Texas History and Genealogy - presented by Genealogy Trails

The Epidemic at Goliad.--Private information was received that the yellow fever has appeared and was raging fearfully at Victoria and Goliad. At the latter place Mr. M. Seeligson, formerly Mayor of Galveston, was down with the fever. This is the more remarkable as Mr. Seeligson passed an epidemic season in Galveston.

The Howard Association sent Dr. C. H. McGill and four tried nurses, also some medicine, to Goliad on the Harlan, which steamer left yesterday for Indianola. [Source: Flake's Bulletin, October 16, 1867]

Goliad Massacre On Palm Sunday Enraged Texans
Group Surrendered Only to Be Butchered by Order of Santa Anna

In all the history of warfare there are few counterparts of the massacre at Goliad and to the hundreds of soldier prisoners who died there will be dedicated an important part of the formal Centennial activities in 1936. On March 11, 1836, Gen. Sam Houston ordered Col. J. W. Fannin, in command of the Goliad fort, to join him at a place on the Colorado River to strengthen his forces in order that the advancing Mexican army might be checked. Fresh from his victory at the Alamo, Santa Anna was advancing toward the interior, into a country filled with frightened, panic-stricken Texas citizens.

Fannin Delays Departure.

Fannin delayed his departure from Goliad, however, for a week, then with 350 men abandoned the fort and set out for Victoria. On the first day's march, at Coleto Creek, his men were attacked by General Urrea's Mexican cavalry. Throughout the day and night the Texans held their stand but the next morning, when fresh Mexican soldiers began arriving, Fannin surrendered, first securing a promise that his men would be treated as prisoners of war, would have their arms and property restored and would be sent to New Orleans on parole. The prisoners were marched back to Goliad and placed in teh Espiritu Santo Church, under heavy guard. A few days later eighty-two volunteers from the United States, captured at Copano, were added to the prison camp. Then came a third group of prisoners, captured by the Mexicans at Victoria, bringing the total number of prisoners to 443.

Slain on Palm Sunday.

General Urrea appeared to be making arrangements for the transportation of the prisoners to New Orleans, but he was absent from Goliad for a few days. During his absence, on Palm Sunday, March 27, the Texans were marched out of the church in squads and slaughtered by rifle fire from Mexican soldiers, on orders direct from Santa Anna, carried out by Lieutenant Portilla. A few escaped, but when the firing had ceased 339 Texas soldiers, most of the volunteers from the United States, lay dead. It was this that the Texans remembered, along with the terrific battle of the Alamo, when, a short time later at San Jacinto, they fought like madmen, crying to their comrades to "remember the Alamo. Remember Goliad." [Source: The Dallas Morning News, October 7, 1934]

Tragedy Marched Behind Flag Made by Texas' Betsy Ross for Men Massacred at Goliad by Sam Acheson

When the Texans under Sam Houston successfully attacked the Mexican army under Santa Anna on the battlefiedl of San Jacinto 105 years ago Monday, they were avenging, among others, the 148 victims of the Goliad massacre who had come from Georgia to help Texas win her freedom. The Georgians who fell at Goliad are forever identified with the Lone Star flag which they brought from their home state, the work of Joanna Troutman, the beautiful 17-year-old girl who is often referred to as the Betsy Ross of the Texas Revolution. The story of Joanna Troutman is widely known throughout the Lone Star State today because of the interest which the late Gov. Oscar Bran Colquitt, himself a native of Georgia, took in preserving her memory. This was recalled here last week when members of Governor Colquitt's family showed a portion of his papers dealing with his part in honoring the creator of the flag of Texas. While Governor of Texas he bacame interested in a more widespread appreciation of this early-day heroine. In 1913 he succeeded in having the remains of Joanna Troutman removed from Georgia to Austin where they were reverently reinterred in the State Cemetery. A life-size statue was later erected over the grave and is annually visited by thousands. An oil portrait of Joanna Troutman was also hung in the State Capitol.

Proud of Discovery.

According to Rawlins Colquitt, son of the late Governor, the Texas chief executive was exceptionally proud of his part in restoring the memory of the Georgia flagmaker. In 1936, Governor Colquitt officiated in the unveiling of a tablet at Knoxville, Ga., erected near the spot where in 1835 she presented her handiwork to the company of soldiers leaving for Texas. Joanna Troutman was born in Baldwin County, Georgia, Feb. 19, 1818, the daughter of Hiram B. Troutman. She was educated in Scottsboro and at Barronsville, near Columbia, S.C. Her parents were living at Knoxville, where her father kept the Troutman Inn, when she heard of a movement at Macon, Ga., to organize a company of men to fight in Texas. She took two of her silk shirts and designed and made the Lone Star flag which the Georgia company, under Col. William War, unfurled when they landed at Velasco on Jan. 8, 1836. They proceeded to join Fannin's command at Goliad where word was received on March 8 that the convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos had declared Texas free and independent. Stiles A. Martin, Georgia historian, wrote in the Atlanta Constitution, "when this thrilling news was received, the beautiful banner of the lone star was hoisted at Goliad and all day amid the patriotic music of fife and drum and the roar of artillery, it waved the message of freedom which had just been received. "At sunset, when the attempt to lower the colors was made, the banner by some mishap became entangled in the halyards and was torn to pieces." An equally sad fate soon overwhelmed all but two of the 150 Georgians who had come to Goliad bearing the flag, since only two of them escaped the massacre ordered by the captor of Fannin's command.

Given Silver Memento.

Several years after Texas became an independent Republic Gen. M. Hunt was Texas Minister to the United States. He presented two pieces of field silverware captured at San Jacinto from Santa Anna to Governor Schley of Georgia with the request that he convey these mementoes to her with the esteem and regard of Texas. These heirlooms are still in the possession of descendants of Joanna Troutman. Governor Colquitt's research disclosed that Joanna Troutman was married on Feb. 19, 1837, to Col. Solomon L. Pope, an attorney of Montgomery, Ala. A few years later ill-health forced Colonel Pope to retire and he and his wife settled at Elmwood, a plantation of 5,000 acres near Knoxville. After her first husband's death she married W. G. Vinson in 1878. Her death occurred in 1881 and she was first buried on the plantation at Elmwood. One child by her first marriage, Henry Pope, lived to maturity and his descendants are the direct heirs of the woman who is credited with largely establishing the Lone Star Flag as the banner of Texas. [Source: Dallas Morning News, April 21, 1941]