40 Fun Facts About Battle of Gonzales

The Gonzales skirmish became known as the Texas version of which American Revolution battle?

Lexington gave Gonzales its nickname, the Lexington of Texas, because both small clashes turned a quarrel into a war. News of the fight drew American adventurers to Texas.

The only Texian casualty at the Battle of Gonzales was a rider thrown from his panicked horse, who suffered what?

A bloody nose was the full Texian casualty list for the revolution's opening battle. The horse bolted when Mexican soldiers began firing into the dark.

As Texians crept toward the Mexican camp near Gonzales around 3 a.m., what alerted the soldiers to their approach?

A barking dog ruined the surprise, and the Mexican soldiers began firing into the night. The Texians then hid among thick trees until dawn.

While waiting for dawn before the Battle of Gonzales, some Texians raided a nearby field and snacked on what?

Watermelon was the pre-battle snack, eaten while the men hid in the trees after the first gunfire. The real fighting did not begin until about 6 a.m.

Which defiant words appeared with a painted cannon on the homemade flag Texians raised at Gonzales in 1835?

Come and Take It dared Mexican troops to seize the borrowed cannon pictured on the banner. They rode home without it.

Which Texian general ordered Gonzales burned in March 1836 to keep it out of the Mexican army's hands?

Sam Houston torched the town where the revolution began, then retreated east with its widows and orphans. He had just learned there that the Alamo had fallen.

An unproven tradition says the Gonzales battle flag of 1835 was cut from which silk garment?

A wedding dress is the cherished legend, but it has never been proven. Another account credits a committee of five officers, using cloth donated by the women of the town.

The Gonzales flag's motto echoes a defiant reply attributed to which ancient Spartan king?

Leonidas reportedly answered Persia's demand for Spartan weapons with the Greek phrase molon labe. Texians reused the dare some 2,300 years later.

What name honours the Gonzales volunteers who slipped through Mexican lines into the besieged Alamo on March 1, 1836?

The Immortal 32 are remembered as the only reinforcements to reach the Alamo during the siege, and every one of them died there five days later.

Nine days after the Battle of Gonzales, volunteers there unanimously elected which colonist as their commander?

Stephen F. Austin had no formal military training, yet the volunteers chose him unanimously. He marched them out the next day to besiege the Mexican garrison.

Mexican cavalry sent for the Gonzales cannon were stalled on the west bank of which swift river?

The Guadalupe was shut on purpose: settlers had removed the ferry and every boat before the cavalry arrived. The soldiers camped 300 yards back on high ground.

Volunteers at Gonzales elected which Fayette settler, a veteran militia leader, to command them in the 1835 battle?

John Henry Moore first came to Texas as a teenage runaway, fleeing college to avoid studying Latin. At Gonzales he called the war council that voted to attack.

Which Mexican lieutenant led 100 cavalrymen to Gonzales with orders to retrieve the cannon without a fight if possible?

Francisco de Castañeda privately sympathised with the rebels, telling their commander he was a federalist himself. Eight months later he surrendered his own troops to the Texan officer Juan Seguín.

The Texians at Gonzales said they no longer recognised the government of which Mexican president and general?

Santa Anna had turned Mexico toward centralist rule, and several Mexican states revolted in 1835. Gonzales itself had declared loyalty to him earlier that year.

The Gonzales colony asked Mexican authorities for a cannon in 1831 to deter frequent raids by which people?

Comanche raids continued after the colony made peace with two other tribes in 1827. Unable to spare troops, the region's political chief sent a cannon instead.

Which empresario, a former Missouri sheriff, founded the colony whose capital was Gonzales and requested its cannon?

Green DeWitt died in Mexico months before the battle, probably of cholera, so he never saw the cannon he requested become a symbol. A Texas county now bears his name.

The 100 Mexican soldiers sent to seize the Gonzales cannon belonged to which class of mounted troops?

Dragoons could fight mounted or on foot, but at Gonzales their horses could not manoeuvre among the trees, so a counterattack by 40 riders fizzled.

With no cannonballs on hand before the Battle of Gonzales, what did the Texians gather to load their cannon?

