed.

The superintendent in this connection does not deem it necessary to look to the provocation. Here no possible provocation can justify such an act.

W. T. SHERMAN, Superintendent.

Both Union and Confederate troops often equipped themselves with personally owned pistols and bowie knives, adding a considerable amount of weight to their already cumbersome weapons and accouterments. John T. Taylor described the arms with which he equipped himself for war:

Having entered the service with a firm resolve 
to do my part in putting down the rebellion, I at once 
armed myself with an Ames saber, regulation size, a Smith 
& Wesson carbine, a brace of pistols, a belt pistol, and a 
Bowie knife with a seven-inch blade.

Just before Shiloh, Taylor had a heated exchange with a superior officer and shortly afterward was summoned to meet with General Sherman. As he made his way to the meeting he wondered if he was to be disciplined for that incident. He writes:

I advanced upon him with some trepidation. Saluting 
him, I said, "General Sherman, I am the lieutenant of Company G, 5th Ohio Cavalry, ordered to report to you."

The general eyed me very closely for a moment. I thought he was recalling to mind the language I had applied to the adjutant of my regiment, for I believed the matter had been reported to him. I learned from the general afterwards that he was wondering how I managed to bear up under so many arms.

Sherman's purpose in meeting Taylor was to ask him to serve as his aide-de-camp. Taylor accepted.

Bowie Knives in Africa

Because the majority of 19th-century bowie knives were mass produced in Sheffield, England,  it is not surprising that they were exported to various parts of the British Empire, as well as the United States. In the course of my research I came across several references to the use of the bowie knife in colonial Africa.

From Recent British Battles on Land and Sea (1885), by James Grant:

As there was no regular cavalry in South Africa, two squadrons of mounted infantry were, early in December, posted at various points along the frontier. These men were mounted on South African horses, and at first carried the regulation infantry rifle and bayonet, but were afterwards armed with Swinburn-Martini carbines and bowie-knives, which they could fix to the muzzles.

 

Swinburn-Martini carbine with bowie-type bayonet

From later in the same book:

"Ah ! those red soldiers at Isandhlwana," many Zulus said, "how few they were, and how they fought! They fell like stones -- each man in his place." We are told that one tall man, a corporal of the 24th, slew four Zulus with his bayonet, which stuck for a moment in the throat of his last opponent, and then he was assegaied. The only blue-jacket in camp, a man of H.M.S. Active, was seen, with his back against a waggon wheel, keeping a crowd of Zulus at bay with his cutlass, till one crept behind and stabbed him to death between the spokes. A Natal Volunteer, who had been sick in hospital, was found dead with his back against a boulder near the hospital tent, with about a hundred fired cartridges about him, his revolver empty, and a bowie-knife crusted with blood in his hand.

From Reminiscences of a Frontier Armed & Mounted Police Officer in South Africa (1866), by Edward Wilson:

The uniform of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police is simply elegant--a suit of tanned cord, and a light-brown, helmet made of leather. The fire-arms are of the very best, comprising a rifle (smooth-bore and rifle-barrel) and a Dean and Adams' revolver (Tranter's patent). The men are also armed with a bowie-knife.

Natal Frontier Armed and Mounted Police (1879)

In Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains (1863),  Richard Francis Burton describes various types of weapons he encountered in Africa:

Africans rarely, if ever, pay anything like a decent price for muskets. The process of firing is peculiar, the gun being either discharged from the hip, or held out at arm's length, with averted face, for good reason; the kick is that of an ass, and it would lay open even Deaf Burke's cheek. . . . Pistols are rarely worn; spears and bows and arrows are little used. Swords seem intended principally to hack and hew the wounded and dead. A few, especially Moslems, have straight, double-edged blades, with brass handles and leather scabbards, from which they are drawn with difficulty, and only Arabs use the scimitar or curved blade. Bowie knives have of late formed an article of importation, and are found handy.

I can't prove it, but I'd like to think that the "long, keen hunting knife" that Tarzan found in the effects left by his father, and which gave him the decisive edge over his jungle foes, was in fact a bowie knife.

