Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-01-03
BArrIE oP me ooLErA. :

on both sides, Colonel Fannin sur
rendered his whole command, it
being expressly stipulated in wri-
ting, with the Mexican commander,
that he and his men were to be |
treated as prisoners of war, and
eventually forwarded to the United |
States and out Of the country.
On the goth Of March the Texan
prisoners arrived back, and were
put under guard in the same old
stone church from which only a
few days ago they had departed
assured of victory. Two days later
the wounded, among them Colonel
Fannin himself, arrived, the latter
being placed under Colonel Holm
ger, a German engineer in the
Mexican army. On the 23d, Major
Miller and eighty Texan volunteers
were brought in as prisoners Of war,
having been taken at COpano, and
another addition was made by the
arrival Of Colonel Ward and his.
command as prisoners.
On Che evening of the goth the
Texan prisoners in the Church of
the Mission were more than usually
cheerful. AS the last rays OF an
unclouded spring sun gilded the
antique towers or glistened on the
carbines Of their Mexican guards,
some of the fated and doomed pris-
oners dreamed it was for them the
last golden sunset. Colonel Fannin
talked cheerCully and confidently Of
an early release anda journey into
the States, and some of the young
men, as the shadows Of evening on
earth drew on, amused themselves
by the voluptuous music Of flutes,
all totally unconscious Of approach
ing fate, and that there was at thai
time in the hands of the Mexican
commander the order for their
massacre, signed by the unscrupu-
lous and merciless tyrant, Santa
| Ana. To Colonel Portilla, the
Mexican commandant of the place,
was entrusted the execution Of the
| horrible mandate and order of
wholesale butchery. Nor did he
hesitate to carry opt the decree.
| THE MASSACRE.
Palm Sunday, March ~, 1886,
oawned clear, bright and balmy;
the serene sun looked down from
the heavens, clear as the skies that
bend above Italian plains; and the
almost holy serenity that reigned
around made it a beautiful day on
which to die. The lives of four
physicians from the prisoners
Drs. Bernard, Field, Hall and
Shackelford-were spared, as they
we're wanted to attend the wounded
i in the battle of the Coleta. The
balance were marched out in sep.
arate detachments and doomed to
the massacre.
The execution took place on the
open prairie, about 100 yards east
Of the church. When the Texans
marched out they were arranged
in line and ordered to sit down with
their backs to their guards, and
upon hearing the order young
man named Fenner sprang up and
exclaimed, in the faces Of his exc.
cutioners, "Boys, they are going tc
kill us; let us die with our faces tc
them like men p At the same in.
slant two other young men -four
; lshed their caps and shouted,
'Hurrah for Texasp The next
instant there was a flash and a re-
port, and the three young men fell
to the prairie grass with a dull thud
dead.
: Others were not so easily dis.
patched, and the screams and cries
Of the men after each yolley were
: heard BY DR.. Shackelford In the
; tent of Colonel Guerrier, several
hundred yards distant. Those who
were not entirely dispatched by the
carbines were dragged off and
: butchered with knives in the most
shocking manner. Many attempted
to escape, but only twenty-seven
succeeded. One Of these was VIM
L, Hunter, of the New Orleans
Greys, who was secreted by a Mex
ipan woman in Goliad, and his life
saved. Judge Hunter ever after re-
sided in Goliad, until some years
ago, one of the best citizens OIL
Texas, and took pleasure in often
, recounting che terrible scene Of the
slaughter of Fannin and his men
Col. Fannin was the last to suf-
fer. He was tied in a chair with
his face to his executioners, and be-
fore the fatal shot took off his
watch, handed it to the officer in
!, command with the request that il
be sent to his wife, then barred his
: breast and asked the executioneS tc
I, shoot him in the heart, not in Che
! head. At the old Mission Church
! ! $50 Texans suffered death in the
bloody massacre on Palm Sunday,
March n, 1886, and the blood VI
Texans, which the ruins Of "0ld
: Goliad" helps to cement and estab-