Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna et al., The Mexican Side of the Texan Revolution, trans. He assured Fannin that there was no known instance where a prisoner of war who had trusted to the clemency of the Mexican government had lost his life, that he would recommend to General Santa Anna acceptance of the terms proposed by Fannin's men, and that he was confident of obtaining Santa Anna's approval within a period of eight days. At a prearranged moment, or upon a given signal, the guards fired upon the prisoners at a range too close to miss. This may have been correct. Some of the prisoners taken at Refugio but not executed with King's men are known to have been at Goliad, where they were again spared because they were serving the Mexican army as blacksmiths, wheelwrights, or other artisans. On March 19 he began his retreat, but he and his men were surrounded and forced to surrender at the battle of Coleto. The injured Fannin was the last to be slaughtered. It features an art deco relief sculpture and the names of the men who were killed.[32]. He also had a similar order sent directly to the "Officer Commanding the Post of Goliad". Twenty-eight Texians managed to escape by feigning death and other means. [11] The Texians were less than one mile (1.6km) from the safety of the tree line of Coleto Creek. Clarence R. Wharton, Remember Goliad (Houston: McCurdy-Young, 1931). Charles Adams Gulick, Jr., Harriet Smither, et al., eds., The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (6 vols., Austin: Texas State Library, 192027; rpt., Austin: Pemberton Press, 1968). The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do This (Or Any) 4th of July. Doctor's grandmother, Thelma Evans Hawkins, was a survivor of the Rosewood massacre. The Mexican soldiers who stood at about three paces from us, leveled their muskets at our breasts. The Goliad Massacre of March 27,1836 By: Jackson Kolb The massacre of Goliad the Goliad massacre was the termination of the survivors of the Alamo and battle of Goliad. Victor Marion Rose, History of Victoria (Laredo, 1883; rpt., Victoria, Texas: Book Mart, 1961). [9] On March 14, Colonel William Ward and 200 men, who had been sent to help Captain Amon B. The two sides clashed and fought until dark with Urrea's soldiers suffering heavy casualties,[12] when Colonel Ward received word from Fannin to rendezvous at Victoria. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Lightboxes. [1][2] Unrest continued in the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. That afternoon, Urrea's cavalry encircled the Texians. Henry Stuart Foote, Texas and the Texans (2 vols., Philadelphia: Cowperthwait, 1841; rpt., Austin: Steck, 1935). O'Connor (1966), pp. Portilla suffered an unquiet night weighing these conflicting orders, but he concluded that he was bound to obey Santa Anna's order and directed that the prisoners be shot at dawn. Six Texians escaped, five were recaptured and marched to Goliad. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Angeli Wright awright@vicad.com A Bible opened up to Psalm 22 is nailed to the tree. On the other hand, Maj. Juan Jos Holsinger, one of the Mexican commissioners, lulled their suspicions by entering the Texan lines with the greeting, "Well, gentlemen! Urrea detained about twenty of Ward's men to build boats at Guadalupe Victoria, and Seora Alavez intervened with her husband, Col. Telesforo Alavez, whom Urrea left in charge of this village, to spare their lives as well; they afterward escaped. He served with Bigfoot Wallace and Jack Hays in the Texas Rangers and was a veteran of the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. The massacre occurred only three weeks after the Battle of the Alamo and roughly four weeks before the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. "The Mexican Side of the Texas Revolution". They may have been added to the prisoners at Goliad and killed with Fannin on March 27. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}283851N 972259W / 28.6476N 97.3830W / 28.6476; -97.3830. King on a mission to Refugio on March 11, to remove several noncombatant families out of the path of Urrea's army. With cannons stationed at each corner of the square, the Texans held firm. Only then were they made aware that Colonel Fannin and his men had already surrendered following the Battle of Coleto. Colonel Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men executed. The Apache tribes disliked the Mexicans so, that when the United States went to war against Mexico, the Apache promised to provide them with safe passage through their lands. Save big when you register early. We need your support because we are a non-profit organization that relies upon contributions from our community in order to record and preserve the history of our state. This galvanized Texians and led