Ottr Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
South Carolina, frankly admitted they were completely surprised, but erroneously declared that all the men captured were put to the sword. 31 Johnson and his companions, who now hastened to Goliad to inform Fannin of the advance of Urrea, learned there of the fate of Grant and his men. It seems Grant had succeeded in surprising the guard at Agua Dulce, some twenty miles from Refugio, and had seized the herd of horses. But as he started back to San Patricio, his little band was ambushed on March 2, and all were either captured or killed. The Urrea diary reveals that he had been kept informed of this raid and had arranged to surprise the band as they returned. R. R. Brown, an eyewitness who was taken prisoner and later escaped, wrote of Grant's death: "I saw some . . . officers go up and run their swords through his body. He was well known to them.... They had a bit of a grudge against him." 31 Brown, ordered executed after his capture, was saved in San Patricio by the intercession of a priest and Senora Alvarez, the same lady who was to display her heroic benevolence dur- ing the mass execution of Goliad. With the destruction of the Johnson-Grant band by the advancing forces of Urrea, the Matamoros expedition came to an untimely end. Johnson urged Fannin to abandon Goliad; the latter, however, dis- regarded this sound advice, just as he had disregarded-until it was too late--the repeated calls for help from Travis. The day Placido Benavides brought the news to Goliad of the destruction of Grant's men, the Convention signed the Declaration of Independence and Travis sent out his last message from the Alamo. Tlie A lam() defense-plan. While Johnson and Grant were engaged in their ill-fated expedition to Matamoros, San Antonio was left prac- tically defenseless. Since San Antonio was considered the "key" to Texas by both the Texans and the Mexicans, the provisional govern- ment was for holding this important outpost if possible. Houston, as usual, was not in accord. On January 15, he strongly recommended the abandonment of both Goliad and San Antonio as untenable. He had become convinced that the best chance of success lay in withdrawing eastward to the heart of the colonies. His plan S7Johnson, op. cit., I, 420; Urrea, Diary, 213-216, in Castaneda, The !,fe:rican Side of the Te:ran Revolution. HLetter of R. R. Brown, the only survivor of Grant's party, to the editors of the Te:ras Almanac, 1858. See Johnson, op. cu., I, 420-426. Urrea in his Diar,y says Grant and forty of his men were left dead on the field and six were taken prisoners, Castaneda, Af e:rican Side ... , 21 6.
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