Silent Witness to Texas History: Archeology and Artifacts of Goliad's Presidio La Bahia
 

By Anne A. Fox, Samuel P. Nesmith, and Daniel E. Fox Publication Date: March 2009 275 pages

106 figures, 39 full color ISBN: 978-0-615-27997-8

Price: $55 plus tax and shipping. Total price when shipped: $62.50

"This is a seminal achievement for Texas archeology and history, as the artifacts from the site represent one of the most important Spanish colonial, Mexican, and Anglo-American collections ever excavated in Texas."

-from the Preface by Jim Bruseth

In 1963-1964, archeologist Roland Beard recovered more than 12,000 artifacts during an excavation at Presidio La Bahia, a 1749 Spanish military fort in Goliad, Texas. Those artifacts lay unheralded in display cases and in a dusty storage room for more than 45 years.

Until now. Historical archeologists Anne and Daniel Fox and renowned military historian Samuel Nesmith have undertaken the first study of the Presidio La Bahia restoration collection. Their work, just published as Silent Witness to Texas History, provides detailed identifications and descriptions, complete with hundreds of photographs, of one of the largest and most impressive artifact collections in Texas. From Spanish colonial, Mexican, and Texian weapons to a wide range of domestic artifacts, the collection provides a fascinating view of life at the presidio during 100 years in history when Texas underwent political change from a Spanish colonial power to modern statehood.

The book will interest archeologists and anyone interested in Texas history. Including a detailed analysis of the largest collection of gun parts found at a Texas site, it offers a good picture of the arms and equipment carried by the Mexican soldiers and the fledgling Texian army during the Texas Revolution. Pictured and described are engraved Spanish colonial escopeta trigger guards and Mexican India pattern musket parts, Texian cannons and military uniform buttons. A military history includes the complete Mexican Order of Battle at the time of the Goliad Massacre, when Colonel Fannin and 341 of his troops were executed on orders of Mexican General Santa Anna.

This book also provides insight into daily life at the presidio when it was occupied by Spanish, and later Texian, soldiers. The authors analyze the collection of more than 6,000 ceramic sherds, a vast collection of cast-iron items such as kettles, and colored and specialty bottle glass. A detailed history of Presidio La Bahia and the Goliad area focuses much-deserved attention on a place that, although still unknown to many, was a silent witness to some of the most important events and cultural shifts in our state's history.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Anne A. Fox has worked in the field of historical archeology for more than 40 years. With her extensive knowledge of Spanish colonial archeology and ceramics, she has led and participated in archeological excavations for the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas at San Antonio, including projects at the Alamo and the Spanish missions.

Sam Nesmith, an expert in military and Spanish colonial history, served as curator at the Alamo. He then spent 12 years as a curator and researcher for The Institute of Texan Cultures, where he wrote The Spanish Jbxans, The Mexican Jbxans, and The Belgian Jbxans. Nesmith has participated in seven excavations on the Alamo grounds and is the director and curator of the Texas Museum of Military History.

Daniel E. Fox has served as a staff archeologist for the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin and a cultural resource manager at the Texas Water Development Board. He holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree in anthropology from Texas Tech University. He has written many technical reports on prehistoric and historic archeology in Texas and is the author of Traces of Jbxas History: Archeological Evidence of the Past 450 Years, which has become a standard reader.

To order, contact:

Newton M. Warzecha 

Director of Presidio La Bahia 

P.O. Box 57 Goliad, TX 77963 

Telephone: (361) 645-3752 

Fax: 361-645-1706

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http://www.presidiolabahia.org