USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 75
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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. Removing 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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delayed his retreat for some time, in order to collect the women and children of the neighborhood, whose lives were exposed to imminent peril. But he finally set out for Goliad with 350 men.
En route to this point he was overtaken by General Urrea, at the head of 1,200 Mexican troops. There followed a battle which lasted for
MIRABEAU B. LAMAR ' Soldier and Statesman, Second President of the Republic of Texas
two days, during which time the Mexicans lost between 300 and 400 in killed and wounded, and the Texans only about seventy; but Fannin, having been wounded in the engagement, was forced by the exigencies of the situation to surrender. He agreed to capitulate only on con- dition that his troops should be paroled. But, instead of being set at liberty, they were marched to Goliad as prisoners of war, and, on March 27, 1836, in pursuance of orders said to have been received from
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Santa Anna, were, in the absence of General Urrea, massaered in cold blood.
Four men to assist in the hospital and four surgeons, in addition to the women, received exemption from the bloody edict of death, besides which some few of the men who were fired upon afterwards escaped; but the rest were inhumanly butchered. Some two weeks before he was captured and put to death, Fannin wrote to a friend in the United States : "I have about four hundred and twenty men here, and if I can get provisions tomorrow or next day, I can maintain myself against any force. I will never give up the ship."
Henderson Yoakum, the pioneer historian of Texas, gives the fright- ful details of the tragedy at Goliad as follows." Says he: "The Texans now raised a white flag, which was promptly answered by the enemy. Major Wallace and Captain Chadwick went out, and in a short time returned and reported that General Urrea would treat only with the commanding officer. Colonel Fannin, though lame, went out, assuring his men that he would make none other than an honorable capitulation. He returned in a short time and communicated the terms of agreement which he had made with Urrea. They were in substance as follows: 1. That the Texans should be received and treated as prisoners of war, according to the uses of the most civilized nations. 2. That private property should be respected and restored, but the side-arms of the officers should be given up. 3. That the men should be sent to Copano and thenee, in eight days, to the United States, or so soon thereafter as vessels could be secured to take them. 4. That the officers should be paroled and returned to the United States, in like manner. General Urrea immediately sent Holzinger and other officers to announce the agreement. It was reduced to writing in both English and Spanishlı languages, read over two or three times, signed, and the writings exchanged, 'in the most formal and solemn manner.' The Texans immediately piled arms, and such of them as were able to march were hurried off to Goliad, where they arrived at sundown on the same day (the 20th). The wounded, among whom was Colonel Fannin, did not reach the place till the 22nd. At Goliad the pris- oners were crowded into the old church, with no other food than a scanty pittance of beef, without bread or salt. Colonel Fannin was placed under the care of Colonel Holzinger, a German engineer in the Mexican service. So soon as Fannin learned how badly his men were treated, he wrote to General Urrea, stating the facts, and remind- ing him of the terms of capitulation.
"On the 23rd, Colonel Fannin and Colonel Holzinger proceeded to Copano to ascertain if a vessel could be procured to convey the Texans to the United States; but the vessel which they expected to obtain had already left port. They did not return until the 26th. On the 23rd, Major Miller, with eighty Texan volunteers, who had just landed at Copano, were taken prisoners and brought into Goliad by Colonel Vara. Again, on the 25th, Colonel Ward and his men, captured by Urrea, were brought in. The evening of the 26th passed off pleasantly enough.
* "History of Texas, 1685 to 1845," by Henderson Yoakum; embodied in Wooten 's "Comprehensive History of Texas," Vol. I, pp. 254-260, Dallas, 1898.
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Colonel Fanning was entertaining his friends with the prospect of returning to the United States; and some of the young men who could perform well on the flute were playing 'Home, Sweet Home.' How happy we are that the veil of the future is suspended over us! At seven o'clock that night, an order, brought by special courier from Santa Anna, required the prisoners to be shot! Detailed regulations were sent as to the mode of executing this cold-blooded and atrocious order. Colonel Portilla, the commandant of the place, did not long hesitate to put it into execution. He had four hundred and forty-five prisoners under his charge. Eighty of these, brought from Copano, having just landed, were therefore considered as not within the scope of the order, and for the time were excused. The services of four of the Texan physicians-Drs. Field, Hall, Shackleford and Joseph H. Bernard #-being needed to take care of the Mexican wounded, were among those spared. So likewise were four others, who were assistants in the hospital."