to victory in their war for independence. The location of the gravesite was forgotten until years later, when human bone fragments were discovered by a group of boys. [1] Meanwhile, General Sam Houston had persuaded all but 70 to 100 men and their leaders, Frank W. Johnson and James Grant, to give up on the expedition and to defend locations in Texas, principally Goliad. The Texians were then fired on at point-blank range only a few hundred yards from the fort. Urrea complied to the extent of issuing an order to shoot his prisoners, along with those captured in the battle of Agua Dulce Creek, but he had no stomach for such cold-blooded killing; and when Father Thomas J. Malloy, priest of the Irish colonists, protested the execution, Urrea remitted the prisoners to Matamoros, asking Santa Anna's pardon for having done so and washing his hands of their fate. Those not killed were pursued and slaughtered by gunfire, bayonet, or lance. In some accounts of the Goliad Massacre, a Mexican woman, Francisca (Francita, Panchita or Pancheta) Alavez, sometimes referred to by other names (Alvarez or Alavesco), rescued about 20 Texian soldiers and became known as "The Angel of Goliad. [1] The Goliad Massacre, also referred to as The Goliad Execution, was the brutal shooting of Texas soldiers by Mexican forces. Back at the presidio, the Mexicans executed the wounded against the chapel wall and even shot them in their makeshift beds. The outcome was The Goliad massacre, set in the town of Goliad on March 27, 1836, was the killing of Republic of Texas soldier-prisoners and their commander, James Fannin, during the Texas Revolution by the Mexican Army under orders from General and President of Mexico Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Fannin, however, lacked the same urgency as the orders he received on March 14, 1836. Only twenty-eight escaped the firing squads, and twenty more were spared as physicians, orderlies, interpreters, or mechanics largely because of the entreaties of a "high bred beauty" whom the Texans called the "Angel of Goliad" (see ALAVEZ, FRANCITA), and the brave and kindly intervention of Col. Francisco Garay. On March 15, as their ammunition ran short, Texians retreated from Refugio. 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. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. [2] In November 1835, John C. Duval volunteered for a company organized in Kentucky by his brother, Burr H. Duval, with the plan to go to fight in Texas. Ehrenberg: Goliad Survivor, Old West Explorer: A Biography by Natalie Ornish,, Herman Ehrenberg Print length 403 pages Language English Publisher Texas Heritage Pr Publication date January 1, 1997 Dimensions 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches ISBN-10 0962075515 ISBN-13 978-0962075513 See all details Books with Buzz The Texians thought they would likely be set free in a few weeks. In this critical predicament, Fannin and the majority of the men voted to surrender the Texian forces on March 20. He freed more than 20 others who he determined to be Mexicans or colonists, so he would not be hindered by taking prisoners along on his advance on Fannin's force. Wounded survivors were clubbed and knifed to death. 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. Upon his death in 1897 at the age of 81, Duval was the last living survivor of the Goliad Massacre.[10]. They had first given this account at a ranch where they had taken refuge after the escape. accessed January 19, 2023, Hobart Huson, Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from Aboriginal Times to 1953 (2 vols., Woodsboro, Texas: Rooke Foundation, 1953, 1955). thesis, University of Houston, 1941). Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna continued to sweep across Texas toward Fort Defiance, the presidio in Goliad that had been seized by the rebels in October 1835 at the onset of the war for independence. Even on the move, Fannins long-delayed retreat advanced at a sluggish pace. General Urrea departed Goliad, leaving command to Colonel Jos Nicols de la Portilla. Once the columns reached their selected location, the Mexican soldados formed into two ranks on one side of the captives. Fannin and some forty (Pea estimated eighty or ninety) wounded Texans unable to march were put to death within the presidio under the direction of Capt. Carolino Huerta of the Tres Villas battalion. The gist of these was that Fannin and his men, including his officers and the wounded, should be treated as prisoners of war according to the usages of civilized nations and, as soon as possible, paroled and returned to the United States. Harbert Davenport and Craig H. Roell, "GOLIAD MASSACRE,", Craig H. Roell, "MILLER, WILLIAM PARSONS,", http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho62, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qeg02, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmi30, "Goliad