DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's what happened on this ground — and friend, it is some kind of story. September 29, 1835. Right here on this site.
Eighteen Texans looked at each other, looked at the situation, and decided that what they lacked in numbers they would make up for in nerve and strategy. Mexico had sent a hundred and fifty dragoons — a hundred and fifty — to ride into Gonzales and take back a cannon the colonists had been holding. Now, on paper, that ought to have been a short errand.
But eighteen men had a different idea. They sat down with alcalde Andrew Ponton and they started advisin'. What came out of that conversation was a plan so simple it bordered on audacious: stall.
Hold those hundred and fifty dragoons right there — not for an hour, not for an afternoon — for two full days. Two days of buying time, of keeping that Mexican force waiting while word went out and colonists began massing recruits for what would become the Battle of Gonzales. The names of those eighteen men are on this marker, and they deserve to be said out loud — Captain Albert Martin, Almond Cottle, Jacob C.
Darst, Ezekiel Williams, Winslow Turner, Simeon Bateman, William W. Arrington, Joseph D. Clements, Gravis Fulcher, Almaron Dickerson, George W.
Davis, Benjamin Fuqua, John Sowell, Valentine Bennet, James B. Hinds, Charles Mason, Thomas R. Miller, and Thomas Jackson.
Eighteen names. And those hundred and fifty dragoons never did get that cannon. History sometimes turns on the patience of a very small crowd.
What the marker says
On this site, September 29, 1835 began the strategy of the 18 Texans who by advising with alcalde Andrew Ponton, held for two days 150 Mexican Dragoons sent to demand the Gonzales cannon, allowing colonists time to mass recruits for the Battle of Gonzales. Captain Albert Martin, Almond Cottle, Jacob C. Darst, Ezekiel Williams, Winslow Turner, Simeon Bateman, Wm. W. Arrington, Joseph D. Clements, Gravis Fulcher, Almaron Dickerson, George W. Davis, Benjamin Fuqua, John Sowell, Valentine Bennet, James B. Hinds, Charles Mason, Thomas R. Miller, Thomas Jackson.