James Fannin

James Walker Fannin
James Walker Fannin
Nickname(s)	Jim
Allegiance	United States of America; Republic of Texas
Service/branch	United States Army Texas Militia, Republic of Texas Militia
Years of service	1819-1821, 1834-1836
Rank	Colonel
Unit	Texian volunteer army
Battles/wars	Battle of Gonzalez Battle of Concepcion; Battle of Coleto Creek Alamo Campaign

For the Louisiana politician, see James R. Fannin.

James Walker Fannin, Jr. (January 1, 1804{?} – March 27, 1836) was a 19th century U.S. military figure and Texas leader during the Texas Revolution of 1835–36.

Fannin County, Texas and Fannin County, Georgia are named in his honor. The county seat of Fannin County, Texas is Bonham, named after the individual who sought Fannin's aid at the Alamo.

Camp Fannin, a large military training and POW Camp used during World War II and located near Tyler, TX, was also named in his honor.

Military career

Fannin joined the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1819 under the name "James F. Walker". He resigned from West Point due to poor grades, absences and tardiness in November 1821.

Private Citizen

In 1821 Fannin moved to Columbus, Georgia to become a merchant. He married Minerva Fort on 17 July 1829 and they had two daughters.

Texas: 1834-35

In 1834, Fannin settled at Velasco in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas (now Texas), where he apparently was a plantation owner. By 1835, Fannin was becoming part of the growing resistance to the Mexican government in Texas. He wrote letters seeking financial assistance and volunteers to help the Texas cause. In April 1835, Fannin traveled to New Orleans where he was arrested for an outstanding debt he owed to Theopholus Hyde. Fannin posted bail and went back to Texas. By September, Fannin was an active volunteer in the Texas Army. He participated in the Battle of Gonzales on October 2 and urged Stephen F. Austin to send aid to Gonzales. Fannin later worked with James Bowie, First Battalion, First Division, under Austin's orders to secure supplies and determine the conditions in and around Gonzales and San Antonio de Bexar. Fannin, together with Bowie also participated in the Battle of Concepción on 28 October 1835.

Texas: 1835-36

In November 1835, Austin ordered Fannin and William B. Travis and about (150) men to cut off any Mexican supply party. On November 13, Houston offered Fannin the post of Inspector General to the regular army. Fannin wrote back requesting a field appointment of Brigadier General and a "post of danger". On November 22 1835, Fannin was honorably discharged from the volunteer army by Austin and began campaigning for a larger regular army for Texas. He also went home to spend time with his family.

Sam Houston, supported by Governor Smith, commissioned Fannin as a Colonel in the regular army on December 7, 1835. By January 7, 1836, the provisional government had appointed Fannin 'military agent' that answered only to the council and not Houston. He began recruiting forces and supplies for the forthcoming and confusing campaign against Matamoros, Tamaulipas. However, Fannin had difficulty leading the volunteers in his charge. He tried to institute regular army discipline, but his irregular volunteers would not accept it. Many of his men felt he was aloof and several historians believe that he was an ineffective commander because of it. The majority of the men serving under Fannin had only been in Texas a short time and this frustrated Fannin who wrote acting Lt. Governor James W. Robinson "..among the rise of 400 men at, and near this post, I doubt if 25 citizens of Texas can be mustered in the ranks...".

In early February, Fannin sailed from Velasco and landed at Copano with four companies of the Georgia Battalion, moving to join a small band of Texans at Refugio. When Mexican reinforcements, under General Jose Urrea, arrived at Matamoros, thus complicating the Texan's plans to attack that city, Fannin withdrew twenty-five miles north to Goliad. He quartered his troops at Presidio La Bahia. Now Lt. Colonel of the First Artillery, Fannin began strengthening defenses at Goliad, and sent out his captains to find recruits for the army. "Enlist all you can.." ..." fill up your companies, and be ready for the field soon".

Failed expedition to support the Alamo and after

Appeals from Travis at the Alamo (via James Bonham) prompted Fannin to launch a relief march of over 300 men and four pieces of artillery on 25 February, 1836. Finally, after some delay, Fannin and his men moved out on the 28th for the ninety-odd miles to San Antonio. The entire relief mission was a failure. The troops barely had crossed the San Antonio River when wagons broke down, prompting the men to camp still within sight of Goliad. There was little or no food to take, some men were barefooted, and the oxen used to pull the wagons had wandered off during the night. On March 6, 1836, the Alamo was fought, with all of the Alamo's defenders (about 187 men) being killed.

