Sarah A. Bowman

Sarah A. Bowman, widely known as the Great Western, was an innkeeper, restaurateur and camp follower who accompanied United States forces during the Mexican-American War. She became celebrated as the Heroine of Fort Brown for assisting soldiers under bombardment and later operated businesses in frontier settlements in Texas and Arizona. Her imposing public image became part of western legend.

Bowman’s imposing stature and work around military camps made her a well-known figure among American troops during the Mexican-American War. She ran eating houses and boarding establishments at frontier posts and later settled in the Southwest, where she became a successful businesswoman. After her death in 1866, her wartime association with soldiers and frontier communities helped turn the ‘Great Western’ into a legendary figure in popular histories of the war.

In Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Fearless, in 1845, Sarah Borginnis Bowman follows the United States Army to Corpus Christi as a laundress and cook attached to Zachary Taylor’s forces.