When Sam Houston's revolutionary soldiers won the Battle of San Jacinto and secured independence for Texas, their battle cry was "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Everyone knows about the Alamo, but far fewer know about the stirring events at Goliad. Craig Roell's lively new study of Goliad brings to life this most important Texas community. Though its population has never exceeded two thousand, Goliad has been an important site of Texas history since Spanish colonial days. It is the largest town in the county of the same name, which was one of the original counties of Texas created in 1836 and was named for the vast territory that was governed as the municipality of Goliad under the Republic of Mexico. Goliad offers one of the most complete examples of early Texas courthouse squares, and has been listed as a historic preservation district on the National Register. But the sites that forever etched this sleepy Texas town into historical consciousness are those made infamous by two of the most controversial episodes of the entire Texas Revolution—the Fannin Battleground at nearby Coleto Creek, and Nuestra Señora de Loreto (popularly called Presidio La Bahía), site of the Goliad Massacre on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. This book tells the sad tale of James Fannin and his men who fought the Mexican forces, surrendered with the understanding that they would be treated as prisoners of war, and then under orders from Santa Anna were massacred. Like the men who died for Texas independence at the Alamo, the nearly 350 men who died at Goliad became a rallying cry. Both tragic stories became part of the air Texans breathe, but the same process that elevated Crockett, Bowie, Travis, and their Alamo comrades to heroic proportions has clouded Fannin in mystery and shadow. In Remember Goliad!, Craig Roell tells the history of the region and the famous battle there with clarity and precision. This exciting story is handsomely illustrated in a popular edition that will be of interest to scholars, students, and teachers.

Chronicles the events surrounding the defense of the fortress at Goliad against the Mexican forces under Santa Anna, where over 340 Texans were massacred; and reveals how both Goliad and the Alamo helped to bring independence to Texas.

This book offers extensive research of what and why American prisoners were slaughtered in the fight of Texas' independence from Mexico. Presenting a historical background of Texas and Mexican history as well as the factors that led to the massacre, the author pays particular attention to the leadership on both sides during the revolution and deglamorizes the fight against Santa Anna's army while acknowledging the Mexican perspective.

The battle cry shouted at the Battle of San Jacinto--"Remember Goliad!"--cemented Goliad's place in its importance to the Texas Revolution. In fact, every schoolchild learns about the significance of this special town in Texas history courses. Goliad is also famous for originating the Texas cattle industry, due in large part to the thousands of cattle raised at nearby missions. After the Texas Revolution, Goliad became a prosperous Texas ranching town, with the businesses, services, and social organizations appropriate to such a community. Since that time, the town has harkened back to its Spanish colonial and Texas Revolutionary past, to ranching, and to that original late-19th, early-20th century town, continually reinforcing and celebrating those periods. Much remains from those earlier eras, which makes Goliad one of the most visited and loved towns in Texas.

Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, turned out to be the blackest day in the war of independence between Texas and Mexico. Colonel James Walker Fannin Jr. and his men were ruthlessly slaughtered at the Presidio La Bahia, near the town of Goliad. The order was given direct by General Santa Anna. The author describes the background leading up to the start of hostilities in October 1835, and the two Mexican armies who threatened to overrun the Texans, with the massacre at the Alamo on March 2 and then the attack on the Presidio La Bahia, which Fannin called Fort Defiance. A description of garrison life, and of the men under Fannin's command precedes the battle of Coleto Plains where Fannin's Texans without an adequate water supply and defenses, were surrounded by General Urrea's army and forced to surrender. One of more traumatic aspects of the battle and executions involved a group of young soldiers from Alabama, mostly from the same area, whose leader, Dr. Shackleford, was spared to minister to the sick and injured and was forced to witness the deaths of his protégées.

Francisca Alvarez is one of America's greatest unsung heroes. This book dramatically recounts her daring rescue of American prisoners from slaughter during the Texas War for Independence. Her compassionate treatment of these soldiers was a watershed moment in the growth of America as a nation.

Goliad's Revenge By: Richard Jensen Historically accurate, this novel treads its way back to the mid-19th century. Here we find our country embroiled in the tumultuous task of nation building. Texas had just been accepted as the 28th State and to protect it from a displeased Mexican government, General Zachary Taylor had some 3500 American troops guarding the southern border and assaulting important communities south of the Rio Grande. This assignment embodied intervals of both war and peace with an almost always unpredictable outcome. Not surprisingly, these transitional imponderables seemed to intensify nearly every emotion known to man. Our relatively young protagonist, JK, covered the entire gambit of these encounters with uncertain moments of loneliness and despair intermingled with eminent danger and intense fear. While frequently outnumbered, but employing the military genius of Zachary Taylor, JK survived a multitude of battles. Even more surprising, here in the heart of an adversarial country, he found himself deeply in love with a girl that he dreamed of taking home as his wife. Sadly, the ecstasy of this stormy romance was shattered by a cruel deception, and the most hurtful betrayal of a trust that could ever be imagined.