Joanna Troutman gained everlasting fame in her home state of Georgia and her idealized Republic of Texas when she sewed a banner for the nascent republic featuring the now-iconic Lone Star.
Joanna Troutman's flag was carried to Texas by a brave band of volunteers from Georgia, who joined the Texian Army under Col. James Fannin at Goliad. The banner flew over the presidio at Goliad after Texas declared her independence from Mexico.
Fannin had been ordered to hold the presidio after defeating the Mexican army contigent there in October of 1835. Fannin occupied it until March of 1836, when he and his men were compelled to surrender, recognizing they could not withstand a siege by the vastly numerically superior and better-equipped Mexican Army.
Despite promises of mercy to the prisoners, on Palm Sunday, 27 March 1836, following the direct orders of Santa Anna, the 300 Texian prisoners were led to a nearby field and executed. Col. Fannin was the last to die. Their bodies were left to rot in the sun after being burned. Their bones were scattered by carrion eaters.
News of the Goliad massacre reached General Sam Houston as he moved his under-equipped rag-tag Texian troops southeast, to avoid the advancing Mexican Army.
Two weeks later, Houston's troops surprised and routed General Santa Anna and his vastly stronger Mexican Army at San Jacinto. When the Texians launched their surprise assault, they shouted "Remember the Alamo!" and "Remember Goliad!" The battle was over in 18 minutes. The Texians had won freedom for Texas, and Santa Anna had fled the field, disguised as a private on the Mexican Army. (He was later discovered hiding in a swamp, and captured.)
Victorious Texian militia men returning home discovered the horrific scene at Goliad. The exposed bones of Fannin's men were gathered by Texian General Thomas Rusk and reburied with full military honors.
The Goliad Massacre is seen by historians as a turning point on the Texas Revolution. Santa Anna's barbarity was laid bare for all to see, and instead of weakening support for the rebellion as he had hoped, it inflamed passions and gained support for the Texians.
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Joanna Troutman never set foot in Texas, but her flag witnessed a tragedy that inspired a nation, and its Lone star emblem has become an internationally-recognized icon of Texas.
Joanna Troutman died in 1879 in Georgia and was laid to rest there. In 1913, Texas Governor Colquitt got permission to bring her remains to Austin to be laid to rest in a place of honor in the State Cemetery. Her memorial restates her role as the Betsy Ross of Texas, and features the names of the 300 killed in the Goliad Massacre.
Her tombstone reads as follows:
"[E side]
This monument is erected to honor
Joanna Troutman
for the service she rendered to the cause of Texas independence.
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Born in Crawford County, Georgia, February 19, 1818.
She lived to see Texas free and one of the mightiest states in the American union, and died August 1880. When Texas was struggling to establish her rights as a state in the Mexican Republic, she sent forth an appeal for help. Georgia responded by raising a battalion of volunteers, and Ms. Joanna Troutman then 18 years of age, fired with her love of liberty and the zeal of the volunteer, with her own hands made a beautiful lone Star flag and presented it to the Georgia Battalion and they landed in Texas with it in December 1835. The flag was symbolic of the loan struggle Texas was making. The flag was unfurled at Velasco and later carried to Goliad where it proudly waved over the walls of that fortress. This flag was raised as national flag on the walls of Goliad by Fannin when he heard of the declaration of Texas independence on March 8, 1836. It was constructed of white silk with and as your star of five points, on one side was the motto: “liberty or death,” and on the reverse side in Latin, “where liberty dwells there is my country.” The tattered shreds of this flag silently witnessed the murder of Fannin and his men at Goliad Sunday, March 27, 1836. Gentle, pure, patriotic, the hands of Joanna Troutman brought her love of liberty and the beautiful Lone Star flag, which witnessed the sacrifice of the men who brought it to Texas as the emblem of independence.
[N, W, and S sides]
[list of names of the 300 Texians, Col. James Fannin's men, who were murdered at Goliad by Mexican Army troops on orders of Mexican Army General Santa Anna]"