Slaughter at Goliad: The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers [Hardcover]

Jay A. Stout (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2008 | ISBN-10: 159114843X | ISBN-13: 978-1591148432

Texas lost many volunteers during its hard-won fight for independence from Mexico, but one harrowing episode stands out. Following a one-sided battle on the prairie near Coleto Creek, 250 mostly American prisoners were marched back to the presidio at Goliad where they were joined by more than 200 others. Subsequently, on orders from President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, they were brutally slaughtered on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. The loss of so many fighting men in a single day was, at the time, one of the largest in U.S. history. The reaction in Texas was one of horror, fear, and, for some, a lust for revenge. The revulsion felt throughout the United States turned American sympathies against Mexico and its efforts to preserve its territorial integrity. Based on extensive research, this book offers a powerful description of what happened and an astute analysis of why it happened. For historical background, it also presents an overview of Texas and Mexican history and the factors that led to the massacre.

As a career military officer, author Jay Stout offers insights not grasped by other writers on the subject. He pays particular attention to the leadership on both sides during the revolution and discusses why the massacre has been largely ignored in the years since. Stout deglamorizes the fight against Santa Anna and his army, while at the same time acknowledging the Mexican perspective and the motivations of Mexico's leaders. The author's dynamic writing style, combined with the compelling subject matter, makes this book attractive to everyone interested in the military, Texas, and American history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Jay Stout deftly details the little-known and deeply disturbing tale of blunder and bluff that, on Palm Sunday 1836, led to the incredible Mexican massacre of hundreds of American captives at a long-forgotten Texas outpost. Powerful and fascinating. --W.E.B. Griffin, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Jay Stout brings to life a gripping and little-known chapter in American history. Readers of Stout's previous books know that he's no dry historian; he writes about combat and leadership with the verve and truth of firsthand experience. But beware: by the time you put Slaughter at Goliad down, you may find yourself planning a road trip to a little town in south Texas. . . . --Nathaniel Fick, author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

Slaughter at Goliad is a magnificent contribution to our national sense of history and just a plain great read. Vividly re-creating a tragic event that was, in its time, as infamous and electrifying as the siege of the Alamo, this book also manages to be uncannily timely. The Goliad Massacre changed not only Texan, American, and Mexican history, but the history of our entire hemisphere, although the name may be nearly forgotten, its echoes still resound after almost two centuries. Finely researched and cleanly told, this tale of heroism and villainy ranks with any from our national past in terms of drama and excitement. --Ralph Peters, author of Wars of Blood and Faith and Looking for Trouble

About the Author

Jay A. Stout, now a senior analyst in the defense industry, spent twenty years as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot flying F-4s and F/A-18s. During the Gulf War he flew thirty-seven combat missions. An Indiana native and 1981 graduate of Purdue University, he now lives in San Diego, California. Stout is also the author of Hornets over Kuwait, The First Hellcat Ace and Hammer from Above: Marine Air Combat over Iraq, among other books.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159114843X
• ISBN-13: 978-1591148432
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jay A. Stout can be contacted at: jayastout at usa dot net

Jay A. Stout is a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot. An Indiana native and graduate of Purdue University, he was commissioned during June 1981 and was designated a naval aviator on 13 May 1983. His first fleet assignment was to F-4S Phantoms at MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina. Following a stint as an instructor pilot at NAS Chase Field Texas from 1986 to 1989, he transitioned to the F/A-18 Hornet. He flew the Hornet from bases on both coasts and ultimately retired from MCAS Miramar during 2001.

Aside from his flying assignments, he served as the executive officer of 1st Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, and in a variety of additional assignments with various staffs around the world. During his twenty-year career he flew more than 4,500 flight hours, including 37 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm.

Following his military career Stout worked for a very short time as an airline pilot before being furloughed after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He subsequently flew for the Kuwait Air Force for a year before returning to the States where he now works for as a senior analyst for a leading defense contractor.

Lieutenant Colonel Stout's writing has been read on the floor of the U.S. Senate and has been published in various professional journals and newspapers around the nation. Works published while he was on active duty addressed controversial topics (women in the military, the MV-22 Osprey, effectiveness of the AV-8B Harrier, etc.) and took viewpoints that were often at odds with senior military leadership. Nevertheless, his cogent arguments and forthrightness contributed considerably to his credibility. Indeed, his expertise as a tactical aviator is recognized by Fox's national news network, which has hosted him twice as a combat aviation expert.

Read the interview below to learn more about Jay A. Stout and his writing:

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF?

