On the morning of the 18th a party of the enemy was discovered to be scouting around very near the fort. Col. Horton, with a few horsemen, was sent out to chase them off. At first he succeeded in driving his opponents off, but when he had chased them a short distance he ran into a larger force of the Mexicans who in turn chased him (Horton's men) back into the fort. These clashes kept up, back and forth, most of the day and were witnessed with high glee and excitement by the men at the fort-perched upon the roofs and parapets. However, this delayed all preparations for the retreat which Fannin was at last convinced must begin. All of the horses which had been used by Horton's men were worn down and jaded. In the excitement of watching the fighting outside the fort the oxen which had been, with so much trouble and sacrifice, supplied by Linn and Kerr from Victoria were left hitched to the cannon without food and water all day long so were in no condition to haul the cannon and supplies. So the retreat had to be put off until the next day.

Fannin, with characteristic indecision, now ordered the cannon buried before he abandoned Goliad. Then he instructed the men to dig up the guns and open a trench around the fort. As instructed by Houston, he had destroyed everything in and about the fort that he could not take with him. Everything that would bum was fired-what grain and food he could not carry in the carts was piled up in the Chapel of the fort and set on fire. Marks of this fire are still to be seen in the front end of Our Lady of Loreto Chapel. Walls of the fortification were torn down and all houses outside the walls were burned or otherwise destroyed.

Nine cannon and several cart-loads of ammunition, baggage, and supplies were taken along as they left the fort, but by some oversight food was forgotten. The morning of March 19, opened with a heavy fog, which helped mask the retreat. It was 9 or 10 o'clock before breakfast for all the men could be finished. Then much time was lost loading the carts with the cannons, artillery, soldiers' baggage, and hitching up the oxen, and spiking those guns that they left. But alas!---they forgot to load food. Finally they were off, taking the road to Victoria. Immediately they had to cross the river, but at the old ford the banks were to high that much difficulty was experienced in getting the heavily loaded carts across, some of the carts having to be unloaded, then reloaded, so more time was lost. Setting out on the march across the prairies it was found that the teams were weak and easily tired and so frequent rests were necessary. With the exception of Horton's Company all the men were afoot.