"At dawn of day, on Palm Sunday, March 27, the Texans were awakened by a Mexican officer, who said he wished them to form a line that they might be counted. The men were marched out in separate divisions, under different pretexts. Some were told that they were to be taken to Copano, in order to be sent home; others that they were going out to slaughter beeves; and others again that they were being removed to make room in the fort for Santa Anna. Dr. Shackleford, who had been invited by Colonel Guerrier to his tent, about a hundred yards southeastwardly from the fort, says: 'In about an hour, we heard the report of a volley of small arms, toward the river, and to the east of the fort. I immediately inquired the cause of the firing, and was assured by the officer that he did not know, but supposed that it was the guard firing off their guns. In about fifteen or twenty minutes thereafter another such volley was fired, directly south of us, and in front. At the same time I could distinguish the heads of some of the men through the boughs of some peach trees and could hear their screams. It was then, for the first time, that the awful conviction seized upon our minds that treachery and murder had begun their work. Shortly afterward Colonel Guerrier appeared at the door of the tent. I asked him if it could be possible they were murdering our men. He replied that it was so, but that he had not given the order, neither had he executed it." In about an hour more, the wounded were dragged ont and butchered. Colonel Fannin was the last to suf- fer. When informed of his fate, he met it like a soldier. He handed his watch to the officer whose business it was to murder him, and re- quested that he have him shot in the breast and not in the head, and likewise see that his remains were decently buried. These natural and proper requirements the officer promised should be fulfilled, but, with the perfidy which is so characteristic of the Mexican race, he failed to do either! Fannin seated himself in a chair, tied the handkerchief over his eyes, and bared his bosom to receive the fire of the soldiers. As the different divisions were brought to the place of execution, they
* Dr. Bernard has written an exhaustive account of the Goliad Massacre. See Wooten's "Comprehensive History of Texas, " Vol. I, Chapter X, Dallas, 1885.
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were ordered to sit down with their backs to the guard. But a young man by the name of Fenner, in one of the squads, rose to his feet and exclaimed : 'Boys, they are going to kill us-die with your faces to them, like men!' At the same time, two other young Texans, flourish- ing their caps over their heads, shouted at the top of their voices, 'Hur- rah for Texas!' "
"Many attempted to escape; but the most of those who survived the first fire were cut down by the pursuing cavalry, or afterwards shot. It is believed that in all twenty-seven of those who were marched out to. be slaughtered eventually escaped, leaving three hundred who suf- fered death on that Sunday morning. The dead were then stripped and the naked bodies thrown into piles. A few brushes were placed over them, and an attempt made to burn the bodies up, but with such poor success that the hands and feet, and much of the flesh, were left a prey to dogs and vultures !