"Well, I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1959. My father worked for the FAA and my mom raised my two sisters and I while working as a book keeper for various businesses. When I was younger we moved around quite a bit, including a stint overseas, but ultimately we settled back in Indiana. I graduated from Danville High School in 1977, and Purdue University in 1981."

"For most of my life I wanted to be nothing but a fighter pilot. But while I was at college I was turned down by the Air Force because my major discipline, agronomy, was not considered a technical degree. Still, the Marine Corps didn't care, and one day a Marine Corps recruiter literally grabbed my arm while I was walking through the student union building and asked me what I wanted to do with myself. I pointed at a poster he had of an F-4 Phantom II and said, "I want to fly those!" He indicated that I would have no problem doing just that and had me sign on the dotted line."

"The odds against me getting through all the tests and medical screenings, not to mention flight school, and finally into the cockpit of the F-4 were about 100 to 1, but the right mix of timing, luck, and a little bit of talent worked to my favor."

THEN WHAT HAPPENED?

"I did go on to fly the F-4 just like the recruiter promised. Flying the F-4 was fun, but it was aging and the Marine Corps wasn't spending a lot of money to maintain it. Following my F-4 tour I flight instructed on the T-2C Buckeye. It was one of the ugliest jets around, but I had a blast teaching on it. I then transitioned to the F/A-18 and flew with VMFA-451 during Desert Storm. After that, I didn't get shot at through the rest of my career and finally retired from MCAS Miramar in San Diego during 2001 after 20 years of service. I then started a career with Delta Air Lines but was furloughed immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11. After flying F/A-18s for a year as a contract instructor with the Kuwait Air Force I came back to the States and now work for a major defense contractor as a senior analyst."

SO HOW DID YOU GET STARTED WITH WRITING? ANY SPECIAL TRAINING?

"I was probably better at writing than most of my peers, but I didn't have any special talent or training. Writing is mostly just hard work. During my freshman year at Purdue I took a semester of advanced composition so that I could test out of English. I busted my backside and got a big, fat 'C.'"

"Anyway, I was like a lot of people: 'I've always wanted to write a book.' Well, after Desert Storm there was no one writing any of the sorts of first-person accounts of the fighting that I had enjoyed reading as a young man. I figured that I had been there and that I could write about it as well as anyone else, so I gave it a shot. I can't imagine writing a book on a typewriter. Agh!"

THIS WAS "HORNETS OVER KUWAIT?"

"Yes, and I did everything wrong. I just wrote it and sent it straight out to about a ga-jillion publishers without an agent or even a proposal or a query letter. Most of the manuscripts came back with notes that essentially said, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' or 'You suck and so does your book,' or 'Don't ever bother us again.' Of course, not exactly in those words. There were a couple of bites though, and eventually after a rewrite or two and some tough editing, Naval Institute Press published it in 1997."

"The Marine Corps hated it. In the book I used some colorful language and I picked on some of the senior generals, and some of the Marine Corps's policies. I slammed the AV-8B Harrier and questioned the role of women in the military. But because of my frankness and honesty I made a lot of friends and sold a few books. I think that the Naval Institute Press was pleased."

"Now, almost a decade later, I sometimes cringe when I pick it up and read bits of it. Not because my stance on any of the controversial issues has changed, but rather some of the writing appears very amateurish. I could write it so much better now. Still, I think the publisher puposely edited it that way in order to keep the book honest--so that there was no doubt it was written by a warrior rather than a professional."

WHAT WAS YOUR NEXT BOOK?

"Eric Hammel of Pacifica Military History asked me to approach Hamilton "Mac" McWhorter and collaborate with him to write about his World War II experiences as a Navy fighter ace. Eric is one of the savviest and best World War II historians around and he understood the value of getting Mac to record his experiences."

"Mac was one of the finest gentlemen I've ever known. He was genuine and modest and understood that war isn't about blowing things up and covering oneself in glory. Instead, he knew it's about dead friends and dead sons, dead brothers, dead husbands and dead fathers. Working with him to help him write his book was a pleasure although sometimes he was so modest I had to really press him for details, otherwise the reader would have had nothing to work with. 'And then I shot him down' just wasn't enough! We made it work though, and I'm pretty proud of what we produced. This is a fine book about one of the best aerial marksmen of all time.

WHAT CAME NEXT?

