Gonzales' come and take it cannon. (original) (raw)

Small Town Artillery I

The Most Famous Piece of Ordnance in Texas

by Norman Conquest

Read four history books about the Texas Revolution and you'll have four versions of what occurred on October 2, 1835. They've pretty much settled on the number 18 for the Gonzalans present, but the numbers of Mexicans varies as does the cannon's composition. Sometimes the cannon is brass, sometimes it's iron. Sometimes it makes it to the Alamo where it was melted with the other cannons after the fall, and sometimes it's buried en route. One thing is for sure, Dr. Pat Wagner, who came into ownership of the cannon, spent many many months working with Doug Kubacek of Hallettsville to verify the pedigree of the gun, which now sits in the museum in Gonzales. The cannon had been lost, but very close to the Texas Centennial (almost to the day) a flood of the Guadalupe revealed the cannon you can see today.

	Dr. Wagner and Come and Take It Cannon. Courtesy of Gonzales County Archives

X-rayed and magnified, to the point of using the huge x-ray machine at an airbase in San Antonio, both Dr. Wagner and Doug Kubacek confirmed that this was a cannon made by a blacksmith in Gonzales, since they had access to a detailed diary the blacksmith kept on the repairs done to the touch hole.

	Although it is portrayed in many different forms, a flared barrel, a different carriage and sizes from small to 2XX, it still is a tidy bit of work.

Even if it doesn't measure up to legend, that doesn't take away from the fact that this was the defiant act that sparked the revolution and this cannon was the instrument.

Dr. Wagner passed away early this year, but he generously allowed the cannon to be shown around the state where it could be seen by a greater audience. It now resides at the Gonzales Memorial Museum.

Drawing of the "Come And Take It" Cannon
Photo courtesy Sarah Reveley, 2007

Related Stories:

• Dr. Pat Wagner and the "Come & Take It" Cannon by Murray Montgomery
  "He was determined to prove that the cannon he purchased from Robert Vance of Refugio was truly the little gun that had started the Texas Revolution at Gonzales on October 2, 1835."
• The Women of 1836 by Linda Kirkpatrick
  ... In the midst of preparing to march to San Antonio, the people of Gonzales decided that they needed a flag. An appointed committee designed what they considered a flag of support for the cause... The flag would have a white field without a border and in the center a picture of the treasured cannon. Over the cannon a single five-pointed lone star was sewn and under the cannon the words, �Come and Take It!� ....more
• Gonzales Memorial Museum
• Gonzales, Texas

Forum:

Subject: The Gonzales cannon

It has a 1�" bore, & at some point it was turned, the vent plugged, & a new vent bored on the other side. According to Noah Smithwick in Evolution Of A State, he did the work. The plugged original vent is what positively identified it as the actual Gonzales cannon when it was found in the 1930s. - C.F. Eckhardt, April 04, 2008

	Jack "The Knife" Murphy demonstrating the ease with which the cannon could be concealed. TE postcard archive