Qualla: Battle of Coleto https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/e/goliad-wk/presidio-nuestra-senora-de-lor.jpg Qualla: Battle of Coleto https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto Battle of Coleto: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Jkulick, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel James Fannin had every reason to move fast and none of the instinct for it. On the morning of March 19, 1836, his retreating column of Texian soldiers departed Goliad under heavy fog, dragging nine heavy artillery pieces and a thousand muskets behind hungry, exhausted oxen. They had no water. They had little food. And they had a two-hour head start on General José de Urrea's Mexican cavalry that Fannin methodically squandered -- stopping to fix a broken cart at the San Antonio River, pausing to let the oxen graze, dismissing warnings from his own officers that they should press on to the timber at Coleto Creek. By early afternoon, the Mexican cavalry had closed the gap, and Fannin's men stood trapped on open prairie with the tree line tantalizingly in sight.

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Image: Jkulick | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Coleto: A Square on the Prairie https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Jkulick, CC BY-SA 4.0. With no cover and no choice, the Texians formed a hollow square three ranks deep. The San Antonio Greys and the Red Rovers held the front line. Burr H. Duval's Mustangs and Hugh McDonald Frazer's Refugio militia formed the rear. Ira Westover's regulars covered the left flank whil...

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Image: Jkulick | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-a-square-on-the-prairie.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Coleto: The Long Night https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Jkulick, CC BY-SA 4.0. By sunset on March 19, Dr. Joseph H. Barnard recorded seven Texians dead and sixty wounded, including Fannin himself. Forty of the sixty had been hit multiple times. The Mexicans had also suffered heavy casualties. After dark, Urrea positioned sharpshooters in the tall grass arou...

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Image: Jkulick | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-the-long-night.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Coleto: Surrender at Dawn https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Jkulick, CC BY-SA 4.0. During the night, the Texians dug trenches and piled up barricades of overturned carts and dead animals. Some officers proposed escaping under cover of darkness, but the idea was rejected because it meant abandoning friends and relatives too badly wounded to move. Urrea, meanwhil...

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Image: Jkulick | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-surrender-at-dawn.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Coleto: Palm Sunday https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Hardraingonnafall, CC BY-SA 4.0. The walking wounded were marched back to Goliad under Mexican escort. Those too injured to walk took until March 23 to be transported. Urrea moved on toward Victoria, writing to Santa Anna to recommend clemency for the prisoners. Santa Anna had already received authorization from...

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Image: Hardraingonnafall | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-palm-sunday.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Coleto: The Ground That Remembers https://qualla.com/battle-of-coleto/ Photo credit Andrew Jackson Houston (d. 1941), Public domain. The Battle of Coleto revealed something unexpected about the Texian army. Despite being largely untrained volunteers -- merchants, farmers, adventurers from Alabama and Kentucky -- they held a hollow square on open ground against a professional military force through three full c...

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Image: Andrew Jackson Houston (d. 1941) | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/4/g/battle-of-coleto-wp/9v4g-battle-of-coleto-the-ground-that-remembers.mp3 0:06 6 full