Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836. Three hundred and forty-two Texian prisoners are marched from Presidio La Bahía at Goliad and executed in three columns along three roads. One nineteen-year-old German volunteer, Herman Ehrenberg, survives by plunging into the San Antonio River.

This episode follows General José de Urrea's advance up the Texas coast, James Fannin's fatal hesitation at Goliad, the Battle of the Coleto, and the order from Santa Anna that turned a surrender into a massacre. Drawing on Ehrenberg's own memoir, we trace how the Goliad Massacre transformed the Republic of Texas from a paper declaration into a debt — and set the stage for San Jacinto.