WALLACE, BENJAMIN C. (?-1836). Benjamin C. Wallace, Texas Revolutionary officer and victim of the Goliad Massacre, was appointed first lieutenant of infantry in the regular Texas army on November 28, 1835, and was promoted to first lieutenant of artillery on December 12. On January 29, 1836, he was commissioned captain of artillery and was dispatched to Copano with authority to hold an election for company officers and to command on the projected Matamoros expedition of 1835-36. He was elected major of the LaFayette Battalion and took a detachment to Goliad to arrest José Antonio Valdez and Eugenio Hernández, who had been paroled from the army of Martín Perfecto de Cos and were reputedly in charge of Mexican spying activities. Wallace was one of the signers of the capitulation after the battle of Coleto and was shot in the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Henry Brown, History of Texas from 1685 to 1892 (2 vols., St. Louis: Daniell, 1893). Harbert Davenport Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Roy Grimes, Goliad, 130 Years After (Victoria: Victoria Advocate, 1966). Jakie L. Pruett and Everett B. Cole, Goliad Massacre: A Tragedy of the Texas Revolution (Austin: Eakin Press, 1985).