"At Eric Hammel's suggestion I wrote 'Fortress Ploesti.' Although a gob of books have been written about the big low-level raid of August 1, 1943, no one had ever covered that story and the subsequent campaign the next year that turned the place into rubble. I really spent a great deal of time researching this work which was published by Casemate in 2003. It's a one-of-a-kind effort and I've never had anyone say anything negative about it. Instead, I've gotten a ton of responses from veterans who are genuinely happy that someone put what they were doing so long ago into context. The Fifteenth Air Force in Italy did a lot of tremendous work but never got the publicity that the Eighth Air Force in England got. I still love reading it and feel that it's one of my best books."

HOW ABOUT "TO BE A U.S. NAVAL AVIATOR?"

"Again, Eric Hammel played a role. He steered Motor Books International at me. They were looking for someone to write their naval aviator title for their "To Be a...." series. It's different than anything I'd done before: Large, soft-cover format with lots of photographs and descriptive text and captions. I thought it would be a no-brainer; after all, I'd been through the training, albeit twenty-some years ago. As it turned out, it was a lot of work. After all, although I'd been through jet training I had no idea about how the helicopter or multi-engine training pipelines worked. And although I considered myself a pretty good self-taught photographer, I was a bit worried that I might have gotten in over my head. But, things went well. I traveled a bit and talked to a lot of the kids who were going through training. And I took a lot of photographs. The book has turned out great."

AND THAT BRINGS US TO THE IRAQ BOOK.

"Yes, 'Hammer from Above--Marine Air Combat over Iraq.' An agent, E.J. McCarthy of The E.J. McCarthy Agency, called me up out of the blue. He asked what I had in mind for my next book and I told him that I was fiddling around with doing something about Marine Aviation in Iraq. This was just after Saddam had been driven from power. Anyway, E.J. was encouraging and signed me aboard. After I'd done a few sample chapters he sold the book to Random House. It was published by Ballantine under the Presidio imprint."

"The book follows the Iraq campaign in early 2003 up to Baghdad and it does so through the eyes of different types of Marine aviators, and all in the context of the ground campaign. For instance, on one day we might fly a mission with a UH-1N crew, and the next day go flying with the Cobras, and then perhaps an F/A-18 or CH-46E crew. There's been nothing like it done before--certainly not for the Marine Corps. This is a big book by a big publisher. I'm very pleased with it. It's been well-received critically and by my Marine Corps brethren."

TELL US ABOUT "SLAUGHTER AT GOLIAD--THE MEXICAN MASSACRE OF 400 TEXAS VOLUNTEERS"

"Two weeks after the fall of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and the rest of the men at the Alamo, the only other standing force on the side of the revolution was the garrison at Goliad. Those men fought a courageous battle but surrendered to a much larger Mexican army under terms that were supposed to see them returned to the United States. Instead, they were betrayed. A week later, Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, on orders from Santa Anna, they were brutally shot, bayoneted and clubbed to death The number killed was likely double the number killed at the Alamo."

"As a young jet instructor I was stationed not far from Goliad. The more I learned about what happened to these men...their horrible deaths...the more frustrated I got that their story was unknown--certainly outside of Texas. So, I wrote the first comprehensive account of this tragedy; the book has done real well, even winning a couple of awards."

AND "THE MEN WHO KILLED THE LUFTWAFFE?"

"This was a book that I'd always dreamed of writing. I grew up reading exciting accounts of air combat, and when I got older I studied the strategies and tactics behind the air war against Germany. But rarely were the two ever combined in a single work. I've done that in this book; I take the strategies that the USAAF leadership crafted to win the war and shape them around the crown jewels of the book--the personal accounts of air combat. It works really well while making the case that it was the USAAF that defeated the Nazi air force and set the conditions the Allies needed to win the war."


HOW ABOUT PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES?

"I've had a few articles published in various professional journals and newspapers--mostly about aviation and military topics. Some of them have just been scholarly discussions. Others challenged the military leadership. One of them was read on the senate floor. A couple of them had me standing tall on the wrong side of a big desk. A combination of them cost me the opportunity to advance any further in the Marine Corps. I don't regret a single word. Particularly since I was right. Still, I do have a sense of self-preservation and there are a couple of articles that I did not publish because the kitchen got way too hot. Even now, in the civilian world. Nevertheless, I think that it's important to get the right word out. It's easier to sleep that way."

ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WOULD-BE WRITERS?

