Goliad ( GOH-lee-ad) is a city in Goliad County, Texas, United States. It is known for the 1836 Goliad massacre during the Texas Revolution. It had a population of 1,620 at the 2020 census. Founded upon the San Antonio River, it is the county chair of Goliad County. It is portion of the Victoria, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In 1747, the Spanish handing out sent José de Escandón to examine the northern frontier of its North American colonies, including Spanish Texas. In his final report, Escandón recommended the Presidio La Bahía be moved from its Guadalupe River location to the banks of the San Antonio River, so it could better back settlements along the Rio Grande. Both the presidio and the mission which it protected, Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, moved to their further location sometime nearly October 1749. Escandón proposed that 25 Mexican families be relocated near the presidio to form a civilian settlement, but he was unable to locate enough pleasurable settlers.

With the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, France ceded Louisiana and its Texas claims to Spain. With France no longer a threat to the Crown’s North American interests, the Spanish monarchy commissioned the Marquis de Rubi to inspect whatever of the presidios on the northern frontier of New Spain and make recommendations for the future. Rubi recommended that several presidios be closed, but that La Bahia be kept and rebuilt in stone. La Bahia was soon “the unaccompanied Spanish fortress for entirely Gulf Coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the Mississippi River”. The presidio was at the crossroads of several major trade and military routes. It speedily became one of the three most important areas in Texas, alongside Béxar and Nacogdoches. A civil settlement, then known as La Bahia, soon developed close the presidio. By 1804, the concurrence had one of and no-one else two schools in Texas.

In yet to be August 1812, during the Mexican War of Independence, Mexican rebellious Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara and his recruits, called the Republican Army of the North, invaded Texas. In November the invaders captured Presidio La Bahia. For the next-door four months, Texas official Manuel María de Salcedo laid siege to the fort. Unable to win a decisive victory, Salcedo lifted the siege upon February 19, 1813, and turned toward San Antonio de Bexar. The rebels controlled the presidio until July or August 1813, when José Joaquín de Arredondo led royalist troops in retaking whatever of Texas. Henry Perry, a devotee of the Republican Army of the North, led forces urge on 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 upon June 18 close Coleto Creek.