David G. Burnet, Pres. of the Republic of Texas.
Lorenzo D. Zavalla, Vice President.
Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State.
Thomas I. Rush, Secretary of War.
Bailey Hardman, Secretary of the Treasury.
Robert Potter, Secretary of the Navy.
David Thomas, Attorney General.
I.R. Jones, Postmaster General.
President Burnet is a native of Newark in New-Jersey, by profession a lawyer—a gentleman of education, accomplished manners and of the purest integrity.
Immediately after the capture of San Antonio, Goliad was besieged by the enemy under the command of Gen. Urrea. Colonel Fanning, contrary to his own judgment, but in obedience to positive instructions from Gen. Houston, blew up the fort and commenced a retreat to the main army. His force amounted to about three hundred and fifty men, and seven pieces of artillery. They had proceeded about eight miles to the eastward of the fort, when they were surrounded in a large prairie, by two thousand Mexicans, consisting of infantry and cavalry. The advance guard of twenty-five men under Col. Wharton were, by this movement cut off from the main force; and believing it to be a mere waste of life to return, they continued on, and escaped.
Col. Fanning evacuated the fort on the nineteenth of March; and it was about four o'clock, in the afternoon of the same day, that the attack commenced, and lasted until sometime into night. The cavalry made many charges upon them in rapid succession, but were repulsed with great slaughter. Col. Fanning continued fighting and retreating, until he gained a small grove of post-oaks in the midst of the prairie. This afforded him a sufficient protection from the charges of the cavalry, and the battle ceased. Col. Fanning's loss was inconsiderable, but one hundred and ninety of the enemy were ascertained to have been slain, and as many more wounded.
This grove was immediately surrounded by the enemy, and a renewal of the battle was expected in the morning. Col. Fanning, well knowing escape to be impossible, entrenched himself during the night and was resolved not to die unavenged. In the morning, however, the enemy showed a white flag, and Col. Fanning went out to meet the Mexican General. A capitulation was made with the usual forms of honorable warfare; Col. Fanning was to lay down his arms, and march back to Goliad, where they were to remain six or eight days as prisoners of war, to be shipped to New-Orleans from Copano. They surrendered on these conditions; on the sixth day after their arrival at Goliad, they were assured that a vessel was ready to receive them at Copano, to embark for New-Orleans, and Col. Fanning marched out in file, the Mexicans each side of him. They were marched down about five miles, when the order was given to fire upon them. At the first fire, nearly every man fell—a Mr. Haddin of Texas and three others succeeded in reaching some bushes about one hundred yards distant. They were pursued by the enemy into the high grass, where they lost sight of them. Haddin remained in the grass all night; in the morning he succeeded in making his escape.
It is difficult to speak of such cowardly and more than savage massacres, with any tolerable degree of composure. The deeds of Santa Anna are written in blood, and every triumph but deepens the stain.
If the first campaign was all victory, the second has hitherto been all defeat. The affairs of Texas appear to have been badly managed. San Antonio, being an indefensible position, ought to have been abandoned at once; but Goliad, the strongest fortress in Texas, ought to have been maintained to the last. It would have kept the southern division in check, and given time to the Texians to have received re-enforcements, so that they could have prosecuted the war with vigor and success.
Gen. Houston, after the capture of San Antonio, retreated from Gonzales to the Colorado, and then, to the Brazos river. The southern half of Texas, being thus left destitute of any armed force, the invading army had nothing to do but to march forward into the interior, and to make war upon unarmed citizens and travellers, and defenceless women and children. The Mexican army proceeded in two divisions of about two thousand men each; the one, on the line of the sea coast; the other, about one hundred miles in the interior towards San Felipe; and troops of horse scoured the country in various directions between them. A general alarm and dismay seized the inhabitants. On the north the Indians, incited by Santa Anna, were reported to have embodied in force, and were proceeding into the country, to plunder and slaughter; from the south, approached the Mexican army, more savage than the Indians, waging a war of extermination! Before such merciless foes, the inhabitants fled, like clouds of dust before the storm. The peril was so imminent, that they were obliged to abandon all their possessions and flee for life. Some went to the sea coast and embarked on board vessels for New-Orleans; others crossed the Sabine river into Louisiana. The settlements of Texas, to the south of the Brazos, were entirely broken up, and the whole country became the theatre of armies, battles, murders and massacres.
Among the inhuman massacres committed, we shall notice two only. The first is that of seventy-three emigrants, who left New-Orleans in a schooner, for Copano. They were landed unarmed at that port, trusting themselves to the power of the Mexicans; but in less than two hours, they were all butchered by the soldiers in sight of the vessel! The schooner escaped to Matagorda. The other case is that of Dr. Harrison, the son of Gen. Harrison of Ohio. He was travelling with three other American gentlemen, when they were all taken, their bodies horridly mutilated, their bowels torn out, and then left in that situation a prey to the vultures!
Some small skirmishes took place at sea, in which the Texians were successful. They captured one schooner loaded with ammunition and supplies for the Mexican army; and sunk another, after a running fight with the Invincible. But neither party have much of a naval force.