"Start. A person can think of a thousand reasons not to begin a work. Bottom line: 'It ain't gonna get wrote if you don't start it.' And then, don't give up. Finish it. And if it gets rejected, keep fixing it and sending it out. Don't stop until it's published. I have not one shred of doubt that the top 20 American classics never got published because their writers gave up. Those manuscripts are sitting in an attic or garage somewhere and will never see the light of day because the writers didn't have the energy and guts to see them get to print."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!, April 20, 2008

By 

J. Rudy "Major, USAF" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slaughter at Goliad: The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers (Hardcover)

In "Slaughter at Goliad", Jay Stout recounts the horrific tale of the single largest loss of American warriors until the American Civil War. Goliad, Texas is located only 80 miles from the most famous site of the Texas Revolution, the Alamo. Why is it that many of us have never heard of this place? By the conclusion of the book, Stout posits his answer to this question.

Stout provides the reader with an abbreviated course on Mexican history, including the rise of the militaristic despot, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. While not directly related to this battle, Santa Anna definitely influenced the massacre. His "Tornel Decree" declared anyone who took up arms against Mexico to be a pirate. Under Mexican law at the time, this meant death for any volunteer who had taken up arms. After the battle the commanding Mexican officer, General Jose Urrea, used this document and a letter from Santa Anna to the officer responsible for the slaughter to justify the murderous actions of his men.

After providing the strategic context of the Mexico-Texas relationship in 1836, Stout described the material incentives offered to bands of volunteers, such as the New Orleans Greys and the Alabama Red Rovers who came to the Texas frontier. With the motivations of both sides clearly described, Stout delivers a factual accounting of the final days of these 400 volunteers, including James Walker Fannin's aborted attempt to send a relief column to the Alamo, which was under siege only weeks before these men met their murderous end. Using personal diaries from both belligerents as source material, Stout was able to recreate a vivid image of the battle for the reader.

After 120 men held off a Mexican army during the battle of Matamoros a few days earlier, the 270-person contingent held off a second Mexican army at the Battle of Coleto creek. At the end of first day of battle, scores of Mexicans lay dead or wounded, at an American cost of only 9 dead and a few dozen wounded. General Urrea understood the Americans would have continued to inflict grievous harm on his army, so he accepted the conditional surrender terms of the Americans. With these honorable surrender terms in mind, the American prisoners marched back to Goliad under the impression they were to be paroled to return to the United States. At this point, General Urrea's least capable commander received a letter from Santa Anna, setting into motion events that would forever change Texas history.

At the Alamo, 182 Americans gave their lives in pursuit of an independent Texas; almost 400 volunteers paid that same price at Goliad. At the Battle of San Jacinto, less than a month later, the Texan volunteers rallied to the battle cry of "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" At this battle, General Sam Houston finally defeated Santa Anna, leading to the birth of the Republic of Texas. As time went by, the battle cry was halved to only "Remember the Alamo!" Stout's analysis offers very compelling arguments as to why this event was selectively forgotten from American history.

Stout brings to life this horrific event, remembering the brave men who fought and died for Texan Independence. He does these men a great justice by keeping their stories alive. Stout certainly knows how to tell a tale - I couldn't put the book down after I started it. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Book on the Battle of Coleto & Subsequent Mass Execution of American Volunteers, October 4, 2008

By 

David M. Dougherty (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Slaughter at Goliad: The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers (Hardcover)

The author has done American Historians a notable service in writing the definitive work on this usually overlooked episode in American history. The research is thorough, and his writing is excellent.

The center of his story is the massacre of approximately 400 American volunteers from mostly Southern states who went to Texas to assist the Anglo settlers there in winning independence from Mexico. To put this inexcusable event into context, author Stout briefly covers Mexico's history concentrating on the period from Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 until the Santa Anna dictatorship. Unfortunately, the insurmountable problems faced by people raised in an authoritarian social structure when attempting to form a democracy without any concept of its workings is ignored. On the American side Stout describes the Americans using De Tocqueville's depiction as "freewheeling, free traveling, and hardly constrained by circumstances, class, or borders."

The Spanish and later Mexicans were simply unable to colonize Texas and what later became the American Southwest due to the harshness of the land and the indigenous Indians. Catholicism, being based on authority emanating from an emperor/priest, failed miserably in obtaining converts from non-hierarchial Indian societies, and Spanish and Mexican colonists were unable to conquer the Apaches and Comanches sufficiently to achieve a modicum of security. In this vacuum, Americans settlers began to arrive in large numbers, often in agreement with the Mexican government (like Austin's colony), and by 1836 the population of Texas stood at less than 4,000 Mexicans, and 40,000 Americans including their 4-5,000 slaves. Like it or not, the Americans were probably the world's most deadly predators at the time, and they took over the "Indian problem" and solved it. And as always, population was power, and the immigrant Americans had seized it from a hopelessly corrupt Mexican government.

