DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker at this site tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, early in 1836, Dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna sent General Jose Urrea — Governor of his native state of Durango, Mexico — dispatched northeastward to fight the Texas colonists in their uprising for independence. Urrea had numbers on his side, and he used them.
Down near the town of San Patricio, about forty miles southwest of here, he rolled up easy victories. Easy enough that a man might start to feel invincible. But then Urrea reached Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio, and the world got considerably harder.
See, the bulk of his troops were Yucatanians — non-Spanish-speaking men who had been pressed into fighting by Santa Anna. They hadn't chosen this road. And when they arrived at Refugio, the townsmen pushed back hard.
Urrea lost many men in that fight. Many. Eventually the Texas volunteers under Captain Amon B.
King and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward left the Mission, and Urrea claimed his victory. His men looted the town of Refugio. And then came the grim arithmetic of what to do with the dead.
There was a ditch — a four-foot by four-foot ditch that a colonist named Poland had dug to use as a fence around his town lot. Urrea had his men drag their fallen into it. An eyewitness, a woman named Sabina Brown, saw it herself and later said the dead made a stack as large as twenty cords of wood.
When that ditch was filled, it became the common grave of those Yucatanian soldiers. Men pressed into a war far from home, buried together in a fence ditch in someone else's town. That's the weight this ground carries.
What the marker says
General Jose Urrea, Governor of his native state of Durango, Mexico, was dispatched northeastward early in 1836 by Dictator antonio Lopez De Sana Anna, to fight against the Texas Colonists in their uprising for independence. Because of his superior numbers, he won easy victories at and near the town of San Patricio (about 40 miles southwest of here). When he reached mission Nuestra Senora Del Refugio, his troops (comprised mainly of non-spanish-speaking Yucatanians who had been pressed into fighting by Santa Anna) met heavy resistance form the Refugio townsmen, and Urrea lost many men in action. Later, the Texas volunteers under Captain Amon B. King and Lieutenant Colonel William Ward left the Mission, and Urrea was Victorious. After his men looted the town of Refugio, Urrea had them drag their dead into a four-foot by four-foot ditch which a colonist named Poland had used as a fence around his town lot. Eyewitness Sabina Brown said that the dead made a stack as large as twenty cords of wood. When the ditch was filled, it became the common grave of these Yucatanians. (1973)