Newcomer to Austin, Texas, Unfavorably Impressed (1878)

The following is an excerpt from a collection of Tolles family correspondence held by the Duke University library.

Shortly after settling in Austin, Texas, in 1878, Jennie Tolles wrote to her older sister Katie, to report the alarming goings-on:

Yesterday there was a man murdered right down town just a littel [sic] ways from the office, he was an alderman, a Mr. Markley. He was killed by Alderman Wall. They are trying to have a big market built in the 6th ward. Mr Wall didn't like it because Mr (Markley) didn't vote the same as he did. So Mr Wall drew out a great long Bowie knife from his waistband and stabbed him twice through the heart. Mr Markley dropped right down dead on the sidewalk. They sent right off for his wife and... she came right down there where he was laying a-bleeding. Oh it is terrible, he leaves a poor wife and two little children. Their [sic] are just such things a-going on here all the time. It is the worst place we have ever got into. You can't express your opinions but what you are in danger of your lives.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and Theodore Roosevelt on the Bowie Knife

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809 – 1894), American physician, professor, lecturer, and author, and father of the Supreme Court justice, had this to say about the bowie knife in 1858:

We are the Romans of the modern world, the great assimilating people. Conflicts and conquests are of course necessary accidents with us, as with our prototypes. And so we come to their style of weapon. Our army sword is the short, stiff, pointed gladius of the Romans; and the American bowie-knife is the same tool, modified to meet the daily wants of civil society. I announce at this table an axiom not to be found in Montesquieu or the journals of Congress: -

The race that shortens its weapons lengthens its boundaries.

Corollary. It was the Polish lance that left Poland at last with nothing of her own to bound.

"Dropped from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear!"

What business had Sarmatia to be fighting for liberty with a fifteen-foot pole between her and the breasts of her enemies? If she had but clutched the old Roman and young American weapon, and come to close quarters, there might have been a chance for her. . .

When Holmes says "our army sword," he is referring to the Model 1832 Foot Artillery Sword.

Model 1832 Foot Artillery Sword.

Holmes's confidence in the bowie knife must have been rooted in America's success in the Texas War of Independence and the Mexican War, as well as the westward expansion. However, the notion that a nation seeking to expand its boundaries is hampered by a long spear is contradicted by the success of Philip of Macedonia's army with the sarissa, an unusually long spear which made its phalanx unbeatable. With these 13- to 21-foot spears the army of his son Alexander stretched the boundaries of his empire to hitherto unimagined lengths.

A young Theodore Roosevelt in cowboy garb with his Tiffany-made bowie knife in his belt.

In a visit to the Alamo after the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt quoted Holmes's sentiment approvingly:

Col. Roosevelt . . . . talked of Bowie and his old blacksmith’s file that, forged and sharpened, became the weapon par excellence of his generation.

“Do you remember what Holmes had to say about the Bowie knife and its relation to the Roman gladius?” he asked. “’The race that shortens its weapons lengthens its boundaries.’ There is undying truth in that axiom in spite of our adoption of the Krag-Jorgensen and other long-distance engines of destruction. I am glad that we are to have these machetes, for, after all, you have got to get back to first principles in the end; you can’t do much with a fifteen-foot pole between you and the breast of your adversary. You have got to get up close to him sooner or later.”

Description of the Bowie Knife from 1847

 

Description of the bowie knife by Charles Hooton, an Englishman who visited Texas in the 1840s, from his book St. Louis’ Isle, or Texiana (1847):

Having already mentioned the bowie-knife, as not only so common but so formidable a weapon, both in Texas and the whole South, the reader will perhaps not be displeased to hear a little more of it,—the various tragical hand-to-hand exploits which have been from time to time performed, even amongst the "highest circles" of that quarter of the world, through its agency, having conferred upon it a degree of bloody and horrible distinction never yet acquired by many of its elder brethren of the same craft. Let it not, however, be regarded altogether in the light of an engine of human slaughter; since, in many other respects, it is one of the most useful of articles to the settler and frontierman. The same blade which this morning, perhaps, was buried to the hilt in the body of an enemy—or it may be of a friend, with whom its owner had a "difficulty"—will also serve to-night to carve the venison for supper; to skin and cut up the hunter's game; to extract hooks from the gullets of ponderous red-fish, when its master goes a-fishing; or to supply any other need, no matter how small (if not too small for its own size), for which a knife can possibly be required. In short, Butler has accurately predescribed its various uses—aided, no doubt, by a wonderful spirit of poetical prophecy—in the following charming portrait of the dagger of his "Sir Knight":—

