The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 13, July 1909 - April, 1910 Page: 289
341 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reminiscences of the Texas Revolution.
289
church door fronts. A company of soldiers formed in front of us
and loaded their pieces with ball cartridge. Then a file of men
under a corporal took two of our number, marched them out
toward the company, and after bandaging their eyes, made them
lie with their faces to the ground, after which, placing the muzzles
close to their heads, they shot them as they lay. At this time an
officer, apparently of distinction, came into the yard and asked in
a loud voice, in English, whether any one named Boyle was there
or not. I was near him as he entered, and answered at once. He
then ordered an officer to take me to the officers' hospital and have
my wound attended to, saying that he would call upon me there.
When I arrived at the hospital the Mexican officers seemed kindly
disposed to me, and gave me a pair of "armas de pelo" to lie on.
Mr. Brooks, Aid to Colonel Fannin, was there at the time, with
his thigh badly shattered near the hip. I found him entirely igno-
rant of what had been going on. Upon being informed he said,
"I suppose it will be our turn next." In less than five minutes
four Mexicans carried him out, cot and all, placed him in the
street not fifteen feet from the door, in a position in which I could
not avoid seeing him, and there shot him.' His body was instantly
rifled of his gold watch, stripped, and thrown into a pit at the side
of the street. Colonel Ward and his command, who had been cap-
tured between the Lavaca and Navidad rivers a few days after our
surrender, were also shot. The whole number of men thus bar-
barously executed was, according to Mexican report, four hundred
and seventeen.2
A few hours after the murder of Mr. Brooks, the officer who had
asked for me in the yard came into the hospital. Addressing me
in English he said: "Make your mind easy, Sir; your life is
spared." I asked if I might inquire the name of the person to
whom I was indebted for my life. "Certainly," said he, "my name
is General Francisco Garay, second in command of Urrea's divi-
sion." He had taken my name and description from my sister,
'This account of Brooks's death agrees exactly with that of Doctors
Shackleford and Field. THE QUARTERLY, IX, 196-198.
'The real number seems to have been between three hundred and twenty
and three hundred and thirty. See Bancroft, North Mexican States and
Texas, II, 235, note 70.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 13, July 1909 - April, 1910, periodical, 1910; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101051/m1/315/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.