Today in Texas History: Soldiers executed in Goliad Massacre
On this date in 1836, some 342 Texan soldiers were executed by the Mexican army in what would be known as the Goliad Massacre.
Mexican Pres. and Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a policy of executing all foreigners captured in battle when 28 prisoners from an attack on Tampico were tried and convicted as pirates, and shot on Dec. 14, 1835. Under Santa Anna's urging, the Mexican Congress passed the decree of Dec. 30, 1835, directing that every foreigner captured in battle against the Mexican government be tried as pirates and shot.
On March 20, 1836, James W. Fannin and his men surrendered to the forces of Gen. Jose de Urrea following the Battle of Coleto. In this case, the Texans were outnumbered but heavily armed, and Fannin agreed to surrender only after obtaining personal assurance from Urrea of his confidence that Santa Anna would agree to return the Texans to the United States alive. About 230 or 240 uninjured or slightly injured Texans were marched to Goliad and imprisoned at Nuestra Senora de Loreta Presidio La Bahia, with about 50 wounded Texans, including Fannin, arriving in Goliad over the next two days.
On March 25, about 80 Texan prisoners from the battle of Refugio joined the prisoners in Goliad.
In Guadalupe Victoria, Urrea wrote a letter to Santa Anna recommending clemency for the prisoners. Santa Anna replied by ordering immediate execution of the prisoners, in two separate letters on consecutive days. He also sent a direct order to the head officer at Goliad, Col. Jose Nicolas de la Portilla, to execute the prisoners. Portilla received Santa Anna's orders on March 26. Two hours later he received orders from Urrea instructing him to treat the prisoners humanely. Portilla decided that he had to obey Santa Anna's orders.
At dawn on Palm Sunday, March 27, the Mexican soldiers formed the unwounded Texan prisoners into three groups and marched them in three different directions. About one half to three-quarters of a mile from La Bahia, the Mexican soldiers halted, turned on the prisoners, and fired upon them at close range. The prisoners who survived the first fire were killed by bullets, bayonet or lance. Meanwhile, about 40 wounded Texans, including Fannin, were executed within La Bahia.
In total, 28 Texans managed to escape the firing squads. The "Angel of Goliad," Francita Alavez and Col. Francisco Garay, intervened to save 20 more.
The bodies of the executed men were burned and left unburied, until June 3, 1836, when Gen. Thomas Rusk's soldiers passed through Goliad, gathered the remains and buried them with military honors.
In about 1858, Goliad merchant George von Dohlen marked the grave site with a pile of rocks. In April, 1885, a memorial was erected in the City of Goliad.
In 1936, money was raised to build a pink granite monument in celebration of the Texas Centennial. The monument was dedicated at the grave site on June 4, 1938.
According to the Handbook of Texas Online: "The execution of James W. Fannin, Jr.'s, command in the Goliad Massacre was not without precedent, however, and Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna, who ultimately ordered the exterminations, was operating within Mexican law."
And: "The impact of the Goliad Massacre was crucial.
Until this episode Santa Anna's reputation had been that of a cunning and crafty man, rather than a cruel one.
When the Goliad prisoners were taken, Texas had no other army in the field[...], and the newly constituted ad interim government seemed incapable of forming one.
The Texas cause was dependent on the material aid and sympathy of the United States. Had Fannin's and Miller's men been dumped on the wharves at New Orleans penniless, homesick, humiliated, and distressed, and each with his separate tale of Texas mismanagement and incompetence, Texas prestige in the United States would most likely have fallen, along with sources of help.
But Portilla's volleys at Goliad, together with the fall of the Alamo, branded both Santa Anna and the Mexican people with a reputation for cruelty and aroused the fury of the people of Texas, the United States, and even Great Britain and France, thus considerably promoting the success of the Texas Revolution."
God Bless Texas! Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!
