James Walker Fannin, Jr. (1805-27 March 1836) was a Colonel in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution. Fannin was the leader of the men who were murdered by the Mexican Army in the Goliad massacre of March 1836.
Biography[]
James Walker Fannin, Jr. was born in 1805 in Georgia, and he attended West Point from 1819 to 1821. Fannin was forced to resign due to poor attendance and due to the declining health of his grandparents back in Georgia, and he would become a militiaman, merchant, and illegal slave smuggler. In 1834, Fannin purchased a plantation in Texas, and he became a manager of a slave-trading syndicate. In 1835, he fought at the Battle of Gonzales, and he also served under James Bowie at Concepcion. On 7 December 1835, he became a colonel in the Texas Army, and he decided to lead an expedition to relieve the Alamo in March 1836. However, the expedition arrived too late to help the defenders, and it was defeated and captured at Coleto. On 27 March 1836, Fannin and 425 other Texian prisoners of war were executed in the Goliad massacre, with Fannin being sat in a chair, blindfolded, and shot in the face by a firing squad before being cremated.