166 years later, Texas recalls the Goliad massacre - "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!"

The Dallas Morning News ^ | March 24, 2002 | By NATALIE ORNISH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

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................

Google Search: "The Goliad Texas Massacre photos"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Goliad+Texas+Massacre+photos

Goliad Massacre Story Link
http://www.karnes-city.isd.tenet.edu/cfair/massacre.html

Texas Revolution Website
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/texas.htm

Link to more San Antonio photos
http://www.virtualtexan.com/history/museum/saphoto.htm

San Antonio-Goliad Site Link
http://www.karnes-city.isd.tenet.edu/cfair/corridor.html

TEXAS HISTORY AND CULTURE
http://pw1.netcom.com/~wandaron/txhist.html

Quicktime movie of a 1996 reinactment of the Battle of
Coleto Creek. Warning: it is very large, over 5 megs
http://206.76.136.3/cfair/battle.mov

Map of Texas in 1836

[MeekOneGOP]

Texas history ping.........

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[IronJack]

An interesting bit of Texas history. I wonder how many Texans, let alone Americans in general, know about THAT little incident. Probably very few. We're too wracked with guilt about our shabby treatment of illegal immigrants.

[Mulder]

Thanks for the great post.

Many brave men died so that Texas could be free from tyranny.

[katykelly]

My daughter (a student at UT) just called to tell me she is going on a field trip to Goliad tomorrow. Timely post. Thanks.

[oldfart]

The ironic thing about all this is that- at that time, WE were the illegal immigrants and the Mexican government WAS dealing with their problem.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I know about it. I'm a native Texan. This is a part of my history. The Alamo and Texas' battle for independence is how Tennessee got the name "The Volunteer State."

[ValerieUSA]

Thank you for the ping. I'm sure I heard of Goliad before, but I forgot about it. Most everything I've learned needs reminders every now and then. *L* I wonder if I can still ride a bike....
my son Grant at the Alamo

[Squantos]

I'll have to go buy that book.......thought I owned em all. Thanks for the ping !

Sad what it sometimes takes for folks to stand and fight for their liberty. I would suspect that 166 years ago 300 plus Texans killed in one place is analogious of losing a large city (DFW/Houston/San Antonio) population during our time. Hope the lesson never needs repeating........

God Bless Texas and the USA......Stay Safe !

[marktwain]

The ironic thing about all this is that- at that time, WE were the illegal immigrants and the Mexican government WAS dealing with their problem.

Not true. Most of the Texicans were legal immigrants. They had agreements with the Mexican government. The Mexican government changed, and began to renig on the agreements, giving ample legal reason for the Texican revolution.

[Dog Gone]

I wonder how many Texans, let alone Americans in general, know about THAT little incident.

I imagine most who grew up in Texas know about it, since it's part of required Texas state history in our schools. It doesn't have the romance or story associated with the Alamo, since it's basically a story of a massacre of captured soldiers, but it certainly motivated the soldiers in the rest of Texas.

The slaughter at San Jacinto (now inside greater metropolitan Houston) was payback to the Mexicans.

[deport]

To put it in perspective.......

The Battle of San Jacinto

The Battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it sealed the fate of three republics. Mexico would never regain the lost territory, in spite of sporadic incursions during the 1840s. The United States would go on to acquire not only the Republic of Texas in 1845 but Mexican lands to the west after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War in 1848. .......

About 3:30 in the afternoon, during the Mexican siesta period, Houston distributed his troops in battle array, bracketing the line with the "Twin Sisters" cannon. Shielded by trees and a rise in the terrain, the Texans were able to advance with some security. Then with the cries "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember La Bahia" or "Remember Goliad" ringing along their lines, the Texans swooped down on the dismayed Mexican army, pursuing and butchering them long after the battle itself had ended.

630 Mexicans were killed and 730 taken prisoner. Texans lost only 9 killed or mortally wounded; thirty were less seriously wounded. Among the latter was General Houston, whose ankle was shattered.

[Dog Gone]

Santa Anna had disappeared during the battle, and next day General Houston ordered a thorough search of the surrounding territory for him. In the afternoon Sergeant J. A. Sylvester spotted a Mexican slipping through the woods toward Vince's Bayou. Sylvester and his comrades caught the fugitive trying to hide in the high grass. He wore a common soldier's apparel round jacket, blue cotton pantaloons, skin cap and soldier's shoes.

They took the captive to camp, and on the way, Mexican prisoners recognized him and cried, "El Presidente!" Thus his identity was betrayed; it was indeed the dictator from below the Rio Grande. He was brought to General Houston, who lay under the headquarters oak, nursing his wounded foot.

The Mexican President pompously announced, "I am General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, and a prisoner of war at your disposition." General Houston, suffering with pain, received him coldly. He sent for young Moses Austin Bryan and Lorenzo de Zavala Jr. to act as interpreters.

Santa Anna cringed with fright as the excited Texas soldiers pressed around him, fearing mob violence. He pleaded for the treatment due a prisoner of war. "You can afford to be generous," he whined; "you have captured the Napoleon of the 'West." "What claim have you to mercy?" Houston retorted, "when you showed none at the Alamo or at Goliad?" They talked for nearly two hours, using Bryan, de Zavala and Almonte as interpreters. In the end Santa Anna agreed to write an order commanding all Mexican troops to evacuate Texas.

Later, treaties were signed at Velasco, looking to the adjustment of all differences and the recognition of Texas independence. Thus ended the revolution of 1836, with an eighteen-minute battle which established Texas as a free republic and opened the way for the United States to extend its boundaries to the Rio Grande on the southwest and to the Pacific on the west. Few military engagements in history have been more decisive or of more far-reaching ultimate influence than the battle of San Jacinto.

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link

[MadelineZapeezda]

Thanks for the post. My 5th grade daughter was just learning about this last week.

[DallasMike]

Thanks for the very nice post. My father's ancestors were given the area around Goliad and Gonzales by Stephen F. Austin. They had settled the area and had minor roles in the war for Texas independence. Of course, they had buffoons for grandchildren who gambled all but about 640 acres of it away in the 1880s -- otherwise I would be typing this e-mail from my pleasure palace in Monaco or Tahiti. For every ancestor to be proud of, there's at least another that you'd rather forget.

For the benefit of the non-Texans here, Goliad is pronounced GOAL-ee-add.

[JackFromTexas]

I disagree - There were several proper settlements estalished by Stephen F Austin, and others, populated by LEGAL immigrants.

These only rebelled when the government of Mexico, i.e. Santa Anna, decided to forgo the Constitution and the protections it offered Mexican citizens.

Mr. Austin was in jail in Mexico City after going there to try to resolve the issues peaceully, and did not return, or approve of the revolution until after it had actually begun.

Many of the imigrants into Texas in the 1820's and early 30's specifically checked to see what the Mexican constitution said. Also, another Mexican state, South of the Rio Grande, rebelled also. Both they and Texas rebelled, not to achieve independence, but to restore the Constitution. -- The flag over the Alamo was the Mexican flag w/ the date 1824, the year the Mexican Constitution was established. The move for independence followed the Alamo.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[MeekOneGOP]

A bit of Texas history.........

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[Sinbad]

Young Ehrenberg certainly lived an interesting life. He was murdered in the late 1860s and was buried by Barry Goldwater's grandfather. Another great story of a Goliad Massacre survivor is told by John C. Duval in his book Early Times in Texas. Duval, whose brother was executed during the massacre, managed to escape the Mexican cavalry and roamed the widerness of Texas for weeks before hearing news of the victory at San Jacinto.

[ExSoldier]

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.

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?