The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 23
576 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Men of Goliad
turn, had no means of knowing, or even of surmising, what his
enemy was doing, day by day. The situation left small hope for
Fannin, unless he had evacuated Goliad before March 12; on which
day Urrea began his movement from San Patricio, while Colonel
Morales also marched to engage him, with two battalions of veteran
infantry, and two twelve pounders, from B6xar. Yet even as these
movements were beginning, Colonel Fannin, whose men could not
be made to believe in danger from an enemy, particularly a Mexican
enemy, whom they could not even see, had out at least two parties
of twenty or thirty men. One, sent under Lieutenant Francis to
Carlos' Rancho, was not molested. The Badeiios were not yet
ready to take chances with the American ire. But Captain King,
at Refugio, had marched, on an errand of mercy, directly into the
path of Urrea's advance, and had stirred up a hornet's nest of
armed rancheros, allied Indians, and enemy scouts. He then sent
to Colonel Fannin, at Goliad, for help. Taking counsel of his
heart, rather than of his military education, or of his head, Colonel
Fannin hurried the Georgia Battalion and Lieutenant Bradford's
company, under Lieutenant Colonel Ward, to King's relief. This
happening, which led directly to Colonel Fannin's destruction,
illustrates the amateurism, as well as the knight-errantry, of the
Texan point of view. It was knight-errantry on Colonel Fannin's
part to send King and his company to Refugio, directly in the
path by which Urrea was daily expected, to remove the families
there. And Captain King, at Refugio, had to turn knight-errant
also, in order to punish some rancheros who had molested the
Texas families and plundered deserted homes. Fannin, as another
act of chivalry, sent Colonel Ward to Captain King's relief. He
had intended sending Brooks and Chadwick, his two best officers,
to insure the expedition's prompt return; but they became lost
in the prairie, failed to overtake Colonel Ward, and finding them-
selves, at daylight, near Goliad, returned there at dawn. Ward,
at Refugio, was as anxious for the excitement of a brush with
the enemy as King had been two days before. King and Ward
quarreled as to which of them was entitled to the privilege of
bringing on a new row; and King turned knight-errant on his
own. Urrea was promptly informed of all their movements, and
would, no doubt, have overtaken them on the open prairie had
they kept together and endeavored to return to Goliad by road.
Their military errors, therefore, were not of much importance in
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940, periodical, 1940; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/m1/31/?rotate=90: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.