"Colonel Fannin doubtless erred in postponing for four days his obedience to the order of the Commander-in-Chief to retreat with all possible dispatch to Victoria, on the Guadalupe; and also in sending out Lieutenant-Colonel Ward in search of Captain King. But these errors sprang from the noblest feelings of humanity ; first, in an attempt to save from the approaching enemy some Texan settlers at the mis- sion of Refugio; again, in an endeavor to rescue King and his men at the same place; and finally to save Ward and his command-until all was lost save honor. The public vengeance of the Mexican tyrant, however, was satisfied. Deliberately and in cold blood he had caused three hundred and thirty of the sternest friends of Texas-her friends while living and dying-to tread the wine-press for her redemption. He chose the Lord's Day for this sacrifice. It was accepted; and God waited his own time for retribution-a retribution which brought Santa Anna a trembling coward to the feet of the Texan victors, whose mag- nanimity prolonged his wretched life to waste the land of his birth with anarchy and civil war." *
It is a well authenticated fact that the famous "Lone Star" flag of Texan independence was born on the soil of Georgia; and the beautiful emblem which was destined to win historic immortality at Goliad was designed by a young lady of Crawford county, Miss Joanna E. Trout- man. The following account has been condensed from a brief history
* During the session of 1883, the Legislature of Texas appropriated the sum of $1,500 for a monument at Goliad to the victims of the brutal massacre of 1836. The citizens of Goliad raised an additional $1,700, and the City of Goliad donated a lot for the monument. The handsome shaft was unveiled in 1885. It is built of Italian marble, standing thirty-three feet in height, upon a base of granite, and contains the following brief inscriptions: On the north, the famous battle cry of San Jacinto, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" On the west, "Independence declared, March 2nd, A. D. 1836, consummated April 21st, A. D. 1836." On the south, at the bottom of the first section, "Fannin" is chiseled in raised letters, while higher up on the monument appear these words: "Erected in Memory of Fannin and his Com- rades." On the east, "Massacred March 27th, A. D. 1836." There were a number of Georgians in Fannin's command, among them a distinguished young officer of Lawrenceville, Capt. James C. Winn,
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of the flag written by Macon's pioneer historian, Mr. John C. Butler, who was thoroughly conversant with the facts, from the Georgia stand- point and whose story is corroborated by an article found in an old copy of the Galveston News. Says Mr. Butler: *
"On November 12, 1835, a public meeting was held in Macon. Rob- ert Augustus Beall, John Rutherford, and Samuel M. Strong were among the speakers who endorsed the claims of Texas. Lieutenant Hugh M. McLeod, from West Point, addressed the meeting in a spirited appeal, pledging himself to resign his commission and to embark as a volunteer. He declared that what Texas needed was soldiers-not resolutions.
"Captain Levi Eckley, commander of the Bibb cavalry, presided, with Simri Rose as secretary. Colonel William A. Ward, of Macon, proposed to form a company of infantry to enlist in the Army of Texas, whereupon thirty-two gentlemen came forward and enrolled as volun- teers. On motion, the chair appointed General R. A. Beall, Colonel H. G. Lamar, Colonel T. G. Holt, James A. Nisbet, Esq., and Dr. Rob- ert Collins, a committee to solicit subscriptions; and before the meet- ing adjourned $3,150 was handed in to the committee, Dr. Collins paying in cash the greater part of the amount.
"As 'the company passed through other towns en route to Texas other recruits were added. At Knoxville, in Crawford County, Miss Joanna E. Troutman-afterwards Mrs. Vinson-a daughter of Hiram B. Troutman, made and sent a beautiful banner of white silk, with a blue lone star upon it, to Lieutenant McLeod to present to the company at Columbus. The following is a copy of the letter acknowledging the receipt of the flag :
COLUMBUS, GA., November 23, 1835.
"MISS JOANNA :
"Colonel Ward brought your handsome and appropriate flag as a present to the Georgia Volunteers in the cause of Texas and Liberty. I was fearful from the shortness of the time that you would not be able to finish it as tastefully as you would wish, but I assure you, without an emotion of flattery, it is beautiful, and with us the value is en- hanced by the recollection of the donor. I thank you for the honor of being the medium of presentation to the company; and, if they are what every true Georgian ought to be, your flag will yet wave over fields of victory in defiance of despotism. I hope the proud day may soon arrive, and while your star presides none can doubt of success.
Very respectfully your friend, HUGH MCLEOD."
Signed :
"This patriotie standard, made in Crawford County, by Miss Trout- man, became renowned in the history of the gallant young republic as the first flag of the Lone Star State ever unfurled on Texas soil !! As they were not permitted to organize within the limits of the United States, Colonel Ward proceeded with his followers to Texas, where they were organized according to regulations. He gathered about one huu-
*** ' Historical Record of Macon," John C. Butler, pp. 131-137.
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dred and twenty men who were formed into three companies. These were then organized into a battalion, the officers of which were: Wil- liam A. Ward, major; William J. Mitchell, surgeon; David I. Holt, quartermaster; and Henderson Cozart, assistant quartermaster. The captains were: W. A. O. Wadsworth, James C. Winn and Uriah J. Bulloch.
