 Memorial
to those who died in 1836
Old Gwinnett County Courthouse, Lawrenceville, Georgia The Story of This Memorial From "Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, & Legends, Vol I" By Lucian Lamar Knight The Byrd Printing Co., State Printing Company Atlanta, Ga 1913 Gwinnett's Earliest
Martyrs: A Monument Which Tells of Two Tragedies
One the court-house square in the town of Lawrenceville, there stands a
monument which the people of this community erected in 1836 to
commemorate a double-sacrifice which was made at this time by the
county of Gwinnett upon the altar of patriotism. There is
nowhere in the State a shaft of marble around which gathers a more
pathetic story; and to the youth of the town it has ever been the most
powerful incentive to heroic deeds. On one side of the monument
is chiseled the following inscription:
|
| This
monument is erected by friends to the memory of Captain James C. Winn
and Sergeant Anthony Bates, Texan Volunteers, of this village, who were
taken in honorable combat at Goliad, Texas, and shot by order of the
Mexican commander, March 27, 1836. |
The following inscription appears on the side opposite:
| To
the memory of Ensign Isaac Lacy, Sergeant James C. Martin, and privates
William M. Sims, John A.Y. Tate, Robert T. Holland, James H. Holland,
brothers; Henry W. Peden, and James M. Allen, members of the Gwinnett
company of mounted volunteers, under the command of Captain H. Garmany,
who were slain in battle with a party of Creek Indians, at Shepherd's
in Stewart County, Ga., June 9, 1836. Their remains rest beneath
this monument. |
|
The story of the brutal massacre of Fannin's men at Goliad is elsewhere
told. Captain Winn, on the first call to arms, went to the relief
of the distressed Texans, accompanied by his boyhood's companion,
Anthony Bathes, who perished with him in Fannin's devoted band.
The remains of the victims were left unburied in the neighborhood of
the mission where they were shot by order of Santa Anna. Three
months later occurred the second holocaust, whereupon a town meeting
was held in Lawrenceville; and, on motion of Colonel N. L. Hutchins, it
was decided to erect a monument to the memory of these gallant
men: Gwinnett's earliest martyrs. |
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