Battle of Coleto and Goliad Massacre
Fannin, Goliad County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After the fall of the Alamo, March 6, 1836, Colonel James Walker Fannin, with about 400 soldiers, mostly volunteers from the United States in the Texas War for Independence, was ordered by Texas General Sam Houston to retreat from Goliad to Victoria. March 19, the heavy Mexican force of General Urrea surrounded the withdrawing Texas contingent near Coleto Creek, and bitter fighting ensued. Fannin's volunteers hurled back the assaults of the Mexican force. On the following day, faced with several times their number, the Texans surrendered in the belief they would be treated as prisoners of war of a civilized nation. After removal to Goliad, the Fannin men were marched out and massacred on Palm Sunday under orders of Santa Anna, the general of the Mexican armies. Thus dictator Santa Anna added another infamy to that of the Alamo and gave to the men who saved Texas at San Jacinto their battle cry, "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad". The memorial to Fannin and his men is near Goliad. (1974)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the fall of the Alamo in March 1836, Colonel James Walker Fannin and some 400 men, many of them volunteers from the United States, were ordered to retreat from Goliad toward Victoria. General Urrea's Mexican force surrounded them near Coleto Creek on March 19, and after fierce fighting the outnumbered Texans surrendered, expecting to be treated as prisoners of war. Instead, on Palm Sunday they were marched out and executed at Goliad on Santa Anna's orders—an atrocity that, with the Alamo, gave the victors at San Jacinto their cry, "Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad."
Why it matters
The massacre transformed the Texas Revolution, hardening resolve and turning defeat into the rallying cry that won independence.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Walker Fannin
- · Sam Houston
- · Antonio López de Santa Anna
- · José de Urrea
Related events
- · Battle of Coleto
- · Goliad Massacre
- · Battle of the Alamo
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Battle of El Perdido
Fannin, TX
On June 19, 1817, during the long struggle to expel Spain from Texas, a small Republican force of 42 men under Col. Henry Perry and Maj. James H. Gordon — both veterans of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans — clashed here with the Spanish troops of Gov. Antonio Martinez while marching to attack La Bahia. Outnumbered three to one, Perry and Gordon refused an offer of safe surrender, declaring they would die first, and fell with 24 of their men.
Grave of Colonel J. W. Fannin and His Men
Goliad, TX
After Col. James Walker Fannin's outnumbered Texas force surrendered following the Battle of Coleto in March 1836, Santa Anna ordered the prisoners held at Presidio La Bahía executed. On Palm Sunday, roughly 400 men were marched out and massacred and the wounded shot within the fort, with Fannin himself the last to die; a handful were spared by their medical skill or saved by the "Angel of Goliad," and about thirty escaped. Weeks later Gen. Thomas J. Rusk's army gathered the scattered remains and gave them a military burial here on June 3, 1836.
Angel of Goliad
Goliad, TX
In the spring of 1836, as the Texas Revolution turned brutal, a woman remembered as Francisca Alavez moved among the Mexican army's prisoners performing quiet acts of mercy. She loosened cruel bindings, brought food and water, hid men, and pleaded for lives at Copano, Goliad and beyond—saving some of the very Texian captives marked for the Goliad Massacre, in which hundreds were shot on Santa Anna's orders. A survivor's memoir immortalized her as the 'Angel of Goliad.'
Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia
Goliad, TX
Founded in 1722 and re-established at Goliad in 1749, the Presidio La Bahia is among the most storied Spanish forts in Texas, guarding the nearby Espiritu Santo Mission. Its walls rang through the age of revolution—filibustering expeditions under Gutierrez-Magee, James Long, and Henry Perry assailed it, and in 1835 ninety-two citizens signed Texas's first formal declaration of independence within it. In 1836 Colonel James Fannin and more than 340 men were held here and massacred on Palm Sunday, one of the darkest days of the Texas Revolution. A meticulous 1960s restoration uncovered nine layers of occupation.