After the Alamo fell on March 6, 1836, Sam Houston ordered West Point-trained Colonel James W. Fannin to evacuate his 400-man force from Goliad and retreat to Victoria. “The immediate advance of the enemy may be confidently expected,” Houston warned Fannin.

Fannin dithered until it was too late. The Texians' march was sluggish at best, and many bad decisions were made by Fannin. Over the protests of his officers, Fannin also ordered his troops to stop for more than an hour to allow the oxen to graze. They also had forgotten to pack food - or water for their horses and to cool their cannons.

On March 19, they encountered the Mexican forces at Coleto Creek. Surrounded, they fought until dawn the next morning, and when they saw the arrival of Mexican reinforcements and cannon during the night that made their situation hopeless, the Texans raised a white flag and were marched back to Goliad and incarcerated. Fannin surrendered his army of 350 men hoping to they would be treated as prisoners of war.

Instead, on Palm Sunday, March 27, the prisoners were split into three groups and marched to separate areas where they were shot down by soldiers hiding in the woods. Fannin, being wounded, was escorted to a chair and shot last inside the presidio. Although a few Texians escaped, 340 unarmed men were murdered that day, orders of Presidente Santa Anna.

At San Jacinto April 21, Houston rallied his troops to victory with the cry, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!"

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