Sorry for the confusion over my name, and thanks to Guest,meself for clearing things up for everyone.

It's a fair bet that someone in the Mexican army took Bowie's knife as spoils of war, but I don't know how you could identify an antique knife as "the" Bowie knife today. A bit of folklore -- Bowie's mother is often quoted as saying, upon hearing of James' death at the Alamo, "I'll wager they found no wounds on his back".

If you want to learn what Bowie was really like then I'd recommend reading a book named Three Roads to the Alamo. The book is three biographies, about Crockett, Bowie and Travis, in one volume. The Bowie biography is the only good biography of him I've ever read. (William C. Davis, Three Roads to the Alamo, ISBN 0-06-017334-3.

It's been years since I read the Texas history books I've been talking about in this thread. Maybe it's time to read them again.
- Phil