7. The Sandbar fight led to the name of the Bowie Knife
The Sandbar fight was little more than an armed brawl between factions with longstanding grudges against each other, both personal and professional in nature. The fight took place between the supporters of the duelists after the duel was resolved with no injuries. There were at least ten additional witnesses to the duel who did not engage in the fight, which was between twelve men, including Bowie and Sheriff Norris Wright. Who fired first is disputed, but Bowie was shot in the hip and fell to the ground, struggled to his feet, and charged his attacker, knife drawn. He was hit on the head with an empty pistol, and again knocked to the ground. As he struggled to rise to his feet, Norris Wright stabbed him in the chest with a sword-cane.
Bowie grabbed his assailant and used his knife to effectively gut him as he tried to pull the sword cane free. With Wright dead, Bowie got to his feet to be shot yet again, in the arm. With two bullets in him, a chest wound, and an undoubtedly aching head, Bowie was helped from the scene. The brawl lasted less than two minutes, in which two men were killed and two others seriously wounded. Bowie’s prowess with the knife at the brawl became a backcountry legend quickly, and blacksmiths and armorers began marketing knives which they claimed were the style Bowie used at the Sandbar fight. They became known as Bowie Knives, including in England by the mid-1830s.