At Refugio on March 15, 1836, Urrea was again confronted with the duty of complying with the fatal decree of December 30. With hostilities temporarily suspended, Frank W. Johnson and James Grant gathered volunteers for a planned invasion of the Mexican port town of Matamoros. Believing they were on missions to gather wood, drive cattle or even sail to safety in New Orleans, the rebels joked and swapped stories. A man-by-man study of Fannin's command indicates that 342 were executed at Goliad on March 27. Fannin was ordered by General Sam Houston on March 11, 1836, to abandon Goliad and retreat to the Guadalupe River near Victoria. In 1936, in celebration of the Texas Centennial, money was appropriated to build a massive pink granite monument, dedicated on June 4, 1938. Colonel Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men executed. Despite the protests for clemency by General Jos de Urrea, the massacre was reluctantly carried out by Lt. M1 Garand; Vince Speranza; Vijayant Thapar; List of active duty United States four-star officers; Comparison of the T-90A and M1A2 Abrams; Charles Keating IV The Presidio has been restored and is more complete than the Alamo. The authenticity of the gravesite was further verified by historians Clarence R. Wharton and Harbert Davenport. Twenty-eight of them were tried as pirates, convicted, and, on December 14, 1835, shot (see TAMPICO EXPEDITION). Surrounded on all sides and heavily outnumbered, Colonel Fannin surrendered, and terms of the capitulation were agreed upon near Coleto Creek. This has since been preserved and designated as the Fannin Memorial Monument. His solution was tested after November 15, 1835, when Gen. Jos Antonio Mexa attacked Tampico with three companies enlisted at New Orleans. JOHN CRITTENDEN DUVAL: THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. The soldiers took his belongings, shot him in the face, and burned Fannin's body along with the other Texians who died that day. Historical tales have always been part of life for Pat Vargas Morales, whose local roots go back to at least 1889, the year her grandmother was born in Goliad. Nearly all were killed at the first fire. As Palm Sunday dawned on March 27, the prisoners were divided into quarters. While the sick and wounded remained in the chapel, the other three groups were escorted on different roads out of town. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." . The execution of James W. Fannin, Jr.'s command in the Goliad Massacre was not without precedent, however, and Mexican president and general Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna, who ultimately ordered the exterminations, was operating within Mexican law. When the Goliad prisoners were taken, Texas had no other army in the field (see REVOLUTIONARY ARMY), and the newly constituted ad interim government seemed incapable of forming one. Duval and the few other men who escaped the massacre were heavily pursued by Mexican troops for the following days. Description: Three hundred forty-two Texas prisoners, consisting of James Fannin's command captured at the Battle of Coleto and those of Amon King and William Ward captured at the Battle of Refugio . Slaughter at Goliad : the Mexican massacre of 400 Texas volunteers / by: Stout, Jay A., 1959- Published: (2008) Goliad : the other Alamo / by: Bradle, William R. Published: (2007) Captain Phillip Dimmitt's commandancy of Goliad, 1835-1836 : an episode of the Mexican Federalist war in Texas, usually referred to as the Texian Revolution / by: Huson, Hobart, 1893-1983 Published: (1974) Several days later, informants revealed Grant's location, and on the morning of March 2, 150 Mexican troops ambushed Grant's men at the Battle of Agua Dulce. CNN . he was the commander of the troops at the battle of Goliad. In 1930 some Goliad Boy Scouts found charred bone fragments that had been unearthed over the years by animals, and an excursion to the site by Goliad residents on New Year's Day, 1932, succeeded in attracting an investigation of the site by University of Texas anthropologist J. E. Pearce. Carolino Huerta of the Tres Villas battalion. They then headed for Lavaca Bay, where they would end up surrounded. WILLIAM COKNEK. This article does not contain any citations or references. SAN ANTONIO John Willingham long has been fascinated with the horrific "Goliad Massacre," which came three weeks after the 1836 Battle of the Alamo and further riled the Texans in their . The Texans lost control of Goliad on March 20, 1836, in the Battle of Coleto Creek. Age 32, he was taken by Mexican soldiers to the courtyard in front of the chapel, blindfolded, and seated in a chair (due to his leg wound from the battle). However, the Mexicans would receive overwhelming reinforcements and heavy artillery. Dudley Goodall Wooten, ed., A Comprehensive History of Texas (2 vols., Dallas: Scarff, 1898; rpt., Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1986). Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton CVO OBE FRGS (/kltn/; 15 February 1874 - 5 January 1922) was a polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic, and one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Take time to visit the museum and wander the grounds where so much blood was spilled. Hobart Huson, Colonel Fannin's Execution of General Houston's Orders to Evacuate Goliad (MS, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin). From the viewpoint of the Mexican Army, Santa Annas command was justified by a law of December 30, 1835, stipulating that any foreigners caught in the act of taking up arms against Mexico were to be considered pirates and summarily executed. A two day Battle of Coleto ensued with the Texians holding their own on the first day. Two hours later Portilla received another order, this one from Urrea, "to treat the prisoners with consideration, and especially their leader, Fannin," and to employ them in rebuilding the town. 465 people were taken prisoner and of those people 342 were killed. The Goliad massacre was an event of the Texas Revolution that occurred on March 27, 1836, following the Battle of Refugio and the Battle of Coleto; 425445 prisoners of war from the Texian Army of the Republic of Texas were executed by the Mexican Army in the town of Goliad, Texas.The men surrendered under the belief they would be set free within a few weeks, however this was not to be. [11] On March 13, King was surrounded by elements of the Mexican army and sent out a plea for help to Fannin, who sent Lieutenant-Colonel William Ward and the Georgia Battalion to reinforce him. General Thomas J. Rusk found the remains of the massacre victims in June 1836 and gave orders for a formal military funeral. