William Parsons Miller and some 75 Texian soldiers are imprisoned - just captured by the Mexican Army. Cords cut into their flesh. They’re hungry. Thirsty.
And worse… they’ve heard about the massacre at the Alamo. How the corpses of their fellow Texians were piled high and burned in the streets. Death, they figure, is certain.
Then, she appeared.
She brought food. Water. And somehow, they learned, this mysterious woman had interceded on their behalf to her husband, a Mexican officer. The execution order… never came.
A few days later, she was seen again – entering the fort at Goliad, to visit the hundreds of Texian prisoners there. She helped several escape to freedom.
The next day, Mexican firing squads massacred more than 300 of those prisoners.
Her name - Francita Alavez. And she appeared time and again to wounded and imprisoned Texian soldiers, bringing them comfort – and often, freedom. She became a nearly mythical figure, spoken of in whispers by desperate prisoners as the “Angel of Goliad”.
Dr. Jack Shackelford, a prisoner at Goliad, had seen her at work:
CHARACTER VOICE: Jack
Shackelford
She was indeed an Angel of Mercy... All that she could
do to administer to our comfort -- to ‘pour oil into our wounds’ - was done.
After the war, her husband abandoned her in Mexico City. Penniless, she returned to South Texas, and lived the rest of her days at the King Ranch, whose owner - Capt. Richard King – deeply admired her; this heroine of the Revolution.