The opening military clash of the Texas Revolution took place on October 2, 1835, when Texian colonists confronted Mexican troops near Gonzales. The confrontation emerged from mounting political tensions between the increasingly centralist government of Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna and many Anglo-American settlers in Texas, who resisted Mexican efforts to reassert authority over local arms and militia activity.
The immediate dispute centered on a small bronze six-pounder cannon. Mexican authorities had provided the gun to Gonzales in 1831 to help defend the settlement against Indigenous raids. Four years later, Domingo de Ugartechea, the Mexican military commander in Texas, ordered Lieutenant Francisco de Castañeda and roughly 100 dragoons from San Antonio de Béxar to recover it. Gonzales residents refused. They delayed the soldiers at the Guadalupe River, concealed the cannon, and called for reinforcements from nearby settlements.
By the time Castañeda’s force camped near Gonzales, the Texian militia had grown to roughly 140 men under John Henry Moore. The colonists recovered and mounted the cannon, loaded it with improvised scrap ammunition, and raised a homemade white flag bearing a black cannon, a lone star, and the challenge: “Come and Take It.”
Before dawn on October 2, the Texians crossed the Guadalupe River and advanced toward the Mexican camp through heavy fog. They opened the engagement with their disputed cannon and exchanged rifle fire with Castañeda’s troops. The skirmish was brief. Outnumbered and under instructions to avoid provoking a wider war, Castañeda withdrew toward San Antonio de Béxar without the cannon. Accounts differ on Mexican casualties, though at least one Mexican soldier was killed; no Texians died in the fighting.
Militarily, the Battle of Gonzales was minor. Politically, it was decisive. The exchange marked a clear rupture between the Texian colonists and the Mexican government and is generally recognized as the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. In the months that followed, the conflict escalated into a struggle for Texas independence, culminating in the establishment of the Republic of Texas in 1836.
Image credit: The “Come and Take It” cannon at the Gonzales Memorial Museum via LOC
