GOLIAD - 3/27/1836

3/27/1836 - On Palm Sunday of 1836, 21-days after the thirteen day siege of the Alamo by troops led by Mexican President-General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ends in the deaths of Lt. Colonel William Barret Travis and his entire command of 256 men, the Texas Revolution grows even bloodier when over 400 unarmed Texas captives from the Battle of Refugio and the Battle of Coleto are executed at Fort Defiance (Presidio La Bahia in the town of Goliad), Texas, and on three roads outside the fort, by soldiers of Lt. Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla.

Murder

Texas once a wilderness sparring ground for Indians, Spanish, French, Mexicans, Tejanos (Hispanic Texans), and transplants from the United States explodes with violence as revolution comes to the region in October of 1835.  Unhappy at laws governing their lives (one of which is that Roman Catholicism is the official, and only, religion of the country) coming from a volatile legislature hundreds of miles away in Mexico City, and then from a power hungry tyrant, Antonio de Padua Maria Severino Lopez de Santa de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron, open warfare breaks out after Santa Anna sends his brother-in-law, General Martin Perfecto de Cos to the south Texas port of Copano (now a ghost town five miles north of the present-day town of Bayside) with 500 soldiers to put down any potential disturbances from the locals that might lead to insurrection ... a decision that instead leads to the exact outcome it was suppose to prevent when American-born (Virginia) empresario Stephen Fuller Austin calls on all Texas municipalities to raise militias and defend themselves from the incursion.  Everyone seemingly search for a spark to set off the fighting, the explosion takes place when a hundred Mexican dragoons under the command of Lt. Francisco de Castaneda try to take back a small cannon loaned to the citizens of Gonzales to defend themselves from Comanche warriors and are denied the weapon by John Henry Moore and 140 Texas volunteers, flying a flag that states, "COME AND TAKE IT," in a brief early morning skirmish that sees two Mexican soldiers killed and one Texan injured (when he falls off his horse).  The skirmish built up into a tale of righteousness besting oppression, in the aftermath of the October 2nd encounter, an influx of North Americans flood into the region to support the Texans, and by popular acclaim, Austin is put in charge of the volunteer army that gathers at Gonzales (despite having no military experience, his first order to his vagabond command is that the men obey their officers).  Santa Anna in turn reacts by deciding to send an army of 6,019 men into the region, with himself at it's head (massive ego on display, he calls himself "The Napoleon of the West"), and a new law (The Tonal Decree) is passed by the Mexican legislature justifying his coming actions that states foreigners fighting against Mexican troops will be considered pirates and treated accordingly if captured.

Santa Anna & Cos

Austin & Moore

The Battle Of Gonzales

Santa Anna's march north begins in December of 1835 and is a horrible slog the entire way into Texas; there are not enough mules to carry all of the army's supplies, and teamster civilians quit when their pay is late, the men are without heavy coats and blankets despite facing record low temperatures and over a foot of snow, medical supplies and doctors are lacking, and for those that fall behind (also on the march with the troops are a large congregation of sweethearts and children of the soldiers, soldaderas), there are unseen Comanches around to winnow the weak.  Arriving in Saltillo, the army is joined by Cos and Santa Anna discovers the Texans have bested his brother-in-law at San Antonio de Bexar and taken control of the Texas coast, releasing the defeated men on the promise that they will fight no more in Texas (which Santa Anna ignores, believing words given to rebels don't count).  Angry and embarrassed, upon hearing that a rebel force is headed to Matamoros, Santa Anna orders General Jose de Urrea to lead a small force up the Atascocita Road against the Texans occupying the town of Goliad (chiefly within the town's Presidio La Bahia, renamed Fort Defiance), while the main force continues toward San Antonio de Bexar and the bulk of the rebel army, now commanded by former Tennessee politician, Samuel Houston (retreating before the superior force headed his way, the general takes his army north, leaving behind a small force to delay Santa Anna from defensive positions at the town's Alamo Mission).