It was a serviceable dudgeon,
Either for fighting or for drudging;
When it had stabb'd, or broke a head,
It would scrape trenchers, or chip bread;
Toast cheese or bacon, though it were
To bait a mouse-trap, 'twould not care.

To the best of my knowledge, this instrument was devised by Col. James Bowie, an American, and a man of desperate valour. He considered, and apparently with justice too, that in close fighting, a much shorter weapon than the sword ordinarily in use, but still heavy enough to give it sufficient force, and, at the same time, contrived to cut and thrust, would be far preferable, and more advantageous to the wearer. He accordingly invented the short sword, or knife, which has since gone under his name. It is made of various sizes; but the best, I may say, is about the length of a carving-knife,—cast perfectly straight in the first instance, but greatly rounded at the end on the edge side: the upper edge at the end, for the length of about two inches, is ground into the small segment of a circle and rendered sharp; thus leaving an apparent curve of the knife, although in reality the upturned point is not higher than the line of the back. The back itself gradually increases in weight of metal as it approaches the hilt, on which a small guard is placed. The bowie-knife, therefore, has a curved, keen point; is double-edged for the space of about a couple of inches of its length; and, when in use, falls with the weight of a bill-hook. I have heard it stated, that a blow from one well wielded is sufficient to break a man's arm. . . . Bowie went to Texas during the troubles which preceded the independence of that country, and was lying sick in bed at the Fortress of the Alamo, when, on the 6th of March, 1836, it was stormed by Santa Anna and taken. Bowie was murdered there upon his pillow. The hand that formed the dreadful knife could no longer wield it.

Bowie Knife to the Rescue

Writing for Confederate Veteran magazine in 1903, W. H. Davis, of Company F, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, tells of a time when he used his bowie knife for something other than blood-letting:

A very amusing incident which I cannot resist describing took place as we were retiring from our second assault. Lieut. Charles A. Baird, while we were passing through the woodland, was caught under the chin by a vine and dragged from his horse. In falling the vine was twisted into a loop, suspending him about two feet from the ground, making a comical picture. The writer, seeing his predicament, rushed to his assistance with a large Bowie knife, clipped the vine, and thereby saved him from a most absurd hanging. Meanwhile the shells and solid shot were pruning the pine and cypress trees about us, but we had a good laugh and the experience made us lifelong friends.

Election Day Special: Governor With a Bowie Knife

What is up with that knife?! It looks like some giant custom folder.
Here are some snips from the news article:

Schwarzenegger posts knife-wielding tweet
July 21, 2009
STUDIO CITY, Calif. (KABC) -- Moments after announcing a budget deal and billions of dollars in program cuts, Governor Schwarzenegger sent out a knife-wielding tweet. The message left some Californians wondering what exactly the governor's message meant.

The 27-second video message was posted on Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger's Twitter page. In the video, the governor joked about autographing state cars slated for the auction block as a way to raise more money for cash-strapped California.

[ . . . ]

In response to Schwarzenegger's Twitter video, a spokesperson for the governor's office said, "I don't know why he is holding a knife. The message is in what he is saying, not what he is holding in his hand.

Video here.

Personally, I found the story endearing. If someone where to start videotaping me at my desk, I too might have to put away a bowie knife I happened to be fondling before getting down to business. Or, perhaps Schwarzenegger was pondering the antics of state legislators in 1850s California, who were known to pull bowie knives on each other during debate. Or perhaps he was reminiscing about those happy days when he was free to silence his opponents however he thought necessary. . .

By the way, Schwarzenegger also keeps his Conan sword in his office.

Happy Halloween

Michael Myers avec butcher knife in "Halloween." Note that he holds it in the classic "Psycho" grip. When using a reverse grip, the more sophisticated knife fighter keeps the edge facing outward.

