03-27 Goliad Massacre1

Today in Texas HistoryOn the trail to Texas independence.Mar 27, 1836 – Goliad MassacreUrrea had departed Goliad the evening before, leaving Colonel José Nicolás de la Portilla in command. Urrea had written to Santa Anna to ask for clemency for the Texians, but as has been noted, General Santa Anna countermanded that request.The prisoners at Goliad 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. Only the day before, Fannin himself, with his adjutant general, Joseph M. Chadwick, had returned from Copano, where, accompanied by Holsinger and other Mexican officers, they had tried to charter the vessel on which William P. Miller's Nashville Battalion had arrived earlier (these men had been captured and imprisoned at Goliad, also).The prisoners who could walk were gathered at the gates of Presidio La Bahía Goliad in preparation for what they thought would be a march to Copano for their voyage to New Orleans. The prisoners were divided into three groups, each taking a different road out of Goliad. At selected spots on each of the three roads, from half to three-fourths of a mile from the presidio, the three groups were halted. The guard on the right of the column of prisoners then countermarched and formed with the guard on the left. At a prearranged moment, or upon a given signal, the guards fired upon the prisoners at a range too close to miss. Nearly all were killed at the first fire. Those not killed were pursued and slaughtered by gunfire, bayonet, or lance. Fannin and some forty (Peña 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 wounded men who could not walk were executed inside the fort compound. Col James Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men killed. 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). He made three requests: he asked for his personal possessions to be sent to his family, to be shot in his heart and not his face, and to be given a Christian burial. The soldiers took his belongings, shot him in the face, and burned Fannin's body along with the other Texans who died that day.General Sam Houston and his army camp near San Felipe de Austin.Renderings: Prisoners marching from Presidio La Bahía - Goliad, the massacre of the Texan soldiers and volunteers, the execution of Col James Fannin.