Qualla: Goliad Massacre

Goliad Massacre: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hardraingonnafall, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel James Fannin made three final requests: send his personal possessions to his family, shoot him in the heart and not the face, and give him a Christian burial. The Mexican soldiers took his belongings, shot him in the face, and burned his body. Fannin was the last to die at Goliad on March 27, 1836, after watching his men -- between 425 and 445 Texian prisoners of war -- marched out of Fort Defiance in three columns, told they were gathering wood, then turned to face away from their captors and gunned down at point-blank range. The Goliad Massacre killed more Texians than the fall of the Alamo three weeks earlier, and the cry of "Remember Goliad!" would ring across the battlefield at San Jacinto just 24 days later.

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Image: Hardraingonnafall | CC BY-SA 4.0

Goliad Massacre: The Road to Fort Defiance

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P6150, CC BY-SA 3.0. The path to Goliad was paved with bad luck, bad orders, and worse timing. After Santa Anna learned that Texas rebels were moving toward Matamoros, he sent General Jose de Urrea north along the coast with 188 cavalry and 205 infantry, augmented by roughly 200 Tejano volunteers. Ur...

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Image: P6150 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Goliad Massacre: False Promises

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P6150, CC BY-SA 3.0. The two-day Battle of Coleto ended on March 20 when Fannin and the majority of his men voted to surrender. They were led to believe they would be paroled and released into the United States within weeks. Instead, they were marched back to their own fort, now their prison. Over th...

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Image: P6150 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Goliad Massacre: Palm Sunday Morning

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P6150, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of March 27, 1836 -- Palm Sunday -- Portilla ordered the prisoners marched out of Fort Defiance in three columns along the Bexar Road, San Patricio Road, and Victoria Road, flanked on both sides by Mexican soldiers. The sick and injured remained in the chapel. The ...

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Image: P6150 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Goliad Massacre: The Angel and the Survivors

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P6150, CC BY-SA 3.0. Not everyone died. Twenty-eight men feigned death and escaped, including Herman Ehrenberg, who later published an account of the massacre, and William Lockhart Hunter of the New Orleans Greys, who survived despite being bayoneted and clubbed with a musket. Four members of Shackel...

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Image: P6150 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Goliad Massacre: Remember Goliad

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The massacre ignited the Runaway Scrape, a panicked civilian flight across Texas. The Texians' charred remains were left in the open, exposed to vultures and coyotes. General Thomas J. Rusk found them in June 1836 and ordered a formal military burial southeast of the Presidio. Th...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0