Grave of Colonel J. W. Fannin and His Men
Goliad, Goliad County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After battle of Coleto (March 19 - 20, 1836), where a Texas Army under Col. James Walker Fannin met defeat by Mexicans in superior numbers, the Texas soldiers were held in Presidio La Bahia, supposedly as war prisoners. However, by order of Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, approximately 400 of Fannin's men were marched out and massacred on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. The wounded were shot one by one in the fort compound. Col. Fannin was the last to die. Because of their profession, Drs. J. H. Barnard, J. E. Field and Jack Shackelford were spared; about 25 men were saved by a Mexican woman, "The Angel of Goliad". Approximately 30 escaped by feigning death or by swimming the San Antonio River. The Texans' corpses were stripped and partly burned, but left unburied. This atrocity three weeks after the fall of the Alamo gave Texans part of the battle cry--"Remember the Alamo! Remember La Bahia!"--under which decisive victory was won at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Gen. Thomas J. Rusk and the Texan Army afterwards marched here and gathered the bones of Fannin's men from the terrain. From Presidio La Bahia the remains were carried in procession to the grave, and there given a military funeral and burial on June 3, 1836. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Coming just after the Alamo's fall, the Goliad Massacre gave the Texas Revolution its rallying cry—"Remember the Alamo! Remember La Bahía!"—that carried the Texans to victory at San Jacinto.
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Related people
- · Col. James Walker Fannin
- · Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna
- · Gen. Thomas J. Rusk
Related events
- · Battle of Coleto
- · Goliad Massacre
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
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