[I'm an engineer, so don't ridicule me on my less-than-thoughtful critique 
]
Amazon.com
I picked this book up back in January when I was in College Station, mainly because I hadn't read much about Goliad in previous books on the Texas Revolution. (This was also right before I had gotten to the Goliad/Coleto Portion of Texian Iliad).
First off, this book has some very good information on the Battle at Coleto, the Massacre, and the Escape that I hadn't read elsewhere. I was impressed with the detail included. It was also a quick read once I ran across the Goliad portions of the book.
This book provided great insight into James Fannin. The circumstances surrounding his time in and around Goliad portray him in a better light than some other resources had previously led me to believe. Fannin did not seem to be as indecisive as I had thought. He obviously had some hardships that he endured, including troops galavanting around looking for trouble (and subsequently finding it). Fannin seemed to be a good man who wanted to save everybody (thus the delays/waiting), instead of pushing ahead with the group he had. I think his biggest mistake was to stay in the open on the 9-mile prarie and not push his men to the protection of the trees of Coleto Creek
However, Bradle seems to have written this for the general reader, and not for those who are "history buffs". The clarity of the writing was lacking, and seemed to be jumpy (almost like Brands, whom I don't particularly care for). The book included WAY TOO MUCH information on everything else going on in Texas at the time (Alamo, Runaway Scrape, etc). This book could have been parsed down to the 6 or so Goliad chapters and it would have been a satisfactory read for me.
In short, if you want to read about Goliad, get this book at the library and read chapters 7-13 or so.
[This message has been edited by YellAgs (edited 3/1/2009 1:54p).]
]Amazon.com
I picked this book up back in January when I was in College Station, mainly because I hadn't read much about Goliad in previous books on the Texas Revolution. (This was also right before I had gotten to the Goliad/Coleto Portion of Texian Iliad).
First off, this book has some very good information on the Battle at Coleto, the Massacre, and the Escape that I hadn't read elsewhere. I was impressed with the detail included. It was also a quick read once I ran across the Goliad portions of the book.
This book provided great insight into James Fannin. The circumstances surrounding his time in and around Goliad portray him in a better light than some other resources had previously led me to believe. Fannin did not seem to be as indecisive as I had thought. He obviously had some hardships that he endured, including troops galavanting around looking for trouble (and subsequently finding it). Fannin seemed to be a good man who wanted to save everybody (thus the delays/waiting), instead of pushing ahead with the group he had. I think his biggest mistake was to stay in the open on the 9-mile prarie and not push his men to the protection of the trees of Coleto Creek
However, Bradle seems to have written this for the general reader, and not for those who are "history buffs". The clarity of the writing was lacking, and seemed to be jumpy (almost like Brands, whom I don't particularly care for). The book included WAY TOO MUCH information on everything else going on in Texas at the time (Alamo, Runaway Scrape, etc). This book could have been parsed down to the 6 or so Goliad chapters and it would have been a satisfactory read for me.
In short, if you want to read about Goliad, get this book at the library and read chapters 7-13 or so.
[This message has been edited by YellAgs (edited 3/1/2009 1:54p).]