Little seems to be known about the background of William Ward, even his age at the time of the battle is open to conjecture. Whoever he was he had been a prominent enough citizen of Macon, Georgia in 1835 that he was able to recruit and lead 120 men from that place to form the Georgia Battalion of Permanent Volunteers.
Certainly he acquitted himself well at Refugio, reportedly notably good with a rifle, patently asking nothing of his men that he did not also do himself, and competently leading the defense of the church building.
Perhaps 150 people trapped inside that one mission church all day on March 14th; 120 American and some Irish volunteers, a few families from the local area. No food, no water. Under Ward's leadership that day they repelled three Mexican attacks, and after dark Ward succeeded in extricating almost his whole command intact.
A week later, against Ward's advice and urging, the weary company would vote to surrender to Urrea's force outside Victoria, Ward, outvoted, going along with the decision. Most, including Ward, would shortly thereafter be executed in cold blood at Goliad.
An account of Ward's fight at Refugio from a Texian perspective. This published five years after the fact. Excellent narrative...
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/goliadframe.htmCol. Ward, with about one hundred men of the Georgia battalion, arrived at the Mission on the evening of the 13th of March. A single salute from their rifles served to drive off the enemy, who had invested King in his position, which. was the ruins of a stone church. Having marched during the day twenty-five miles, and most of the way in wet prairie, with the water often ankle deep, they were too greatly fatigued to think of returning the same night. Orders were given to commence their return march at daybreak, the next morning; and after posting sentinels the men were permitted to sleep on their arms.The following part differs in minor detail from other accounts, now generally accepted as the most accurate. The consensus seems to be that King refused to accept Ward's seniority and independently left the mission with 28 men the morning of the 14th to launch an attack on the Tejano camp downriver, Ward remaining at the mission awaiting their return. Ward did send out a party for reconnaissance that morning, but it weren't King.
On mustering in the morning, a report of one of the sentinels excited suspicions that the enemy had returned into the neighbourhood, accompanied with a much larger force, and it was thought most prudent to send out a reconnoitering party, preceding the march of the main body....
Ward and his men immediately pressed forward to the relief of the advance, but at a distance of only a few hundred yards they were met in front by a body of Mexicans of six or eight hundred men. At the same instant, they discovered a body of cavalry moving at some distance in flank in order to fall upon their rear, and cut off their retreat to the Mission. A moment's deliberation determined them to retreat again to the walls of the Mission house, and by reserving their fire they kept the cavalry at a distance, and reached the walls without loss.
Preparations were immediately set about to defend themselves against an assault, as the large force of the enemy rendered it very certain that this would soon be attempted. On three sides of the church there was nothing to cover the approach of an enemy, but in advancing to make an assault, he must be exposed to the deadly aim of the garrison, the moment he came within rifle shot.
On the fourth side was the church-yard, of some fifty yards in length, walled in. From the end of this the ground sloped for some distance. This would cover the advance of an enemy until it became necessary to scale the wall, and then there were some tombs within that would still partially cover them in a nearer approach to the walls of the church.
This point must therefore be defended by a force posted in the yard. Bullock's company, consisting of about thirty-five men, then without a commissioned officer present, but acting as a band of brothers, volunteered for this dangerous service."Band of brothers", now there's an evocative phrase.
Ward himself, although looking well to his duty as commandant of the battalion, was never long absent from this outpost; he scarcely affected to assume the command, but ranked with the band, and none could be more expert in using the rifle....The rest of this excellent narrative of the events that day can be found on the link.
Plainly the death of Ward and his men at Goliad was a sad loss.
Birdwatcher
