166 years later, Texas recalls the Goliad massacre
Posted on 03/24/2002 10:16:30 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
166 years later, Texas recalls the Goliad massacre
Historic battle helped gather support for cause against Mexico
03/24/2002
There likely isn't a Texan or an American who hasn't heard the famous cry, "Remember the Alamo!"
But what about Goliad?
It will be 166 years ago Wednesday that 342 Texians, most of whom had been surrendered by Col. James W. Fannin seven days earlier and held in the presidio at Goliad, were killed by Mexican soldiers.
The Goliad massacre came 21 days after the fall of the Alamo, amid Texas' fight for independence against Mexico. The Alamo had fallen to Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna's army after a 13-day siege and all of its 180-plus defenders had been killed. Santa Anna had given orders to his commanders that all foreigners taken in arms against the Mexican government were to be executed.
The siege and final battle at the Alamo is better known, but the Goliad massacre is credited by many historians with generating support for the Texas cause both within Texas and in the United States.
After the fall of the Alamo on March 6, Col. Fannin, who had been ordered to evacuate La Bahía and retreat northeastward to Victoria on the other side of the Guadalupe River, hesitated and didn't leave until March 19. It was too late; the Texians got only about 10 miles before they were caught by Mexican cavalry in open prairie. After a skirmish, they surrendered the next day.
The prisoners were marched back to La Bahía, under the impression that they were to be treated as prisoners of war. There, they were crowded into the church, remembered one of them, Herman Ehrenberg, a young (probably about 19 or 20) Prussian, who had been with the Texian army when it drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio (then called Bexar) in December 1835. He had spent part of the winter in the Alamo, but left before the siege began and joined Col. Fannin's troops in Goliad. He was captured with the others while retreating and marched back to La Bahía.
"[We] were stuffed into the old church for the night," he wrote later in a first-person account of his experiences, The Fight for Freedom in Texas in the Year 1836. "Literally stuffed, as we stood so close man to man that it was possible at the most for only one-fourth to even sit down. ... Many slept while standing, as the bodies were pressed so close against one another, it made it impossible to fall over. ... The next morning finally appeared, but with it still no liberation from this deathly dungeon. Our breakfast, as before, consisted of water."
Staying loyal
Ehrenberg wrote that he refused an offer made to Prussian citizens to defect to the Mexican side. He also noted that on the morning of March 26, soldiers brought in another 100 prisoners, volunteers from New York who had been captured.
That was also the day that Col. José Nicolás de la Portilla, the officer left in command of La Bahía, received a direct order from Santa Anna to execute the prisoners. Col. Portilla's superior, Gen. José de Urrea, had appealed to Santa Anna for clemency for the prisoners, but that reportedly had only outraged the Mexican commander.
The next morning, March 27, Palm Sunday, the prisoners were divided into three columns and marched out of the presidio. Ehrenberg's column proceeded in silence on the road toward Victoria. Then, without notice, they were marched off the road toward the San Antonio River and ordered to halt.
"At that moment, we heard the muffled rolling of a musket volley in the distance," Ehrenberg wrote later. "We looked at each other and cast questioning glances, first at ourselves and then at the Mexicans. Then another command 'Kneel down!' rang out from the lips of the Mexican officers. Only a few of us understood Spanish and could not, or would not, obey the order.
'Everything was quiet'
"The Mexican soldiers, who stood only three steps away, leveled their muskets at our chests, and we found ourselves terribly surprised. We still considered it impossible to believe that they were going to shoot us.
"... Sounds of a second volley thundered over to us from another direction, accompanied by confused cries, probably from those who were not immediately killed. This shocked our comrades out of their stark astonishment, which had lasted around five or six seconds ...
"A terrible cracking sound ... and then everything was quiet. A thick smoke slowly rolled towards the San Antonio. The blood of my lieutenant was on my clothing. Around me my friends quivered. ... I did not see more. Deciding quickly, I jumped up and, concealed by the black smoke of the powder, rushed down along the hedge to the river.
