Historical Marker

Regulators of Goliad County

Goliad, Goliad County · Texas
Erected 1977

Helm's road to Goliad began in Lamar County, where his family settled in 1842. In 1862 he and his father joined a vigilante group that tried and hanged five men for Union sympathies, and that April he deserted his Confederate cavalry company in Arkansas. After the war he was said to have worked as a cowboy for Shanghai Pierce. As leader of the so-called regulators, his band carried on a reign of terror in five counties in the summer of 1869; the Galveston News reported twenty-one people killed in two months and only ten turned over to civil authorities.

What the plaque says

Regulators of Goliad County When the Civil War ended in April 1865, many Texans returned to find their farms and ranches neglected, their cattle running wild and unbranded. The Federal troops sent to occupy Texas in June 1865 could not control the widespread cattle thieving and general lawlessness of the Reconstruction Period. Gen. J. J. Reynolds, commander of the Federal forces, appointed Jack Helm special marshal to the Goliad area in June 1868. A former deputy sheriff of DeWitt County, Helm captained a vigilante band of 50 men, mostly local ranchers, known as the Regulators. Based at Middletown (now Weesatche), these volunteers pursued criminals with vigor and often with cruelty. They ordered known and suspected lawbreakers to leave the state within 10 days. Those who defied the warning were shot without benefit of trial. In 1870 Helm was appointed by Gov. E. J. Davis to the newly formed state police force but was soon discharged for his ruthlessness. The activities of the Regulators and of the Texas Rangers, reorganized under Gov. Richard Coke in 1874, did much to restore order in this area. By 1876, most of the violators had left, and the Regulators were able to devote their time to ranching and farming. (1977) (1977)

Where it stands

28.66596, -97.39154 · Directions

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