Urrea

Fort Defiance

Houston

Awaiting Urrea at Goliad, at the behest of Houston, is the small command of a plantation owner and slave trader, a former cadet at West Point (he leaves the military academy in 1821 to take care of his ailing grandparents in Georgia), 32-year-old Colonel James Walker Fannin Jr.  Becoming involved in the Texas Revolution from it's beginning, Fannin takes part in the Battle of Gonzales, fights under the command of Jim Bowie at the Battle of Concepcion, takes part in the failed Texan campaign to take the Mexican city of Matamoros, and from Goliad, launches a failed expedition to relieve the Texans fighting at the Alamo (300 men and 4 canons that fail to make the 90 mile march to the San Antonio mission).  Before another expedition can be mounted, in February, Urrea arrives in the region with his command of over 500 soldiers and there are no more thoughts of marching to San Antonio.  At 3:00 a.m. on February 27th, an advance patrol of Urrea's force surprises a force of 43 men under the command of Frank Johnson at what will be called the Battle of San Patricio ... a small clash in which Urrea's force kills 16 men and takes 24 soldiers prisoner (Johnson is one of only five men to escape and is able to make his way to Goliad and report the presence of Mexican troops in the area to Fannin, who responds by bringing most of his command back into Fort Defiance) before continuing their march.  On March 2nd, another small skirmish takes place (it will be called the Battle of Agua Dulce Creek) in which a unit of 53 Texans are ambushed and defeated by Urrea's cavalry.  And it gets no better for the Texas rebels when a force of 200 men, under the command of Lt. Colonel William Ward (a transplant from Macon, Georgia) attempt to assist Captain Amon B. King in evacuating rebel colonists from the town of Refugio, and find themselves surrounded by Urrea (his force has now swollen to 1,500 men thanks to local recruits that support Santa Anna's government in Mexico City) and defeated at what will be known as the Battle of Refugio (King will be killed, while Ward and most of his men escape back into Goliad (thanks to a blinding rainstorm); a loss made worse by the capture of dispatches from Fannin dealing with how he will respond to Urrea's force.

Texas 1835 - 1836

Fannin

Recognizing what is coming and not wanting another Alamo, Houston orders Fannin to abandon Goliad and retreat to the general's position with the Texas army at the town of Victoria.  In a heavy fog, at 9:00 in the morning, the retreat begins ... along with the frontiersmen and militia of the San Antonio Greys, the Red Rovers, the Mustangs of Burr Duval, the Refugio soldiers of Hugh McDonald Frazier, the Mobile Greys, and Texas army soldiers of Ira Westover, the Goliad garrison carries nine heavy artillery pieces, 1,000 spare muskets, and supplies on carts pulled by weary oxen.  Reaching the San Antonio River, a cart breaks, dropping a cannon in the river, but instead of continuing towards Victoria, against the advice of several of his officers that don't want to stop until the relative safety of a stand of timber near Coleto Creek is reached, Fannin stops to raise the cannon out of the river and let the oxen graze in a nearby meadow, believing Urrea will not pursue his force.  It is a fatal error in judgment.  Not discovering the garrison has fled Goliad until 11:00 a.m., Urrea immediately sets a portion of his men (80 horsemen and 360 infantrymen) in motion to catch Fannin out in the open.  Shortly after the retreat begins anew, the column comes to a halt again when another cart breaks down and it's supplies are transferred to more viable transportation, with more time subsequently lost.  Then within sight of the timbered heights of Coleto Creek, just 500 yards away, the ammunition cart breaks down just as Urrea's force arrives and surrounds Fannin's command.  Responding to the surprise, Fannin's force forms a square three ranks deep, with each man handling multiple muskets as the Mexicans launch their first attack of the day.  Using bayonets, their muskets and the artillery, the Texans beat off three separate attacks upon their ranks before nightfall finally arrives; a successful defense the nonetheless results in Fannin's force suffering ten men dead, and another sixty, including Fannin, wounded, some multiple times (Urrea's force suffers heavy casualties too, but exact numbers are never tallied).  Without water for the men or to keep the cannons cool, weary from the fighting and Mexican bugles and sharpshooter fire keeping the men up all night, with Urrea receiving reinforcements and the artillery he left behind at Goliad, the decision is made to meet with the general about "honorable" terms of surrender that include the Texan wounded being treated, the surrendered receiving the protections of prisoners of war, and that Fannin's men will eventually be paroled to the United State of America.  Knowing the terms don't match what Santa Anna expects from his command, Urrea agrees to try to persuade Santa Anna differently, and with that the best the Texans can do, Fannin, Benjamin C. Wallace, and Joseph M. Chadwick sign a document of surrender and the two-day battle of Coleto ends, and the defeated men begin marching back to Goliad.

