Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

CHAPTER XX
GEORGIANS SYMPATHIZE WITH TEXAS IN HER WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
WITH MEXICO—COL. JAMES W. FANNIN, WHO, WITH ALMOST His
ENTIRE COMMAND, PERISHED IN THE MASSACRE AT GOLIAD, WAS A
NATIVE OF THIS STATE—MANY OF His MEN WERE GEORGIANS—AN
ACCOUNT OP THIS BRUTAL MASSACRE OF 1836, PRESERVED BY HEN-
DERSON YOAKUM, THE PlONEER HISTORIAN OF TEXAS—RECEIVING
ORDERS TO DESTROY THE SPANISH FORT AT GOLIAD AND TO FALL
BACK TO VICTORIA, HE DELAYS AN EXECUTION OF THIS COMMAND IN
ORDER TO COLLECT THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE NEIGHBOR
HOOD—OVERTAKEN BY GENERAL URREA, HE Is OBLIGED TO CAPITU
LATE—PAROLES ARE PROMISED, BUT THE AMERICAN TROOPS ARE
MARCHED TO GOLIAD AS PRISONERS OF WAR, AND. MASSACRED IN COLD
BLOOD—FULL DETAILS OF THE AFFAIR—TEXAS ERECTS A MONU
MENT TO THE VICTIMS OF THIS BRUTAL HOLOCAUST—UNVEILED IN
1885—THE LONE STAR FLAG WOVEN BY A GEORGIA WOMAN—Miss
JOANNA E. TROUTMAN PRESENTS TO THE GEORGIA VOLUNTEERS AN
EMBLEM WHICH Is AFTERWARDS ADOPTED BY THE REPUBLIC OF
TEXAS—FROM AN OLD COPY OF THE GALVESTON NEWS THIS STATE
MENT Is VERIFIED—THE FLAG WAS FIRST UNVEILED AT VELASCO, ON
JANUARY 8, 1836—CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE FLAG WAS
PRESENTED—IN 1913, THE BODY OF MRS.-ViNsoN, FORMERLY Miss
JOANNA TROUTMAN, WAS EXHUMED FROM ITS BURIAL PLACE IN
GEORGIA AND TAKEN TO AUSTIN, TEXAS, FOR FINAL REINTERMENT—
HER GRAVE TO BE MARKED BY A HANDSOME MONUMENT. •
To the war for Texan independence, Georgia made some important
contributions. Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar, the victor of San Jacinto,
afterwards the second President of the Republic of Texas, was a native
Georgian. He edited for several years the Columbus Enquirer, a
paper which he established; but following the death of his first wife
he left Georgia for Texas, where an illustrious career awaited him,
both on the field of battle and in the forum of statesmanship. He also
achieved distinction as a poet and became the founder of the present
school system of Texas. General Lamar was an uncle of the noted
statesman and jurist, at one time a member of President Cleveland's
cabinet, Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar.
Col. James W. Fannin, who with almost his entire command per
ished in the brutal massacre at Goliad in 1836, was also a native
Georgian. Remo'ving to Texas in 1834, he raised a company at the out
break of the war and hastened to join the army of General Houston.
On the fall of the Alamo, Fannin received orders from his, commander
to destroy the Spanish fort at Goliad and to fall back to Victoria. He
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