What do butcher knives have to do with bowie knives? Well, in every eyewitness account of the Sandbar Fight in which James Bowie made his name, his knife is described as a butcher knife. Keep in mind that while today we don't use a butcher knife for much more than slicing up a roast, in the 1820s and 1830s a butcher knife would be used to slaughter and dress game or lifestock, and thus had to be heavy enough to break up bones and joints. We even read of men carrying a butcher knife in a "case"--a sheath. So what was called a butcher knife was often a large sheath knife, intended to be worn on the belt.

The Sandbar Fight was publicized nationwide, and within a year or two the term "Bowie knife" came into common use to describe a large knife carried primarily as a weapon.

L. Vincent Poupard gave his thoughts on the "Symbolism of a Knife as a Weapon in Horror Movies and Horror Literature." Among his suggestions as to why the knife is so often seen as the weapon of the monster or maniac are:

--It produces a copious amount of blood.
--It is a weapon associated with human sacrifice, and thus has a ritualistic element.
--It has phallic symbolism, as it penetrates the body. Villains prefer a big knife.

Another reason was given by the Joker in "The Dark Knight Returns": "Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little emotions."

Cane, Bowie Knife and Revolver Featured in NYC Dust-Up

One could be forgiven for thinking all bowie knife fights occurred in the South and West, but in fact New York City had its fair share. The following report is from the Los Angeles Times, May 15, 1885

Revolver and Bowie Knife

In the Hands of Two Desperate Men--They Do Some Damage.

New York, May 14. About 8:30 tonight an altercation occurred between Larry O'Brien, a well-known broker and politician, and George Truman, a sporting character, belonging to Chicago. The former was probably fatally stabbed, and the latter was shot twice. The affray was the outcome of a quarrel to-night. O'Brien met Truman on the corner of Broadway and Twenty-seventh streets and accused him of attempted blackmail. The remark enraged Truman, who gave utterance to some strong language. His remarks so exasperated O'Brien that he lifted his cane and struck the other man a heavy blow on the head. Without warning Truman drew a murderous-looking bowie-knife and plunged it into his opponent's abdomen, inflicting a gash eight inches long. A policeman immediately arrested Truman, and while in the custody of the officer a pistol shot was heard and a bullet from O'Brien's revolver lodged in the prisoner's back. He broke away from the officer and a second bullet from the same source lodged in Truman's left shoulder. Both men were taken to the Twenty-Ninth Precinct Police Station, and thence removed to the New York hospital. The excitement in the locality was intense. The cause of the quarrel is said to be an attempt on the part of Truman to blackmail a Wall street friend of O'Brien's. The friend is supposed to be Mr. Kelly of the firm of Kelly & Bliss, bookmakers. A charge of felonious assault was made against both men at the station house. The knife used has a blade a foot long and an inch and a quarter wide. O'Brien declined to take an anesthetic while his wound was being sewed up, and both men indulged in recriminations while their wounds were being dressed in the same ward in the hospital. To-night both men were resting quietly, but the result of the injuries is likely to be fatal in each case.

 The weapons appeared to grow as the story moved West. The New York Times described the knife as having a seven-inch blade, about an inch wide. The revolver was described as "an ornamented lady's pistol of light caliber."

Also, though the article states "the result of the injuries is likely to be fatal in each case," both men made a full recovery from their injuries and declined to press charges.

Left An Ear Behind

"LEFT AN EAR BEHIND"--an eye-catching headline for an article in the Atlanta Constitution, December 20, 1887:

Charleston, S.C., December 19. A Greenville special to the News and Courier says tht a daring attempt at robbery was made in Laurens county last week. John Dagnoll, a farmer, had $500 hidden in his house and happened to mention the fact to his brother-in-law. Dagnoll left home one day expecting to be absent over night, but for some reason returned the same afternoon. During the night he awoke and found three men in his room. He seized a large bowie knife and cut off the ear of one of the robbers and stabbed him in the cheek. The others escaped. The wounded man proved to be Dagnoll's brother-in-law, and he is now in Laurens jail.