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) On March 19, General Urrea had quickly advanced and surrounded 300 men in the Texian Army on the open prairie, near La Bahia (Goliad). Refresh the page, check Medium 's. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Many were killed or captured. They are going to shoot us! and at the same instant [John] heard the clicking of musket locks all along the Mexican line.[7], Dodging the first round of fire and avoiding a close encounter with the end of a bayonet, John C. Duval was subsequently able to reach the San Antonio River without being struck by the barrage of bullets that followed. This show of generosity after a hotly contested engagement is worthy of the highest commendation, Urrea wrote to Santa Anna, and I can do no less than to commend it to your Excellency.. [9] On March 14, Colonel William Ward and 200 men, who had been sent to help Captain Amon B. Read More. Instead, the Mexican commanding officer shot Fannin in the face, burned his body with the others and kept the timepiece as a war prize. [20][21], The entire Texian force was killed, except for 28 men who feigned death and escaped. Clarence R. Wharton, Remember Goliad (Houston: McCurdy-Young, 1931). Goliad Map. All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Fannin, because he was wounded, was shot separately at the mission on the same day. The Goliad Massacre, the tragic termination of the Goliad Campaign of 1836, is of all the episodes of the Texas Revolution the most infamous. News of the Goliad Massacre spread outrage, resentment, and fear among the population of the fledgling Republic of Texas and abroad. ASIN, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho62, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qeg02, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmi30, Urrea's right wing consisted of about 1000 soldiers; unknown number of executioners, 28 escaped, 20 spared as workers, 75 spared as unarmed captives. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [6] In late December, at his behest, the Mexican Congress passed the Tornel Decree, declaring that any foreigners fighting against Mexican troops "will be deemed pirates and dealt with as such, being citizens of no nation presently at war with the Republic and fighting under no recognized flag". The entire Texian force was killed, except for 28 men who feigned death and escaped. Harbert Davenport, James W. Fannin's Part in the Texas Revolution (MS, Harbert Davenport Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin). [7], Also spared were the 75 soldiers of William Parsons Miller and the Nashville Battalion, who had surrendered while still unarmed. Once the columns reached their selected location, the Mexican soldados formed into two ranks on one side of the captives. Enterprise. They were later marched to Matamoros. King and a group of men had been executed on March 16 at Refugio, but some 15 to 18 prisoners were marched to Goliad to serve as blacksmiths or mechanics. A decree issued by Santa Anna in December 1835 ordered that all foreigners fighting against the government would be treated as pirates and executed. William Lockhart Hunter [127] William Lockhart Hunter No Portrait Available William L. Hunter 1809 - 1886 Born in Virginia, June 5, 1809 Died at Austin, Tex. Lightboxes. It is part of the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The largest group, including what remained of Ward's Georgia Battalion and Capt. Urrea wrote in his diary that he "wished to elude these orders as far as possible without compromising my personal responsibility." [11] Weighted down with cannon and 500 extra guns, Fannin burned his extra supplies in an attempt to lighten the load. Only then were they made aware that Colonel Fannin and his men had already surrendered following the Battle of Coleto. James Fannin commanded troops stationed at Fort Defiance in Goliad. [citation needed]. Ward and the Georgia Battalion attempted to escape to Victoria, where they expected to link up with the balance of Fannin's command. [citation needed], Amon B. This was the massacre at Goliad. Handbook of Texas Online, Urrea departed Goliad, leaving Colonel Jos Nicols de la Portilla in command. Doctor's grandmother, Thelma Evans Hawkins, was a survivor of the Rosewood massacre. 1887; facsimile rpt., Austin: Steck, 1935). Coordinates: 283851N 972259W / 28.6476N 97.3830W / 28.6476; -97.3830. As bad as it was, that number would have been higher were it not for, as fate would have it, the wife of a Mexican officer. The troops sang "Home Sweet Home" on the night of March 26. Jack Shackelford, commander of the Red Rovers under James W. Fannin at Goliad, was a survivor and chronicler of the battle of Coleto and the Goliad Massacre. The Goliad Massacre occurred March 27, 1836, just three weeks after the battle of the Alamo. Massacre: The Goliad Witnesses Hardcover - June 13, 2014 by Michelle M. Haas (Compiler) 2 ratings Hardcover $44.95 3 Used from $58.13 11 New from $44.95 Sandwiched like a middle child between the fall of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, Goliad never gets the attention it deserves in the canon of Texas history. Still, Fannin became cheerful and reported to his men that the Mexicans were making arrangements for their departure. Twenty year old John Crittenden Duval and his older brother Burr were members of the large Kentucky contingent that answered the Texans' appeal in the early stage of the Revolution. captured in other encounters) were shot on March 27, Palm Sunday. This galvanized Texians and led to victory in their war for independence. 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