The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 2

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

own way, were responsible for the horrors of Goliad was well
known to all Texans in 1836. But Texas had then no time for
mortification, and could not afford shame. Harmony in council
and unity in action were as necessary after San Jacinto as they
should have been when the want of them permitted the shameful
sacrifice of Fannin and his men. If those responsible should be
pointed out and punished, unity and harmony could not be had.
Colonel Fannin, who was dead, and General Houston, now a popular
idol, could conveniently be made to shoulder the blame.
And the Texans had, in another sense, a shame-faced feeling
that the men of Goliad had let them down. Texas undertook the
unequal struggle with Mexico, sustained by an almost insolent
dependence on race pride. That Texans were natural soldiers and
brave men, and invincible as against Mexican courage, and Mexican
numbers, and Mexico's material and means, were the touchstones
of Texan valor and Texan faith. In the first capture of Goliad,
and at Concepci6n, Lipantitlan, the taking of San Antonio, and
at the Alamo and San Jacinto, this legend of Texan invincibility
had been abundantly sustained. Defeat of the Grant and Johnson
parties could be attributed to overwhelming numbers and surprise.
But if looked to too closely, the defeat and capture of Colonel
Fannin would have to be explained; and the explanation admitted
that even Texan valor was not proof against hunger, thirst, and
tactical errors, and that Mexicans could be brave.
Before such admissions were forced upon the Texans, the story
of Mexican faithlessness at Goliad, and of the treacherous deaths
of Colonel Fannin and his men, had spread like wildfire over the
United States. No other moment in American history has sur-
passed, in indignation and deep-seated horror, that when the
tragedy of Goliad was first made known. The victims of Goliad
then fought more effectively for Texas in death, than they could
ever have fought in life, with all their gallantry and courage. The
Texans were glad to bury their recollections of the self-seeking,
inefficiency, and almost criminal apathy, which had brought about
the sacrifice of Fannin's men, and join in the world-wide expres-
sion of indignation and horror arising from Santa Anna's ghastly
mistake. Texas made provision in land bounties for the heirs of
the Goliad victims, and remembered the Alamo, glorified San
Jacinto, and cursed Santa Anna and all Mexicans, thereby
softening the memory of Goliad and of their own sins. And