A Slight Misunderstanding

Dr. George Engelmann (1809 – 1884) was a German-American botanist who traveled through Arkansas in the 1830s in search of specimens. From an obituary:

He departed on his scientific tour through Arkansas and the western bank of the Mississippi. Upon this trip he had a large, heavy knife, made like a huge bowie-knife, which has accompanied him ever since upon all his botanical excursions, serving to dig out roots, to cut down saplings and vines. Whilst resting one night in an Arkansas farm house, he was cleaning the blade which had served to dig out roots and some specimens. This rather stirred up the old trapper, who stood watching him. Finally, the backwoodsman could not longer conceal his annoyance, and tapping Dr. Engelmann on the shoulder, said, in the belief that it was a piece of bravado to draw him out: "I say, stranger, this is a mighty big knife, but I have got one as good, and if you like, we will just try knives."

It was with some trouble that the man was pacified and made to understand that it was a scientific instrument and not an Arkansas tooth-pick.

A Bowie-Knife Toting Police Officer

Martin Aguirre was a famed Los Angeles County sheriff in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though he rode all over the county tracking down cattle rustlers, and made numerous high-risk arrests, he never carried a pistol, preferring a well-honed bowie knife, which he kept in a sheath slung in the armhole of his vest. To one interviewer, he explained, “You see, if anything starts I don't know where bullets might go or whom they might hit, but I know where this knife is going.”
  
Aguirre served as deputy sheriff under Sheriff William A. Hammel. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Martin and Hammel had one curious fracas. Martin had a warrant to serve on a man who as known as a bad hombre. He happened to come across him on Spring street, just below First.

Martin pulled the big razor-sharp bowie that he always carried; backed the crook off into a door way and handed him the warrant.

"Stick up your hands," said Martin.

Suddenly he felt the muzzle of a gun poked into his own back. "Stick 'em up," said the crook's pal to Martin.

Suddenly the pal felt the muzzle of a gun in his spine and Billie Hammel's voice said to him, "Stick 'em up yourself."

They stood there for a moment; then the crook who had the point of Martin's knife in his tum-tum stuck up his hands and the group dissolved.

An Unwelcome Visitor

Joseph Goldsborough left a diary of his overland journey to California in 1849-1850. His cabin was visited by a man named White, who was a member of another group of travelers. Goldsborough was disturbed by the presence of White, who seemed mentally ill and was armed with a bowie knife.

At dusk White returned to our lodge, said the oldest son of Elliot struck him, and he was afraid for his life, with them, and wished to sleep by our fire. I told him we had no room, but I could fix him comfortably in a wagon. “Well,” he said, “let me cook my supper here.” I told him to go ahead. He held in his hand a very large and sharp Bowie-knife, took a seat near my left, and commenced mincing up a piece of the ox-meat, on a small piece of board, on his knee. He minced the meat very slowly, chopping it over and over, very fine, and ever and anon, looking askance at me from under his slouched hat, and feeling the edge of his large bloody blade. Now and then he'd pause, and barely cut at all, -- seem'd absorbed in meditations. - Evidently deeply abstracted in mind. He thus sat about hour, cutting up his meat. During this queer performance, I cautiously put a pistol in my bosom, and moved off a little from him. He then put the minced beef in a small tin-kettle of water, & set it on the fire, after which he put a handful of wet ground coffee, from an old dirty handkerchief, in another small tin kettle, with water, and sat that also on the fire to cook. He then laid his knife very carefully on the chair at his right, dropped his chin on his hands, with his elbows on his knees, and asked me many questions, without looking at me at all . . . [He] kept us up quite late, asking information we could not give, muttering inarticulate sentences, mingled with oaths & imprecations . . . . I intimated our desire to retire, several times, and at last had to tell him, he must go, and I would conduct him to a wagon. . . . I then closed out frail house as well as I could, and set a chair with tin ware in it, at the entrance so that it could not be entered without alarming us. We slept on our arms.

