Escandón proposed that 25 families from New Spain be relocated near the presidio to form a civilian settlement, but he could not find enough willing settlers.

[9] With France no longer a threat to the Crown's North American interests, the Spanish monarchy commissioned the Marquis de Rubi to inspect all of the presidios on the northern frontier of New Spain and make recommendations for the future.

La Bahia was soon "the only Spanish fortress for the entire Gulf Coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the Mississippi River".

[14] Texas governor Manuel María de Salcedo laid siege to the fort for the next four months.

[15] Unable to win a decisive victory, Salcedo lifted the siege on February 19, 1813, and turned toward San Antonio de Bexar.

[16] The rebels controlled the presidio until July or August 1813, when José Joaquín de Arredondo led royalist troops in retaking all of Texas.

[17] Henry Perry, a member of the Republican Army of the North, led forces back to Texas in 1817 and attempted to recapture La Bahia.

The Spanish reinforced the presidio with soldiers from San Antonio, and defeated Perry's forces on June 18 near Coleto Creek.

[20] On October 9, 1835, in the early days of the Texas Revolution, a group of Anglo-American immigrants attacked the presidio in the Battle of Goliad.

Anglo-Americans held the area until March 1836, when their garrison under Colonel James Fannin was defeated at the nearby Battle of Coleto.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, then President of Mexico, ordered that all survivors were to be executed.

He commanded the forces resisting the French Army in the Battle of Puebla, now celebrated as Cinco de Mayo on May 5, 1862.

The 1902 Goliad tornado devastated the town, killing 114 people, including Sheriff Robert Shaw, and injuring at least 225.

[23] Dr. Louis Warren Chilton, a young doctor whose wife was injured and whose daughter was lifted in the tornado funnel but survived, set up a temporary hospital and morgue in the courthouse.