Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-01-03
FANNIN AND HIS MEN.


OF rexas-The Massacre of Three
Humid ed aud Thirty Prisoners an
Cold Blood.
Goliad CTexas) Cor. St. Louis GlObs-DemO-
crat.l
The ruins of the old Mission
church of the antique Mexican
town of Goliad, gray with time and
bristling with the thistles and tall
cactus, lie strewn in remarkable
confusion on one side of the most
beautiful sites along the river San
Antonio from its rise in San Pedro
Springs to its mouth in one of the
bays on the south coast of Texas.
In the spring of the year, when the
warm sun glistens on the dew drops
that weigh down the tall grass tops
of the adjacent prairies, or lights
up the myriads Of roses that blush
on their surface, no more beautiful
spot could be selected for quiet
meditation.
LOVE OR ROMANCE.
Like another Alhambra, it brings
up the contemplation of the past,
and the Texan of to-day, leaning
over the broken walls, reverts to
the stirring scenes of the revolution
of 1886, and of the bloody Incl
dents connected with that struggle,
and which occurred in the shadows
of this old church, more than forty
years ago. The main building, Of
massive stoue walls and the dull
clumsy architecture of 1882, the
date Of its building by the Spanish
monks, is still standing, but the
once lofty walls Of the plaza, which
made the place in reality a fort for
defense against the Indians of the
olden time, are all in ruins.
On the northward, and a few
hundred yards distant, flow the
clear waters of the San Antonio,
here shallow enough to be forded
in dry weather, and fringed on
either bank with lofty poplars and
the stately cottonwood. On the
westward, and basking in the red
rays Of the setting sun, are the low,
one-story, thatched roof, adobe
houses and quiet streets Of the old
Mexican town Of Goliad, with its
morose, swarthy men, with jingling
spurs and broad brimmed hats with
silver Serpents for bands, its hand
some, black-eyed, black-haired ma
irons and graceful damsels.
THE OCCUPATION BY TEXAN TROOPS,
In the early part of 1886 Gen.
Santa Ana, the arrogant dictator
Of Mexico, in the prosecution of the
war against his Texas dominion,
planned and undertook the invasion
Of a territory still claimed by the
Mexican power. Sending Gen. Ur-
rea with a portion OF his army to
chastise the settlements on the gulf
coast north of the Nueces, Santa
Anna himself, with 1000 troops, in
vaded what is now West Texas,
taking the city of San Antonio, and,
with characteristic cruelty, putting
its Texan garrison in the Alamo
fortress to the sword. Nor Is ii
otherwise than remarkable that
while Travis and its heroic defend
ers lay among the heaps of the slain,
fate was preparing astill more start
ling horror on the banks of the very
same river that flows past the grim
walls of the Alamo. Gen. Urea,
| with q superior force, after battle
at Refugio, rapidly advanced north
| ward, and on the 18th Of March
1886, appeared before Goliad, whose
old church and stone fortress were
occupied by the Texan commander,
Col. Fannin, with 800 men. On
the morning of the 10th, with 9
small detachment of cavalry and
several pieces of artillery, the Tex
ans evacuated the town and retreat.
ed across the river toward Victoria
But Col. Fannin, undertaking thE
strength of bis enemy and the dan
ger OF the situation, wRs too late il
the movement. lie was intercepted
by the Mexicans on the banks o
the Ooleta, a beautiful stream twelv,
miles 10 the eastward, while bis mel
we're resting and the oxen that
hanlad his harnana and artillar,