Just about anyone in Texas will tell you that the Alamo started the Texas War for Independence against Mexico, but it really started in Gonzalez, Texas, when a group of settlers refused to give back a cannon.
This is the story of that cannon.
Extra tidbits:
- The Mexican soldiers sent to retrieve the cannon were most likely illiterate, and probably couldn't read English, so the "Come and Take It" flag was definitely more for morale and motivation than any real challenge to the Mexican force across the river..
- When the cannon was uncovered after the flood, it ended up in the basement of the Gonzales post office for years until the city sold it to a Mexican gun collector along with other period weaponry. At the time city officials didn't think to connect the cannon in the basement with the cannon that fired the first shot in the war for independence.
Years later, the Mexican gun collector was displaying his weaponry at a gun show in San Antonio, where a group of Gonzales residents who specialized in the history of the Texas War for Independence spotted the cannon.
They received permission from the collector to investigate the history of the cannon, which led them all the way back to Gonzales. The city bought it back and it has been in Gonzales ever since.
This is my first longer video project. Done for my visual storytelling class at Texas State University - School of Journalism.
