DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of what happened near Gonzales, Texas — and friend, it is some story. October 2, 1835. Remember that date.
Because on that day, near this very ground, something happened that the marker itself calls — and I am not editorializing here — the shot heard round the world. Now before we get to the shot, let me tell you about the monument marking the spot, because whoever put this thing together was not thinking small. Sixteen feet two inches wide.
Thirteen feet six inches tall. Three feet ten and a half inches in extreme depth — and they measured that half-inch, so you know they meant business. The whole face clad in Texas gray granite.
It was designed by Phelps and Dewees, Architects, with the great bronze plaque and the decorative figures carved in granite designed by Waldine Tauch. The Commission allocated ten thousand dollars for the memorial. Not a bad monument for a cannon that was, at the time, the subject of a very tense standoff.
Here is how the standoff went. The Mexican government wanted the Gonzales cannon back. The Texans at Gonzales had a different idea.
Their answer was three words that have echoed a good long while since: come and take it. They refused the demand. They stalled.
And while they were stalling, reinforcements were arrivin' — from other parts of DeWitt's Colony, from the colonies on the Colorado, from the colonies on the Brazos. The Texans were buying time, and time was buying them an army. When that army was ready, they did not wait to be come for.
They pursued the Mexicans from Gonzales to near this very point, and they fired upon them — with that same cannon — driving them back to Bexar. One shot. That is all the marker needs to say.
Because according to the inscription on that sixteen-foot-two-inch-wide monument of Texas gray granite, that shot started the Texas Revolution of 1835 and 1836, and was directly responsible for adding more territory to the United States than was acquired by the freeing of the original thirteen colonies from England. One cannon. One morning in October.
And the map of a continent changed.
What the marker says
The monument, faced with Texas gray granite, sixteen feet two inches in width, thirteen feet six inches in height, and three feet ten and one-half inches in extreme depth, was designed by Phelps & Dewees, Architects. The great bronze plaque and the decorative figures carved in granite were designed by Waldine Tauch. The Commission allocated $10,000 for the memorial. Near here on October 2, 1835 was fired the first shot of the Texas Revolution of 1835-36 -- the shot heard round the world. At Gonzales the Texans defied the Mexican government and refused their demand for the Gonzales cannon with the "come and take it" challenge until reinforcements arrived from other parts of DeWitt's Colony and from the colonies on the Colorado and Brazos. They then pursued the Mexicans from Gonzales to near this point and fired upon them with this cannon, driving them back to Bexar. This shot started the revolution and was directly responsible for adding more territory to the United States than was acquired by the freeing of the original thirteen colonies from England.