This flag is popular with Texans, for obvious reasons.  Santa Anna made too many mistakes to list here, but his troubles began in Gonzales, and Texans have had a strong distaste for dictators ever since.

Thirty-two men who stood their ground at Gonzales later died in the Battle at the Alamo.

The image shown at right  is from a photograph by J. Williams and is a detail from the mural in the Gonzales Memorial Museum at Gonzales, Texas.

Below is text from Texas Day by Day, the online feature of the Handbook of Texas, a publication of the Texas State Historical Association.

If you are interested in Texas, this is the book to buy. All Texas 7th graders study Texas history, and if I were wealthy, I’d give each one of them the Handbook of Texas. I don’t know how many 7th graders that would be, but it’s a lot!

October 2,

Texas Revolution begins at Gonzales

On this day in 1835, fighting broke out at Gonzales between Mexican soldiers and Texas militiamen.

When Domingo de Ugartechea, military commander in Texas, received word that the American colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañeda and 100 dragoons to retrieve it on September 27.

Though Castañeda attempted to avoid conflict, on the morning of October 2 his force clashed with local Texan militia led by John Henry Moore in the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The struggle for the "Come and Take It" cannon was only a brief skirmish that ended with the retreat of Castañeda and his force, but it also marked a clear break between the American colonists and the Mexican government.

 

Links to related Handbook of Texas Online articles

GONZALES, BATTLE OF

UGARTECHEA, DOMINGO DE

MOORE, JOHN HENRY

CASTANEDA, FRANCISCO DE

GONZALES COME AND TAKE IT CANNON

TEXAS REVOLUTION

If you are interested in learning more about Texas, the Texas State Historical Association offers
TSHA Online—A Digital Gateway to Texas History.

Want more? You can subscribe to Texas—Day by Day, and every morning an email will pop into your inbox containing a short bit of information from Texas history that corresponds with the date.

For example: On this day in 1855 some 200 French colonists arrived at the colony of La Réunion, located on the south bank of the Trinity River in central Dallas County within the present city limits of Dallas.

It didn’t work out well for the French colonists, but today Dallas stands tall on the Texas prairie.

O Reader, if you don’t live in Texas, perhaps your state offers something similar to TSHA. If so, please send us a link. I would love to plug into other state history associations (my best resource for information on state flags), and I think other readers here would be interested in that too.