The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 370
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Dr. J. H. Barnard's Journal. By Hobart Huson (ed.). Refugio
(privately printed), 1949. Pp. iv+58. Illustrations and maps.
$5.00.
This is a small book but an important one. Hobart Huson,
who has done so much to clarify the history of his part of Texas,
has combined his talents as historian and detective to bring to-
gether all that is known about Dr. J. H. Barnard and his Journal.
The three versions of the Journal, as they appeared in Dudley
G. Wooten's Comprehensive History of Texas, the Goliad Ad-
vance-Guard, and John Joseph Linn's Reminiscences of Fifty
Years in Texas, are set down and compared by means of brackets
and footnotes.
This book makes available one of the three trustworthy ac-
counts by a participant of the heroic and tragic events which
took place in the Goliad area during the last few days of March,
1836. The other two are by Dr. Jack Shackleford and Dr. Joseph
E. Field who shared with their close friend and fellow physician
all the horror-provoking experiences of the Goliad Massacre.
The Journal begins in Chicago in December, 1835. Why should
Dr. Barnard, a Canadian by birth, leave a lucrative practice and
come to Texas? It was the same reason that impelled hundreds of
other men to leave their homes all over the United States and
Europe and answer the call for help in faraway Texas: "They
[the Texans] were in arms for a cause that I had always been
taught to consider sacred, viz.: Republican principles and popu-
lar institutions." He reached Texas late in January, 1836, and
during the next three months he recorded in accurate detail the
fast-moving events which terminated on Palm Sunday, March 27.
But the Journal is more than an itinerary of an army. It con-
tains interesting impressions of people and things. His com-
panions-in-arms were not ordinary soldiers: for the most part,
they were "men of character and standing . . who had left their
homes from sympathy for a people who had taken up arms for
their liberty." As the troops were ready to march to Goliad and
attach themselves to the command of Colonel James W. Fannin,
it was realized that the day of departure had been set for Friday.
To escape the "day of ill omen," a short march was made Thurs-
day afternoon. They had not gone far, when some of the men370
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/482/?rotate=180: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.