"After several engagements with the Mexicans, the battalion joined the command of Colonel Fannin and formed a regiment by electing Fannin colonel and Ward lieutenant-colonel. The regimet numbered five hundred and was stationed at Fort Goliad. On March 13, 1836, the original battalion, under Ward, was sent thirty miles to the relief of Captain King who had thirty men protecting a number of families in the neighborhood of a church at the mission of Refugio. On the arrival of the battalion, they found Captain King surrounded by a large force of Mexicans who disappeared on discovering that he was re- enforced. Afterwards, on leaving the mission, King, with his com- mand, was captured and killed.
"Re-enforced to the number of fourteen hundred men, the Mexicans then intercepted Ward, who retired to the church. Breast-works were made by the battalion of pews, grave-stones, fences and other things, and the fire of the Mexicans was resisted for two days, with'a loss to the enemy of one hundred and fifty men, and of only six to the Ameri- cans. But the ammunition of the battalion was exhausted on the third day of the battle, when Colonel Ward was reluctantly forced to capitu- late, signing the regular articles according to the rules of war.
"It was stipulated that the battalion would be returned to the United States in eight days. Colonel Fannin, in the meantime, sent four different couriers to ascertain the cause of Ward's delay, each of whom was captured and shot by the Mexicans. The latter were again heavily re-enforced and advanced upon Fort Goliad. (See elsewhere an account of the massacre of Fannin's men, a large percentage of whom were Georgians.) Ward's battalion was included in this massa- ere, having been brought in as prisoners of war.
"From an old copy of the Galveston News the following account is taken : 'The flag of the Lone Star which was first unfurled in Texas was borne by the Georgia battalion, commanded by the late Lieutenant- Colonel Ward, who with almost his entire command was massacred at Goliad, in the spring of 1836, in what is known as 'Fannin's Massacre,' he being next in command to the lamented Colonel James W. Fannin. The flag was presented to Colonel Ward's command as they passed through Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga., by the beautiful Miss Joanna E. Troutman. It was made of plain white silk, bearing an azure star of five points. On one side was the inscription in rich but chaste colors : 'Liberty or Death'; and, on the other, the patriotic Latin motto: 'Ubi Libertas habitat, ibi nostra patria est.' " *
"The flag was first unfurled at Velasco on January 8, 1836. It floated to the breeze from the same liberty pole with the first flag of
* " Where Liberty resides, there our country is."
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Independence which had just been brought from Goliad by the valor- ous Captain William Brown. What became of the flag of Independ- ence we do not know, but the beautiful star of azure was borne by Fannin's regiment to Goliad, and there gracefully floated from the staff. On March 8, 1836, an express arrived at Goliad from Washing- ton, on the Brazos, officially announcing that the convention then in session had formally made solemn declaration that Texas was no longer a Mexican province but a free and independent republic.
"Amid the roar of artillery, the beautiful 'Banner of the Lone Star' was hoisted to the top of the flag staff, where it proudly streamed over the hoary ramparts and the time-shattered battlements of La Bahia. But just as the sunset gun was fired and the usual attempt was made to lower the colors, by some unlucky mishap, the beautiful silk banner became entangled in the halyards and was torn to pieces. Only a small fragment remained adjusted to the flag staff; and when Colonel Fannin evacuated Goliad to join General Houston, in accord- ance with received orders, the last remnant of the first 'Flag of the Lone Star' was still fluttering at the top of the staff from which first floated the flag of Texan Independence.
"With the capture of Santa Anna, at the battle of San Jacinto, the silver service of the wily commander was also captured, and some of the trophies of victory, including his massive forks and spoons, were forwarded by General Rusk to Miss Troutman, in token of the regard which this Georgia lady had inspired in the stern, scarred patriots of the Revolution. On the meeting of the first Congress, the Flag of the Lone Star was adopted as the flag of the Republic and the seals of office ordered engraved with the star upon them. The public recogni- tion of the maternity of the first Flag of the Lone Star as belonging to Georgia was made by General Memmican Hunt, the first minister from the Republic of Texas to the United States."