Well Armed

From The Scalp Hunters, Or, Romantic Adventures in Northern Mexico, by Mayne Reid, a memoir published in 1851:

We are all somewhat similarly armed and 
equipped. For my part, I may say that I am "armed to the teeth." In my holsters I 
carry a pair of Colt's large-sized revolvers, 
six shots each. In my belt is another pair 
of the small size, with five shots each. In 
addition, I have a light rifle, making in all 
twenty-three shots, which I have learnt to 
deliver in as many seconds of time. Failing 
with all these, I carry in my belt a long 
shining blade known as a "bowie knife." 
This last is my hunting knife, my dining 
knife, and, in short, my knife of "all work."

How Many Men Carried a Bowie?

How many men actually carried a bowie? Reports from the Southern and Western states in the 19th century suggest that the practice was widespread, though we may assume that many of the reports were dramatized for effect. After an American tour in the 1840s, Francis Wyse wrote:

Almost every individual in America, more particularly in the Southern States, carries some deadly instrument, or weapon about his person. The stiletto, the dirk, or the bowie knife; some, perhaps, for the murderous and secret purpose of assassination; whilst many no doubt are compelled to adopt this usage . . . as their best and almost only defence from personal injury and violation.

In 1840, a British visitor to Texas, Captain Hamilton, had these observations:

Many murders were committed in the Island of Galveston and in the Country during my stay on the Coast, and I could never learn that one offender was brought to justice. It is considered  unsafe to walk through the Streets of the principal towns without  being armed.  The Bowie Knife is the weapon most in vogue . . .

A phrenologist who visited Mississippi in 1840 made far more conservative estimate as to the percentage of men armed with the bowie knife:

About one in forty of all the western people go thus armed. A law recently enacted, renders it criminal to draw a Bowie-knife, although it be not used. 

This is nearly the reverse of the estimate offered by the English traveler Edward Robert Sullivan:

There is hardly one man out of fifty from St. Louis right  down south, that does not always carry a bowie-knife or a revolver. 

In 1846,  English traveler George Warburton wrote:

The custom of carrying the bowie knife is universal in these southern States; even boys at school are not exceptions, and they not unfrequently have been known to use it for the settlement of their disputes.

Accounts by English visitors cannot be entirely trusted. They wrote for an audience that was fascinated by the violence and coarseness of the American South and West, and it's hard to believe some of these stories were not  exaggerated for effect.

We do know that immigrant parties heading West were well-armed---often to every man, woman, and boy. Frank King, who described his family's trip West in Wranglin' the Past, wrote: 

Our men were well-armed for those days. Father, Mr. Horn, and the man Richardson carried the long rim-fire 16-shot Henry rifles. Uncle Bud, James, and the “Dutchman” (that’s the only name I ever heard him called) were equipped with 50-caliber needle guns. All carried Bowie knives, and all wore 44-caliber cap-and-ball Colt six-shooters. Mother always had a big number ten muzzle-loading shotgun by her, well crammed with buckshot. Father gave me a Remington 38-caliber five-shooter pistol and a dirk knife.He told me, if we ever got into it, to die fighting like the rest intended doing. He said the men would look after the women and little girls. They had no intention of permitting any hostiles to capture the women and children alive.

In 1865, King's uncle Jack King fought with Robert Carlisle in a hotel lobby in Los Angeles. King wrote, “before my uncle Jack King and Carlisle were separated that night, Carlisle had cut my uncle seriously with one of those Bowie knives most men carried in those days. . . “
    
A settler in Nebraska in 1866 wrote that, “Everybody, (even, of  course, I) wears a revolver or so upon his person, usually  in plain sight in a belt. I do not mean they do at their  daily work, but no one thinks of going many miles in any  direction without pistols, and often bowie knives.” 

An account was published in 1870 once again suggested that nearly everyone was armed with either pistols, knives, or both:

Another custom which is queer enough at a proper distance is that of carrying arms. Such a thing is  scarcely known in New England or the settled Northern States, but in some parts of the South and South-west it seemed to me that almost everybody  carried some murderous weapon about with him.

Describing the arms commonly carried in Tombstone during his sojourn there, from 1879 to 1882, Wyatt Earp said, "Bowie knives were worn largely for utility's sake in a belt sheath back of the hip; when I came on the scene their popularity for purposes of offense was on the wane."

