Legends

Sarah Bowman was large in stature and Yuma’s first businesswoman. However, her place in history did not start here, but more in the east.

The earliest documented record of Bowman is from 1845 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. When her husband enlisted in the Seventh Infantry, she signed on as a laundress, a position that included food and shelter and the opportunity to earn a salary three times that of an Army private. From Jefferson Barracks, she accompanied the army to Corpus Christi Bay. By the time the army arrived in July 1845, her duties included cooking and nursing in addition to laundry.

The Woman Who Rode Ahead: Bowman at Arroyo Colorado

The army remained encamped along the Nueces River till March 1846, when they received orders to advance to the Rio Grande. Instead of following her husband, who was ill, and most of the military wives on ships down the coast, Bowman purchased a wagon and mule team and followed the army on land. She handled the trek with skills the “best teamster in the train might have envied.”

The first encounter between American and Mexican forces came on March 21, 1846, during the crossing of Arroyo Colorado. As the Americans approached the steep embankment, bugles rang out on the other bank, accompanied by the warning, “Cross this stream, and you will be shot!” Upon seeing the column halted, Bowman rode to the front and told the commander, “If the general would give me a strong pair of tongs, I’d wade that river and whip every scoundrel that dared show himself.”[4] (In addition to the tool, tongs were at the time slang for men’s trousers. Inspired by her example, the American troops made the crossing, scattering the opposing troops in the process.

By May 1846, Bowman was married to her second husband, a man named Borginnes (spellings vary). Her husband was assigned to Fort Texas (later renamed Fort Brown), where she operated an officer’s mess. When Taylor withdrew the majority of his troops to confront the Mexican army near the coast, forces in Matamoros, stationed directly across the Rio Grande, responded by besieging the fort.

Courage Under Fire: Borginnes at Fort Brown

The Mexican bombardment began on May 3 at 5 am. While most of the women in the fort retreated to the bunkers to sew sandbags, Borginnes remained at her cooking fire and served breakfast at 7 am. For the next week, she prepared food and coffee for the besieged fort, carrying buckets of coffee to the troops manning the fort’s guns, even finding time to care for the wounded and other women. Her schedule of three meals daily was continued even though bullets struck both her bonnet and bread tray. She also requisitioned a musket in case the fort was stormed.

Following the siege, Borginnes came to the attention of U.S. newspapers, who named her the “Heroine of Fort Brown. Stories of her exploits were published in both Philadelphia and New York City. One correspondent even went out of his way to extol her virtues and fight any “tongues of slander” that might be directed at her character.


To be continued…