The State of Texas will erect a monument in the near future to the memory of the lamented Georgia woman who designed the "Lone Star" flag. During the month of February, 1913, the remains of Mrs. Vinson, formerly Miss Joanna Troutman, were exhumed from a neglected little country graveyard near Knoxville, Georgia, and for- warded to Texas, to be reinterred with public honors in the soil of the great commonwealth whose historie emblem she originated. The re- moval of her body from Georgia to Texas was the result of an extended correspondence between Mrs. L. L. Brown, of Fort Valley, Georgia, and Governor O. B. Colquitt, the present chief executive of Texas, a native Georgian. Miss Troutman was twice married, first to Solomon Pope, and second, to Green Vinson. She was a sister of the late John F. Troutman, Sr., of Fort Valley, Georgia. The remains of Mrs. Vin- son will repose in the State Cemetery at Austin, Texas.
CHAPTER XXI
SEQUOYA'S WONDERFUL INVENTION-THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET-IN THE OPINION OF LINGUISTIC SCHOLARS ONE OF THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE HUMAN INTELLECT -- DR. SCOMP'S CRITICAL ANALYSIS-HOW SEQUOYA CAME TO DEVISE AN ALPHABET-ITS EFFECT UPON THE CHEROKEE NATION-NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS PRINTED IN SEQUOYAN-BIBLES AND HYMN-BOOKS-THE CHEROKEE ADOPT A NATIONAL CONSTITUTION-SEQUOYA'S GREAT AMBITION- To PRODUCE A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE FOR THE INDIANS-WHEN AN OLD MAN HE GOES TO THE FAR WEST IN SEARCH OF A LOST TRIBE- DIES IN MEXICO.
Sequoya, the noted Indian half-hreed, who invented the Cherokee alphabet, lived at one time near the village of Alpine, in Chattooga County, Georgia, not far from the present Alabama line. The first newspaper ever printed in Sequoyan characters was edited and published at New Echota, in Gordon County, at the confluence of the Coosawattee and the Connasauga rivers. Sequoya's invention marked the rise of culture among the Cherokees, the only tribe of Indians on the North American continent who possessed a written language and who boasted an organized national existence, founded upon constitutional law. In the opinion of linguistic scholars, the invention of Sequoya is one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect. The celebrated red-wood trees of California, the most colossal giants of the American forest, have been christened the Sequoias, in honor of this gifted Indian's won- derful invention .* It is not an inappropriate tribute to the almost extinct race which produced the original occupants of the soil that the greatest of red-wood trees should commemorate the greatest of red men. Dr. H. A. Scomp, the author of the following article, was for years pro- fessor of Greek, in Emory College, at Oxford, Georgia. He was later engaged to prepare a comparative dictionary of the Muskogee languages, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D. C. Doctor Scomp was an eminent literary critic, and one of the foremost authorities of the day on the subject of Indian antiquities.
"Perhaps the most remarkable man who has lived on Georgia soil, was neither a politician, nor a soldier, nor an ecclesiastic, nor a scholar-but was merely a Cherokee Indian, of mixed blood. And, strange to say, this Indian acquired permanent fame, neither expecting it nor seeking after it. He himself, never knew the full measure of his claim to a place in the temple of fame; never knew the full value of his work, nor the literary chasm which he had bridged; never knew that
* "New International Encyclopedia, " Vol. XVII. Article on the Sequoias.
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in his own little tribe he had solved a literary problem till then unsolved in all the realm of linguistie science.
"Sequoya, or Sikwayi-known to the whites as George Guest, Guess or Gist, was born at Taskigi, Tennessee, a Cherokee town, probably about 1760. He was the fruit of one of those illicit connections so common among the more civilized tribes. Sequoya's paternal ancestor has been variously surmised : by some he (Sequoya) was regarded as the son of a German-Indian trader; by others his father was thought to be an
RED
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SEQUOYA, AN INDIAN HALF-BREED WHO INVENTED THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET
Irishman; while still others have held him to be the son of Nathaniel Gist, afterwards famous for his activity in the American Revolution.
"We are not well advised as to Sequoya's part in the struggle for independence, nor in the later troubles of the Cherokees with the whites. We have strong reasons for supposing that in his heart he bore in those days little good will to his pale-faced kinsmen. At all events he owed nothing to English letters and little to the arts of civilization.
"Sequoya spent his earlier years like most of his tribesmen in hunt- ing and in peltry trading; until on one of his hunting trips he was by
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