So what percentage of men carried bowie knives? Hard to say. Certainly more men carried and used them in fights than one would imagine from western movies, in which they're almost never shown.

Man With Bowie Knife Kills Eight?!

In History of the Oklahoma City Police Department, by Ed Hill and Ron Owen, we read:

In 1896 the Territorial Legislature passed a law making the Chief's post an elective one. The first elected Chief was Edward F. Cochran, serving his second term. Cochran had a force of 8 men and 3 bloodhounds to maintain some semblance of order.

Probably the highlight of his term occurred within a single week in 1897. The first incident occurred at Traylor's Saloon at 16 West California. Patrolman Ike Ashburn and two other officers got in a "free-for-all shootout" with a house full of drunks, leaving 6 dead. Chief Cochran strongly defended his officers and refused to "fire" them. A few days later, a repeat performance took place at The Bucket of Blood in the 800 block of East 1st. A berserk Mexican, brandishing a Bowie knife, killed 8 razor-toting patrons before being killed by an unnamed police officer.

This is the kind of throwaway line that drives the conscientious researcher crazy. If, in fact, a berserk Mexican killed 8 razor-toting patrons of the Bucket of Blood saloon in the course of a brawl, it would be one of the most remarkable feats of personal combat on record. Even in the waning years of the Old West, this would qualify as national news. However, my research in on-line newspaper archives turned up nothing to support this story, so I can't give it much credibility.

Ron Owen, the co-author of the book, has written several excellent books on law enforcement in Oklahoma, including a biography, Legendary Lawman: The Story of Quick Draw Jelly Bryce.

An Armed Society is a Polite Society

Stephen Johnson Field (1816 – 1899) was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1863 to 1897, and prior to that, the 5th Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. In his autobiography, Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California,  Judge Field described his habit of carrying arms in California in the early 1850s:

I have said that in those days everyone went armed; it would be more correct to say that this was true in the mining regions of the State and when travelling. I, myself, carried a Derringer pistol and a Bowie-knife until the Summer of 1854, though of course out of sight. I did so by the advice of Judge Mott, of the District Court, who remarked that, though I never abused a witness or a juror, or was discourteous to any one in court, there were desperate men in the country, and no one could know to what extremity they might go, as I would not be deterred by any considerations from the discharge of my whole duty to my clients. So, until the Summer of 1854, I carried weapons. And yet they were not such provocatives of difficulty as some of our Eastern friends are accustomed to think. On the contrary, I found that a knowledge that they were worn generally created a wholesome courtesy of manner and language.

Madman With a Bowie Knife

In an article on the bowie knife in the Galveston Daily News (March 21, 1920), J. O. Dyer discounted the idea that James Bowie’s knife had some special property, writing: “Given a blade sharp enough to cut; long enough to penetrate; strong enough not to break readily; given also a hand strong enough to dexterously wield such a simple weapon, and it requires no Bowie record; such a one in the hands of a madman has often wreaked terrible execution.”

To illustrate his point, we have the case of a Mr. Jenkins, of Cairo, Illinois, who “went postal” one day January 1853, demonstrating that a madman with a bowie knife in each hand is not to be taken lightly. The article, from the Dixon Telegraph (January 22, 1853) states:

Yesterday was “estimate day,” with the hands laboring on the Cairo levees—Mr. Ellis, contractor, commenced making settlements, but his office soon became so completely jammed with creditors that he found it impossible to proceed unless he could clear it. He therefore requested the crowd to leave remarking that he would call them in and settle singly. They did not go. A Mr. Jenkins now ordered them out, and not having his orders properly noticed, rushed among them with a bowie knife in each hand, cutting right and left in an earnest and indiscriminate manner. He had seriously wounded two persons, and still was at his murderous work when an axe was buried in his head up to the helve, cleaving open his brains. He died soon afterwards. It is well perhaps that Mr. Jenkins was killed so soon, for his early death, no doubt, prevented him from taking a half dozen lives, so fierce and determined was his onslaught on the crowd. One of the persons he wounded will probably die. Mr. Jenkins was in the employ of Ellis, Jenkins & Co., and professed to be a doctor.