'Nothing to risk'
"... Only the rushing of the water was my guide. Then suddenly a powerful saber smashed me over the head. Before me, the figure of a little Mexican lieutenant appeared out of the dense smoke, and a second blow from him fell on my left arm, with which I had tried to ward off or parry the blow.
"I had nothing to risk and everything to gain. Either life or death! ... The smoke rolled like a black thundercloud over to the other side, and I stood with rapidly pounding heart on the rocks at the edge of the water. As the water flowed at my feet, behind me the hangmen were pursuing.
"Like a corps from hell, they came after me, but ... I threw myself into the rescuing floods."
After the bloodshed
Most historians agree that 342 men were executed at Goliad and 28 escaped. About 20 more were spared because they were physicians, orderlies, interpreters or mechanics.
Ehrenberg was one of those who escaped. He wandered around South Texas for two weeks and finally, nearly starved, he arrived at Gen. Urrea's camp. Posing as a lost traveler, he became a guest of the Mexican army until news came from San Jacinto that Santa Anna had been defeated.
At that final battle, the Texian battle cry was "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!"
After being discharged from the Texian army, Ehrenberg returned to Prussia, but later made his way back to America where he became known as an explorer, mapmaker and a '49er in the California gold rush.
Natalie Ornish is a Dallas-based free-lance writer. She is author of Ehrenberg: Goliad Survivor, Old West Explorer.
"Judge Roy Bean, the `Law West of the Pecos,' holding court at the old town of Langtry, Texas in 1900, trying a horse thief. This building was courthouse and saloon. No other peace officers in the locality at that time."
http://www.nara.gov/nara/nn/nns/west084.jpg
So where's Miss Lily??....................
BTW, I recently finished Jeff Shaara's novel about the MExican War, Gone For Soldiers. Really interesting book.
The Mexican Army was mostly used to terrorizing peasants and Indians. They fought against a modern army about as well as the Taliban did.
I didn't get a chance to see the PBS show you reference. We often don't recognize how much the non-political nature of our own armed forces contributes to their military effectiveness. A war in a country with a tradition of military generals combines the worst features of war and election campaigns.
I used to visit Goliad often when I was a little boy. It was one of my most favorite places to go. We could still find indian arrow heads in the Goliad area.Texas history owes a lot to it's German heritage! My Uncle (my Mom's brother-in-law) was German, from Minnesota. He passed away a couple of years ago and is dearly missed by all of us. He had a special sense of humor (dry humor) that we all appreciated and loved......My Grandfather was a Lutheran missionary to Texas (from Germany) and Goliad was one of the towns where he lived and preached.
I remember when I visited our good friends in Lockhart, Texas years ago, we loved looking for and finding the flint rock and hoped to find the arrowheads as well........
Thanks!
I have recently discovered that I may have had a relative killed at Goliad.
Mi Tierra Cafe & Bakery, in the market, just west of downtown. Eat in or dine al fresco on the patio.
A really good place to get to know San Antonio, which is one of America's finest cities.
As a teacher of American History I do teach both the saga of The Alamo and the subsequent JUSTICE of the attack at Goliad. This is very good stuff.Way to go, and thanks!But NEXT week, we are driving from Miami, Florida out to Texas to pick up our new born puppy and we intend to completely soak up the rich history of San Antonio. I'm going to take the tour of the Alamo but not tell the tour guide I'm a teacher of American History. See if she can guess my profession. LOL
Can any FREEPER out there recommend a good place to get STEAK; as well as a good Mexican restaurant in San Antonio that won't also eat the entire wallets of a pair of teachers?
Billie, you know of any good restaurants in SA for this good hard working FReeper teacher?........
Were those "mexcians"? I thought they were brown skinned Texans. Theres a lot of BS out there these days. Everyone but honkies call themselves "_____ Americans". I prefer to call myself just an American. I don't believe you can be both a Mexican and a Texan. Nor can you be a Mexican and an American. You are either a Mexican, or an American PERIOD. End of story.
Now, if you'll fight against mexcio to save Texas, you can call yourself a Texan. But, if you would run to the other side, or avoid the conflict, then you are no Texan.
That ought to have a salutary effect on the rest.
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