State Park & Historic Site Goliad Area Historic Sites Texas Parks & Wildlife Department", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goliad_massacre&oldid=1132816542, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 18:59. [citation needed], On March 2, at the Battle of Agua Dulce, James Grant was killed, as were 11 other men under his command. Urrea departed Goliad, leaving Colonel Jos Nicols de la Portilla in command. "There is a rank due to the United States, among nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. [12] Led to believe that they would be paroled and released into the United States, they were returned to the fort at Goliad, now their prison. [16] Fannin was unaware General Santa Anna had decreed execution for all rebels. Coordinates: 283851N 972259W / 28.6476N 97.3830W / 28.6476; -97.3830. A two day Battle of Coleto ensued with the Texians holding their own on the first day. For information about how to add references, see, Matthew Ellenberger, "HORTON, ALBERT CLINTON," Handbook of Texas Online (, Harbert Davenport and Craig H. Roell, "GOLIAD MASSACRE," Handbook of Texas Online (, Craig H. Roell, "MILLER, WILLIAM PARSONS," Handbook of Texas Online (, Castaneda, H.W. King's men and at Victoria he saved twenty-six of Lt. Col. William Ward's troops by claiming to need them to transport cannons across the San Antonio River[21]), Colonel Garay, Father Maloney (also referred as Molloy), Urrea's wife and an unnamed girl. The men were marched instead to Matamoros after the battle of San Jacinto. captured in other encounters) were shot on March 27, Palm Sunday. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Santa Anna's Mexican army killed virtually all of the roughly 200 Texans (or Texians) defending the Alamo, including their leaders, Colonels William B. Travis and James Bowie, and the legendary. General Thomas J. Rusk found the remains of the massacre victims in June 1836 and gave orders for a formal military funeral. The THC has been the state agency for historic preservation for more than 60 years. The Goliad Campaign was the 1836 Mexican offensive to retake the Texas Gulf Coast during the Texas Revolution. by Charlotte Churchill, With Milam and Fannin, Austin: Pemberton Press, 1968). 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 . Surrounded on all sides and heavily outnumbered, Colonel Fannin surrendered, and terms of the capitulation were agreed upon near Coleto Creek. According to the written terms, Fannins men were to be treated as prisoners of war under international custom and would be released back to the United States. Some 350 to 400 Texians had been marched to their deaths after capture by the Mexican army during a bungled escape by Colonel James Fannin. The conflict, a part of the Texas Revolution, was the first step in Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's attempt to retake the province of Texas after an insurgent army of Texian settlers and adventurers from the United States had driven out all Mexican troops the previous year. He said the Texan prisoners and American volunteers numbered about 400, while the Mexican captors totaled 700, in addition to cavalry and smaller groups of Mexican soldiers he saw gathered on the prairie. The prisoners held little suspicion of their fate, for they had been told a variety of stories-they were to gather wood, drive cattle, be marched to Matamoros, or proceed to the port of Copano for passage to New Orleans. Believing that he had found an effective deterrent to expected American help for Texas, Santa Anna sought and obtained from the Mexican Congress the decree of December 30, 1835, which directed that all foreigners taken in arms against the government should be treated as pirates and shot. While the sick and wounded remained in the chapel, the other three groups were escorted on different roads out of town. Harbert Davenport and Craig H. Roell. In Goliad. Instead, the Mexican commanding officer shot Fannin in the face, burned his body with the others and kept the timepiece as a war prize. 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). https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goliad-massacre. Fannin's men possessed, besides their rifles, 500 spare muskets and nine brass cannons and, if told that it would mean death to surrender, could sell their lives at fearful cost and might cut their way through Urrea's lines. O massacre foi relutantemente realizado pelo general Jos de Urrea sob as ordens do presidente do Mxico, Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna . They were advised not to take off the arm band, since Mexican troops were hunting for those few who had escaped from Coleto, Victoria, and the massacre itself. 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