Our Catholic Hmtage in Texas
who were able to walk arrived in Goliad that same day. The wounded, with Fannin among them, reached the fort on March 22. The next day a group of 80 volunteers under Major Miller were captured as they landed at C6pano. They, too, were disp~t~h~d u~der guard to Goliad. Ward, allegedly on orders from Fannin, had set out from Refugio for Victoria with about 100 men. He reached his goal on March 21 only to find Urrea awaiting him. His force had been reduced to 85. In an attempt to escape, he countermarched towards Dimmit's Point, but ~as overtaken, surrounded, and forced to surrender on March 22. Ward, with all his men, was taken first to Victoria, and thence on March 25 to Goliad. By Saturday, March 26, there were 445 prisoners held in Goliad contrary 1:0 the strict and repeated orders of Santa Anna to execute all those captured under arms. Urrea declared emphatically that he was not in accord with these orders, for he was unalterably opposed to the execution of all prisoners, and that he purposely sent all those he took to one place in the hope that their very number would prove their salvation. Santa Anna, however, was determined to use drastic measures in order to deter other Americans from volunteering. Exasperated with Urrea for failing to execµte his orders, Santa Anna dispatched a special messenger to Goliad with peremptory orders for the immediate execu- tion of all prisoners. Urrea was in Victoria. Colonel Portilla, then in command at ·Goliad, received the fatal instructions late that evening and prepared to carry them out the next day. The unsuspecting prisoners~all called out early in the morning on Palm Sunday, March 27. ~ajor Miller and the 80 men taken at C6pano were returned to their barracks, because, n.Q!__!_laving__p~rt_icipa_ted ~y activ~_fighting, they were considered not affected by the ord~ The others were divided into · four equal groups and marched out of the fort under heavy guard at intervals of five or ten minutes. Each detachment proceeded for about a half-mile in different directions. The prisoners were ordered to sit or kneel. The guards fired at arm's length. Those who were missed and attempted to flee were pursued and shot down or clubbed to death. Within thirty minutes all but 27 of the 360 or 370 prisoners lay dead. Their bodies were placed between alternate layers of wood and burned just as the fallen defenders of the Alamo had been. The charred re- mains were left exposed to the weather, the vultures, and the coyotes until June 3, when General Rusk, in passing through Goliad, gathered up the earthly remains and buried them with military honors in a
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