Come and Take It: Gonzales, 1835 — the Cannon, the Flag, the Line

On the morning of October 2, 1835, at Gonzales, Texas, about a hundred and forty settlers refused to surrender one small cannon to a hundred Mexican dragoons — and raised a homemade white banner over it: a black cannon, a single star, and four words. COME AND TAKE IT. The shots fired that morning were the first of the Texas Revolution. The flag sewn for that fight became one of the most defiant banners in American history. Here is the verified story — the cannon, the flag, and the ancient line behind the line.

One Small Cannon

The cannon was never much of a weapon. In 1831, Mexican authorities loaned it to the settlers of Green DeWitt’s colony for defense against Comanche raids — the record shows colonist James Tumlinson Jr. receiving a bronze cannon for Gonzales on March 10, 1831, on the condition it be returned on demand. For four years it sat in a frontier town of log houses on the Guadalupe River, more noisemaker than artillery.

By September 1835 everything had changed. Santa Anna had gutted the federalist Constitution of 1824 and centralized power, and Texas was boiling. Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the Mexican military commander at Béxar (San Antonio), decided a restive town should not keep a cannon — and sent Corporal Casimiro De León with five soldiers to collect it. Gonzales refused and detained the soldiers. Ugartechea escalated: on September 27 he dispatched Lieutenant Francisco de Castañeda with roughly a hundred dragoons to take the gun back.

The Old Eighteen

When Castañeda’s column reached the Guadalupe on September 29, it found the ford blocked by eighteen militiamen — remembered ever since as the Old Eighteen. They had hidden the ferry, and they stalled: negotiations, delays, a river running high between the armies. Every hour they bought, couriers were riding to the other settlements. By October 1, volunteers had swelled the Texian force to about a hundred and forty men, and they elected John Henry Moore their colonel. Castañeda, still under orders to avoid open conflict if possible, moved his camp seven miles upriver. The Texians followed — and brought the cannon with them.

October 2, 1835 — the First Shot

On the morning of October 2, the Texians attacked. In a lull in the skirmish, Castañeda asked why they had fired on him; Moore answered that the Texians meant to keep their cannon and to uphold the Constitution of 1824. Castañeda replied that he was himself a federalist who disliked Santa Anna’s policies — but he was a soldier bound by orders. Moore invited him to join the Texian side. He declined, for the same reason. Then the cannon they had come to collect — loaded with scrap iron — spoke, and the fight was brief. Under orders not to force a full engagement, Castañeda withdrew toward Béxar, having lost at least one man; the Texians lost none. The gun stayed in Gonzales, and the Texas Revolution had begun. Within seven months there would be an Alamo and a San Jacinto.

The Flag — Sewn for the Fight

The banner that flew over the cannon was made for that morning, hastily, in the days the Old Eighteen were buying. The most careful accounts say a committee of five officers designed it — a plain white field, a black cannon, a single black star, and the words COME AND TAKE IT — and that the women of Gonzales donated the cloth it was sewn from. A cherished later story that it was cut from a bride’s wedding dress has never been verified, so we tell it as what it is: tradition, not record. Either way, the design needs no embellishment. It is not a symbol of what the settlers had. It is a symbol of what they refused to hand over — a dare, sewn in cotton, flown beside the thing it dared you to take.

An Ancient Echo

The line itself is older than Texas — about twenty-three centuries older. In 480 BC, before the pass at Thermopylae, Xerxes demanded that Leonidas and his Spartans hand over their weapons. As Plutarch records it in the Sayings of Spartans, the reply was two Greek words: molon labe — “come and take them.” We told that fuller story in With Your Shield, or On It. Whether any Gonzales settler was quoting Plutarch that week is beside the point; free men under ultimatum keep discovering the same answer. In 1835 it came out in plain frontier English, four words over one borrowed cannon.

Wear the Line

Our Come and Take It tee carries the Gonzales banner the way it was flown — cannon, star, and the four words, history told straight. It is printed on an American-made Bayside 5100 blank, printed to order in the USA, from $44.99, and it stands in our line of patriotic shirts made in the USA next to the Appeal to Heaven pine — two flags, sixty years apart, that said the same thing to two different empires. Some men collect flags. The men of Gonzales flew one at the thing it was daring you to take.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “come and take it” mean?

It is a refusal under ultimatum. At Gonzales in 1835 it meant precisely what it said: the Mexican army had demanded the town’s cannon, and the settlers flew a flag bearing a picture of the gun and the dare to come take it. The phrase has stood for defiant refusal to surrender ever since.

What happened at the Battle of Gonzales?

In late September 1835, Lieutenant Francisco de Castañeda and about a hundred Mexican dragoons were sent to retrieve a cannon loaned to Gonzales in 1831. Eighteen militiamen — the Old Eighteen — stalled them at the Guadalupe River while reinforcements gathered. On the morning of October 2, 1835, about a hundred and forty Texians under John Henry Moore attacked, fired the disputed cannon, and Castañeda withdrew. They were the first shots of the Texas Revolution.

Who made the original Come and Take It flag?

The most careful accounts say a committee of five Texian officers designed it in the days before the fight, sewn from cloth donated by the women of Gonzales. The popular story that it was made from a wedding dress is a later family tradition that has never been verified.

Is “come and take it” the same as molon labe?

Same defiance, different century. Plutarch’s Sayings of Spartans records Leonidas answering Xerxes’ demand for weapons at Thermopylae (480 BC) with molon labe — “come and take them.” The Gonzales settlers rendered the same answer in English in 1835. There is no evidence they were consciously quoting it.

Is there a Come and Take It shirt made in the USA?

Yes. The 1765 Apparel Co Come and Take It shirt prints the Gonzales cannon flag on an American-made Bayside 5100 blank, printed to order in the USA, in sizes S–3XL from $44.99.