The Coleto Square

Fighting From The Square

Survivors gathered at Fort Defiance (including those taken prisoner in other recent actions), the men await a parole that never comes.  Urrea writes Santa Anna asking for mercy for Fannin and his men, but still irked that he is having to put down a revolt, and blood lust up after slaughtering the Alamo command, the general rejects clemency and tells Urrea, and Lt. Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla (now in command at Goliad after Urrea returns to Santa Anna's main force) to execute the rebels as ordered (Portilla, under the auspices of Francita Alavez, a camp follower of her colonel husband, who will be known as "the Angel of Goliad," spares about 100 prisoners to serve as tradesmen, translators, and doctors for the Mexican Army ... each man wears a white armband so they will not be shot).  Believing he has no choice but to execute the men as ordered (and ignoring Urrea's counter orders not to harm the Texans captured), on March 27th, at dawn of Palm Sunday of 1836, the captives capable of marching are brought out of Fort Defiance, divided in three columns (between 425 and 445 men), and walked down the Bexar (the guards of the three columns are commanded by Captain Pedro Balderas, Captain Antonio Ramirez, and First Adjutant Agustin Alcerrica), San Patricio, and Victoria Roads.  Believing they are on their way to the coast prior to being sent to the United States port of New Orleans (thinking they are about to be freed, the men sing "Home Sweet Home" to each other the night before), about a mile outside of Goliad, each group is stopped and shot down at point blank range by their guards, with those only wounded then being bayonetted or impaled on cavalry lances (28 men successful creep into the brush lining the roads and manage to escape, including William Lockhart Hunter, who survives despite being bayonetted and clubbed on the head with a musket).  Inside Fort Defiance, the thirty-nine prisoners incapable of walking (a fortieth, Jack Shackleford is spared because he is a doctor) are executed by a firing squad against a wall of the compound's chapel, the killers under the command of Captain Carolino Huerta.     

Portilla

Angel Of Goliad Monument

Death March

Execution

Back At The Fort

Cruely, knowing his command has been slaughtered and he has been duped by Mexican lies about parole, Fannin is the last man to be executed.  Stoic knowing what is to happen, Fannin is put in a chair (his leg wound prevents his walking or standing), blindfolded, and asked by Huerta if he has any last wishes.  And the Colonel does, telling his executioner to shoot him in the chest and not the face, to send his gold watch to his family, and to give his corpse a Christian burial.  Instead, three for three, Fannin is shot in the face, the watch is pocketed by the captain, and he is dumped on top of the other dead of his command, set on fire, and is left unburied among the remains of his men, to be feasted on by vultures and coyotes.  It is a bloody bad ending for Fannin and his command (when the executions end, almost 500 men have been put to death), but one in which the seeds of victory have been planted by the dead Texans (and the sacrifices made by the defenders of the Alamo).  Hubris immense as he crushes the rebels he meets, Santa Anna is lured deeper into Texas, where he is eventually ambushed by Houston and his cohorts at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.  Attacking screaming "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember La Bahia (Goliad), in a battle that lasts only 18 minutes (the payback killings however will go on for hours despite the efforts of Houston and his officers trying to restrain their victorious soldiers), Santa Anna's command is crushed by the Texans, suffering losses of 650 dead, 208 wounded, and 300 soldiers taken captive (one of the captives is Santa Anna, who is found hiding, disguised as a private ... he is kept alive to negotiate with other units of his army to give the Texans the freedom they have been fighting for), while Houston's force suffers only 11 dead and 30 men wounded (one of which is Houston, who is wounded in the foot).

Fannin Makes His Wishes Known

The Battle Of San Jacinto

Surrender At San Jacinto

Never as famous to the rest of the world, lacking figures like Travis, Crockett, and Bowie, and missing moments like the line in the sand, a fight versus a surrender and execution, the slaughter that takes place at Goliad is nonetheless remembered by the citizens of Texas to this day.  For over two months the dead will lay exposed to carrion eaters and the weather, but will finally receive a mass burial with full military honors when after San Jacinto, in June, General Thomas J. Rusk passes through the area in pursuit of the retreating command of General Vicente Filisola.  The common grave of the Goliad dead remains unmarked until 1858, when a Goliad merchant named George von Dohlen places a cairn of stones on the site.  A memorial to the dead is finally raised in Goliad in 1885 by the Fannin Monument Association formed by a survivor of the massacre, William L. Hunter.  In 1932, after local boy scouts find bites of bone, an investigation of the site by the University of Texas confirms the location and contents of the mass grave, and in 1936, as Texas is celebrating its centennial, money is appropriated to erect a huge pink granite monument dedicated to the dead at the gravesite.  The memorial is officially dedicated on June 4, 1938, with historian Harbert Davenport presenting an address that will later be published called "The Men of Goliad" (there is also a memorial at the site of the Battle of Coleto in the 14-acre Fannin Battleground State Historic Site that is established by the residents of Goliad County in 1913).

Rusk

Fannin Battleground

The Fannin Memorial

3/27/1836 ... Remember La Bahia indeed!

The First Republic Of Texas Flag

 

  

   

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