News of the Goliad Massacre spread outrage, resentment, and fear among the population of the fledgling Republic of Texas and abroad. The impact of the Goliad Massacre was crucial. Amon B. Only the day before, Fannin himself, with his adjutant general, Joseph M. Chadwick, had returned from Copano, where, accompanied by Holsinger and other Mexican officers, they had tried to charter the vessel on which William P. Miller's Nashville Battalion had arrived earlier (these men had been captured and imprisoned at Goliad, also). Captain King and all but one man were executed in short order. The Texas cause was dependent on the material aid and sympathy of the United States. Now burst in harsh accents from the lips of the Mexican commander. John Crittenden Duval, Early Times in Texas, or the Adventures of Jack Dobell (Austin: Gammel, 1892; new ed., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986). When the Mexican and Texan commissioners seeking surrender terms failed to agree, Urrea shortened the conference by dealing directly with Fannin and proposing written terms, under which the Texans should give up their arms and become prisoners of war "at the disposal of the Supreme Mexican Government." On March 15, as their ammunition ran short, Texians retreated from Refugio. In Goliad, Colonel James Fannin commanded the Texan force of nearly 500 trained soldiers and militia. [11] Weighted down with cannon and 500 extra guns, Fannin burned his extra supplies in an attempt to lighten the load. Many of those who eventually escaped were first recaptured and later managed a second escape. [11] On March 13, King was surrounded by elements of the Mexican army and sent out a plea for help to Fannin, who sent Lieutenant-Colonel William Ward and the Georgia Battalion to reinforce him. The exact fate of others captured at Refugio is not known. Translation by Carlos Casteñeda of the Centralista copy of the surrender document in the Archives of the War Department in Mexico City discovered by Dr. E. C. Barker. Urrea, meanwhile, sent cavalry to surround and isolate Goliad. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. He said the Texan prisoners and American volunteers numbered about 400, while the Mexican captors totaled 700, in addition to cavalry and smaller groups of Mexican soldiers he saw gathered on the prairie. On March 22 William Ward, who with Amon B. King's men and at Victoria he saved twenty-six of Lt. Col. William Ward's troops by claiming to need them to transport cannons across the San Antonio River[21]), Colonel Garay, Father Maloney (also referred as Molloy), Urrea's wife and an unnamed girl. Fannin hoped to retreat to Victoria, but he hesitated for several days. The authenticity of the gravesite was further verified by historians Clarence R. Wharton and Harbert Davenport. Harbert Davenport and Craig H. Roell, On I went, the river rolled at my feet, the shouting and yelling behind. [15] After several hours of fighting, the Mexicans had suffered an estimated 200 casualties and the Texians nine killed and about sixty wounded. About a week after the Goliad killings, Santa Anna ordered the execution of Miller and his men and the others who had been spared at Goliad, but he rescinded the order the next day. Colonel James Walker Fannin and 341 men under his command had surrendered to General José de Urrea of the Mexican army on March 20 at the Battle of Coleto Creek. Thirty-three Americans were captured in the course of the fighting at Nuestra Señora del Refugio Mission, half of them with Capt. The sound of a second volley, from a different direction than the first just then reached our ears, and was followed by a confused cry, as if those at whom it had been aimed, had not all immediately been killed. Fannin's men delivered up their arms, and some 230 or 240 uninjured or slightly wounded men were marched back to Goliad and imprisoned in the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio at La Bahía, the fort they had previously occupied (see FORT DEFIANCE). TITH: The Goliad Massacre. Many were killed or captured. Battle of Coleto, Capitulation and Survival of the Goliad Massacre as told by John C. Duval From Early Times in Texas or, the Adventures of Jack Dobell 1892 (Headings added by current editor, WLM) Although this was really an attempt by Urrea to commandeer the ship, the vessel had already departed. Like Johnson’s force, both of these groups were eventually killed or captured by the Mexicans. Even then we could hardly believe that they meant to shoot us, for if we had we should assuredly have rushed forward in our desperation, and weaponless though we were, some of our murderers would have met their death at our hands. 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