Fort DefianceJames Fannin wrote the government in February to say that the men of Goliad, after strengthening the fort there, had elected to rename it “Fort Defiance.”
Fort JessupThe federal fort across the border in Louisiana. Secret messages from the fort’s commander, E. P. Gaines, to Sam Houston offered assistance in the pursuit of the war. Troops from Fort Jessup did, in fact, come onto Texan soil when rumors of Indian uprisings in the Nacogdoches area were received.
Four Hundred League GrantThe Coahuila and Texas legislature passed an act on March 14, 1835, authorizing the government to sell 400 leagues of land without regard to the size of individual grants—a violation of previously legislated limitations on the amount of land which could be purchased by one individual. The scandal divided Texans throughout much of the Revolution. Attempts to protect these extensive land purchases were the basis for repeated efforts to mount a Matamoros Expedition.
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Gaines, Edmund PendletonAt Stephen F. Austin’s invitation, General Gaines led a troop of United States soldiers into east Texas to quell a threatened Indian uprising. They remained in the Nacogdoches area until the Texan government had been organized after the end of the war.
GalvestonMembers of the ad interim government fled to Galveston in April 1836. It became the temporary capital of the Republic, until the government was sworn in at Columbia in October 1836.
Gaona, AntonioGaona was a general in the Mexican army. Santa Anna ordered him to march to Nacogdoches by way of Bastrop. These orders were changed on April 15. Gaona was to proceed from Bastrop to San Felipe to join Santa Anna’s forces. Gaona’s men became lost in the “desert” around Bastrop, causing them to miss their rendezvous with Santa Anna and participation in the battle of San Jacinto.
GoliadFormerly called La Bahia, Goliad was a major point of military operations in both 1835 and 1836. Texans captured Goliad on October 9, 1835. Supplies captured in this battle allowed Stephen F. Austin and his men to carry on the siege of Bexar. James W. Fannin marched his command to Goliad and set up headquarters near the presidio. He remained committed to the defense of Goliad, seeing it as the most suitable location for a supply depot for the Texan forces in the field. James B. Bonham’s arrival from the Alamo, requesting men and supplies to relieve William B. Travis, caused Fannin to attempt a rescue mission. The effort failed, and Fannin remained at Goliad until March 19. As Urrea’s forces neared Goliad, they fought a number of skirmishes with troops under the command of Johnson, Ward, King, and Grant. The survivors of these conflicts—when there were any—rallied to Goliad, only to be captured at Coleto, marched back to Goliad and executed.
Goliad Declaration of IndependenceA document drafted by Philip Dimmitt and Ira Ingram, the Declaration was read to the citizens of Goliad on December 20, 1835. 91 signatures were attached, and the document was sent to the General Council. It arrived just as the government was deep in negotiations with sympathetic Federalists. The Declaration did not have any immediate effect on the Texan’s conduct of the war or their reasons for fighting. It did, however, alienate popular Mexican support for the Texan cause.
Goliad MassacreJames W. Fannin’s men captured at Coleto along with survivors of units commanded by Ward and Grant were returned to Goliad after the battle of Coleto. When Fannin surrendered, he understood that the men would be treated as prisoners of war, and Urrea did request that the prisoners be so regarded. The Mexican government, however, had passed the Black Decrees. Anyone taking up arms against the Mexican government was to be considered a pirate and was subject to immediate execution. Santa Anna wrote back ordering immediate execution, and he backed that order up with a similar one to Nicolas de la Portilla, the commander at Goliad. On Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836 unwounded Texans were divided into three columns and were marched down three roads to points about a half mile outside Goliad. Ordered to halt, the men were cut down by firing squads. Men from two of the columns, halted near wooded areas, were able to make an escape and to carry the news of the slaughter. Fannin, who had been wounded at Coleto, and about 40 men were killed at the fort.