On 12 March, Fannin sent Captain Amon Butler King and about twenty-eight men to take wagons to Refugio and help evacuate the remaining families there. King and his men confronted an advance party of General Urrea's cavalry in Refugio failed and he withdrew to the old mission. A local boy managed to sneak out of town and alerted Fannin of the skirmish. Fannin sent Lieutenant Colonel William Ward and about 120 men to King's aid. Ward managed to drive the small Mexican forces away and decided to stay the night to rest his men. On March 14, 1836, Ward and King were attacked by Urrea and over 200 Mexican soldiers as they were about to depart to re-join Fannin. The same day, General Houston ordered Fannin to retreat to Victoria.

Battle of Coleto Creek

On March 19, 1836, Fannin finally led the Texans on a retreat from Presidio La Bahia (which Fannin had renamed Fort Defiance)[1] and destroyed everything that they did not take with them. Fannin took nine cannons and over 500 spare muskets and was heavily ladened with supplies and baggage. The column traveled about six miles when Fannin ordered a halt to rest his animals. At about 3:00pm Mexican cavalry appeared near Fannin's troops. The Texans immediately formed a hollow square with their wagons and cannons placed in each corner for defense as Gen. Urrea's forces attacked. After a fierce battle that cost the Mexicans about 100-200 killed and wounded; Texan losses were seven-to-nine killed and sixty wounded. Fannin and his troops, facing overwhelming odds, surrendered at the Battle of Coleto.

The Massacre

The Texans were marched back to Goliad and held as prisoners at Fort Defiance, each believing that they were going to be set free in a matter of weeks. Knowing the prisoners' probable fate, General Urrea departed Goliad, leaving command to Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla, and later writing to Santa Anna to ask for clemency for the Texians. Urrea wrote in his diary that he "...wished to elude these orders as far as possible without compromising my personal responsibility." On March 26, 1836, 19:00, Portilla received orders from Santa Anna in triplicate to execute the prisoners. At around 8 a.m. on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, Colonel Portilla had the 342 Texians marched out of Fort Defiance into three columns on the Bexar Road, San Patricio Road, and the Victoria Road.

Once the columns reached their selected location, the Mexican soldados formed into two ranks on one side of the captives. The Texians were then fired on at point-blank range only a few hundred yards from the fort. The wounded and dying were then clubbed and stabbed. Those who survived the initial volley were run down by the Mexican cavalry. Fannin's men wounded in the Battle of Coleto were shot or bayoneted where they lay.

Colonel Fannin was the last to be executed, after seeing his men butchered. He was taken by Mexican soldiers to the courtyard located in front of the chapel along the north wall, blindfolded, and seated in a chair due to his leg wound received in battle. Before his execution he made three requests. He asked for his personal possessions to be sent to his family, to be shot in his heart and not his face, and that he be given a Christian burial. His personal possessions were taken by Mexican soldiers, he was shot in the face, and Fannin's body was burned along with the many other Texan's who died that day.[2]

There were twenty-eight Texians who did manage to escape by feigning death and other means. Three known survivors escaped to Houston's army and participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. In some accounts of the Goliad Massacre, a Mexican woman, Francisca (Francita, Panchita or Pancheta) Alavez, sometimes referred to by other names (Alvarez or Alavesco), rescued about 20 Texian soldiers and became known as "The Angel of Goliad."^[1] Other people known to rescue some prisoners were: Juan Holzinger (saved two German Texians captured among Capt. Amon B. King's men and at Victoria he saved twenty-six of Lt. Col. William Ward's troops by claiming to need them to transport cannons across the San Antonio River^[2]), Colonel Garay, Father Maloney (also referred as Molloy), Urrea's wife and an unnamed girl.

Notes

^ Sons of Dewitt Colony Texas, The Angel of Goliad
^ HOLZINGER, Juan José, The Handbook of Texas

External links

James Walker Fannin, Jr. from the Handbook of Texas Online

www.lsjunction.com/people/fannin.htm Exccept for two doctors and some workers, all of the Texan forces at Coleto creek were executed at Goliad.