In March 1836, with General Jose de Urrea’s Mexican army advancing on his position,

 In March 1836, with General Jose de Urrea’s Mexican army advancing on his position,


Colonel James Fannin of the Texas Army made the fateful decision to abandon his fortified post at Fort Defiance and retreat. Encumbered by heavy artillery and baggage, Fannin’s greatly outnumbered force was soon overtaken by the Mexicans and surrounded. The battle that followed convinced Fannin that his situation was hopeless, and he opened surrender negotiations. After being led to believe his men would be paroled and deported, Fannin surrendered his army. Fannin’s defeat became the latest in a series of stinging Mexican victories over the Texas revolutionaries.


Supreme Mexican commander General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana had no intention, however, of releasing Fannin and his men. The previous December he had caused the Mexican Congress to pass a law declaring that all captured “foreigners” were to be treated as pirates and executed. So, Santa Ana ordered de Urrea to put his prisoners to death. 


At daybreak on Palm Sunday, the captured Texians were marched out of the prison camp under heavy guard, believing that they were being taken to a ship that would carry them to New Orleans. About a half mile from the camp, the Mexican soldiers, halted, turned toward the prisoners, and opened fire at point blank range. Nearly all the Texians were killed immediately. Those who survived the volley were bayoneted or clubbed to death. Back at the camp, the wounded prisoners who had been left behind because they unable to march (including Fannin) were likewise slaughtered. The bodies of the victims, 342 in all, were thrown into a pile and burned, their charred remains left for vultures and coyotes.


The capture and massacre of Fannin’s army came after Mexican victories at San Patricio, Agua Dulce, the Alamo, and Refugio. Before it was captured, Fannin’s command had been the last remaining Texas army in the field. Had Fannin’s men been paroled and deported to New Orleans, their humiliating defeat might have been the end of the Texas Revolution. But 28 of the Texas prisoners escaped during the chaos of the massacre and carried the story of the atrocity to horrified and infuriated Texians and the American press. The massacre established Santa Ana’s reputation for cruelty and stirred the spirit of Texians, while winning support for their cause in the United States, Great Britain, and France. A month later Sam Houston’s ragtag army defeated Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto, securing Texas independence.


The Goliad Massacre occurred on March 27, 1836, one hundred eighty-eight years ago today.

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