GOLIAD  , an unincorporated

village and the county-seat of Goliad county, Texas, U.S.A., on the N. bank of the San Antonio river, 85 m . S.E. of San Antonio . Pop . (1900) about 1700 . It is served by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio railway (Southern Pacific System) . Situated in the midst of a rich farming and-stock-raising country, Goliad has flour mills, cotton gins and cotton-seed oil mills . Here are the interesting ruins of the old Spanish mission of La Bahia, which was removed to this point from the Guadaloupe river in 1747 . During the struggle between Mexico and Spain the Mexican leader Bernardo Gutierrez (1978-1814) was besieged here . The name Goliad, probably an anagram of the name of the Mexican patriot Hidalgo (1753-1811), was first used about 1829 . On the outbreak of the Texan War of Liberation Goliad was garrisoned by a small force of Mexicans, who surrendered to the Texans in October 1835, and on the loth of December a preliminary " declaration of independence " was published here, antedating by several months the official Declaration issued at Old Washington, Texas, on the 2nd of March 1836 . In 1836, when Santa Anna began his advance against the Texan posts, Goliad was occupied by a force of about 350 Americans under Colonel James W . Fannin (c .

1800-1836), who was overtaken on the Coletto

Creek while attempting to carry out orders to withdraw from Goliad and to unite with General Houston; he surrendered after a sharp fight (March 19-20) in which he inflicted a heavy loss on the Mexicans, and was marched back with his force to Goliad, where on the morning of the 27th of March they were shot down by Santa Anna'sorders . Goliad was nearly destroyed by a tornado on the 19th of May 1903 .