Author Stout rather accurately describes the main player in the Goliad drama, James Fannin, as incompetent and self-important along with many of the other empresarios who came to Texas to win their fortunes. The same cannot be said for the young volunteers from Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and other states who would pay for their youthful wanderlust with their lives.

Cutting to the quick, Fannin commanded about 250 men at Goliad and was faced by the Mexican General Urrea with a force of approximately 1,000 men including 300 heavy cavalry outfitted like French cuirassiers. Fannin's total army of almost 500 men was spread out in multiple detachments, and the southerly ones under Grant and Johnson were rapidly destroyed by Urrea. He sent a third of his army to Refugio under King and Ward, and this detachment was overrun and eventually captured. Fannin dithered, decided not to go to the Alamo, and after a senseless skirmish, decided to leave Goliad to join Houston. Unfortunately he took with him nine cannon and his rate of march was slowed to two miles per hour. It did not take Urrea long to catch Fannin in the open and surround him. After an afternoon of fighting in which the Americans acquitted themselves honorably and a miserable night, Fannin surrendered his command believing he and his men would be spared. Certainly the foreign officers in Urrea's army thought they would be spared and Urrea made statements to that effect, but the surrender document left the terms up to the Mexican Government -- in essence to Santa Anna.

The Mexican Government, at Santa Anna's bidding, had enacted the Decree of Tornel, stating essentially that all foreign invaders on Mexican soil were to be treated as pirates (e.g. subject to execution.) When Urrea contacted Santa Anna as to the disposition of the prisoners, Santa Anna's reply was to execute Fannin and his men.

The following day, Fannin's survivors of the Battle of Coleto and the prisoners from the other detachments comprising about 400 men were shot down or otherwise dispatched in four groups including the officers who were killed separately. The only men spared were those useful to the Mexican Army, namely doctors, nurses and some carpenters. Notably, there was no hesitation on the part of the Mexican soldiers to murder the prisoners. Only a very few prisoners escaped by feigning death or running away when the slaughter began.

The author presents both sides in a fair and impartial manner, carefully documenting Fannin's fecklessness and Santa Anna's mendacity. The cries of "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad" propelled Houston's force to victory at San Jacinto, but revisionists have carefully deleted the Goliad cry as not wanting to draw attention to Fannin's incompetence and Mexican brutality. This book brings the story home in an scholarly fashion to the benefit of all.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important slice of history, July 2, 2008

By 

Andrew Lubin "author of Charlie Battery; A Ma... (Bucks County, Pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slaughter at Goliad: The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers (Hardcover)

While every American and Mexican schoolchild knows the story of the Alamo, few "Norteamericanos" know the story of the massacre that followed it, that of killing 250 unarmed Texan prisoners at Goliad.

Author Jay Stout's latest book "Slaughter at Goliad" brings this blot on the Mexican military into the harsh light of day. Exceptionally well-written, he brings his experience as a Marine combat aviator into the battle as he explains the fight in terms that every reader can understand.

Superficially, this is a simple story; after a one-sided battle won by the Mexican Army over a bunch of rag-tag Texan-American volunteers, some 250 prisoners were marched to Goliad. After 200 more prisoners were brought to the compound, where they were all massacred on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. It was one of the single largest losses of life in the history of the young United States, and the repercussions affected Texas, America, and Mexico virtually immediately.

Of special importantance to the battle and to the book is Stout's examination of the personalities and politics involved. Stout portrays James Walker Fannin, the commander of the doomed unit, as an ineffective leader who misjudged his adversary, Mexico's infamous General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. As author Stout explains, rather than courage, it was Fannin's incompetence as a battlefield commander that put his men into a position where they had to either surrender or be killed - and it was equally Santa Anna's ego and short-sightedness that led him to execute Fannin and his troops.

Fully understanding Clausewitz's dictum that `war is merely politics by another means', Stout goes on to explain how this massacre was integral into galvanizing American public opinion in favor of a war against Mexico.

Not to be forgotten is Stout's description of the boots-on-the-ground stories of Fannin's men. They came to Texas for various reasons, and with equally various and vague backgrounds, yet were integral to the Texan drive for independence. "Manifest destiny" started here, with men like those under Fannin's command, and Stout does an excellent job documenting it.

Neither pro-nor-con Mexico or America, Jay Stout has written an interesting and sophisticated battle history of a long-forgotten incident that helped Texas win their war of independence. This is well worth reading for both the casual and educational reader of both military and North American history. ! Ole !