Infamy at Goliad
March 27 1836
On this day in 1836, which happened to be Palm Sunday, at least 342 Texans were executed by firing squad at Goliad. The Texans considered these men prisoners of war, whereas General Santa Anna thought them “perfidious foreigners.” The Mexican dictator had decreed that all Texans in arms against the Mexican government were to be treated as traitors, not soldiers. The men were led out of town and shot at point- blank range. Those not killed by the first volley were hunted down and killed by gunfire, bayonet, or lance. The bodies were left unburied. The incident, which became known among Anglo-Texans as the Goliad Massacre, joined the Alamo as a rallying cry for Texas independence.
“Stout has penned a well written book about an important but often overlooked part of the Texas Revolution. The Slaughter at Goliad is as important, or more so, as what happened at Alamo in explaining the type of characters who were leading revolution in Texas. The title is quite fair; it was a slaughter by the Mexican forces ordered by the shame of Mexico, Santa Anna. Even today, Mexican school textbooks teach the history of Santa Anna as largely an embarrassment and betrayal of the national history.” – Robert Pratt, Pratt on Texas
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