The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 13

The Men, of Goliad

The men, for the most part, were altogether superior to
the ordinary material of an army in intelligence and education.
They were far from being a class of mercenaries, but were
men of character and standing, and some of them of wealth,
who had left their homes from sympathy for a people who had
taken up their arms for Liberty.
And Captain Burr H. Duval, writing to his father, then Gov-
ernor of Florida, from Goliad, on March 9, exclaimed:
I have never seen such men as this army is composed of-
no man ever thinks of surrender or retreat. They must be
exterminated to be whipped. Nothing can depress their ardor.
We are frequently for days with nothing but bull beef to eat,
and, after working hard all day, could you at night hear the
boys crowing, gobbling, barking, bellowing, laughing and
singing, you would think them the happiest and best fed
men in the world.
Considered by units, and in the order in which they came to
Goliad, under Colonel Fannin's command, his little army con-
sisted of :
1. A detachment of regulars, called, usually, "Captain West-
over's Company," but consisting actually of:
(1) A small company of regular infantry enlisted by Captain
John M. Allen from among the survivors of Mexia's Tampico men,
which was marched to Refugio under Lieutenant Francis W. Thorn-
ton, about January 1, 1836, and returned to Goliad, by order of
General Houston, on January 19. It then consisted, all told, of
twenty-nine men.
(2) The nucleus (say 14 men) of a company of regular artillery,
recruited in the Irish Colonies by Captain Ira J. Westover, about
January 7, 1836.
(3) Eight or ten regulars recruited by Lieutenant B. F.
Saunders at Matagorda during January and sent forward to
Goliad, and assigned to Captain Westover's command.
2. A volunteer company, twenty-nine in all, enlisted by Captain
John Chenoweth, in December and January, from among volun-
teers who then were, or had been, at Bexar, for the special purpose
of garrisoning Copano, where they arrived about January 20, 1836.
Some of Chenoweth's men returned to the Alamo and were there
killed; others went forward under Captain Chenoweth, on Feb-
ruary 26, to guard the Cibolo crossing on the road to B6xar. These