Metal scraps went down the barrel in place of proper ammunition. The gun was fired just twice before the Mexican troops rode away.

A small iron cannon displayed in Gonzales was rediscovered in 1936 after which natural event exposed it near a creek?

A flood uncovered the gun a century after Texians abandoned it on the march west, when its crude carriage failed. Whether it is the true disputed cannon is still argued.

Which Alamo survivor, widow of a Gonzales artillery officer, brought news of the fort's fall to the town in March 1836?

Susanna Dickinson arrived with her infant daughter, and wailing filled the town: Gonzales had sent dozens of its men to die in the Alamo.

The burning of Gonzales in March 1836 helped set off which famous episode of the Texas Revolution?

The Runaway Scrape swelled as the families of Gonzales, many newly widowed by the Alamo, fled east and towns farther on emptied too. It ended only with the Texian victory in April.

What nickname honours the Gonzales men who stalled Mexican cavalry at the river until reinforcements arrived?

The Old Eighteen held the river crossing while riders fetched help from nearby settlements. Several of them later died defending the Alamo.

In 1778 an American colonel gave the Gonzales flag's famous reply to a British surrender demand in which state?

Georgia's Fort Morris was crude and outnumbered, yet Colonel John McIntosh's bluff worked and the British withdrew. The state later gave him a sword engraved with the phrase.

The town of Gonzales was named in 1825 for Rafael Gonzales, who then held which office in Mexico?

State governor Rafael Gonzales headed Coahuila y Tejas, the Mexican state that then included Texas. The first town site was abandoned after raids and rebuilt in 1827.

One week after Gonzales, Texians won the revolution's second skirmish by storming a presidio at which settlement?

Goliad fell in about half an hour after Texians chopped through a door with axes borrowed from townspeople. The win cut the Mexican army in Texas off from the coast.

After the Gonzales skirmish, the outnumbered Mexican cavalry withdrew to their garrison in which Texas town?

San Antonio was where the cavalry had set out five days earlier and where the Texian army soon followed. By the end of 1835 no Mexican troops remained in Texas.

The official order to return the Gonzales cannon was addressed to Andrew Ponton, who held which town office?

Alcalde was the Spanish title for a town's chief magistrate, combining judge and mayor. Ponton voted with the majority to keep the cannon and sent riders for help.

Gonzales militia captain Albert Martin later carried which Alamo commander's famous plea for help out of the fort?

William B. Travis addressed his letter to the people of Texas and all Americans in the world. Martin rode it to Gonzales, then returned to die at the Alamo.

At the Gonzales parley, the Texian commander said his men stayed loyal to which document Mexico's ruler had scrapped?

The 1824 Constitution had given Mexico's states a federal system, and defending it let the rebels claim to be loyal citizens. Open calls for independence came later.

What weather set in around midnight and slowed the Texians' night march toward the Mexican camp outside Gonzales?

Thick fog delayed the attackers until about 3 a.m. and later hid their numbers, so the Mexican soldiers could not tell how many men surrounded them.

When Mexican troops came for the Gonzales cannon in 1835, where on a colonist's land did settlers bury it?

A peach orchard belonging to George W. Davis hid the gun only briefly. It was soon dug up and taken to a blacksmith's shop to be made ready for battle.

To make the Gonzales cannon mobile for battle, a blacksmith mounted it on the front wheels of what?

A cotton wagon owned by militia captain Albert Martin gave up its fore-wheels for the makeshift gun carriage. The work was done at John Sowell's smithy.

During their battlefield parley at Gonzales, what did the Texian commander invite the Mexican lieutenant to do?

Switch sides and fight for the federal cause, the Texian urged. The lieutenant agreed with the politics but said a soldier must follow orders, and withdrew.

Mathew Caldwell's ride to rally volunteers before Gonzales earned him a nickname recalling which American rider of 1775?

Paul Revere of Texas is what some call Caldwell for that recruiting ride. He went on to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Which practice, banned across Mexico in 1829 with an exception for Texas colonists, fed the tensions behind Gonzales?

Slavery was ended across Mexico in 1829, yet by 1836 about 5,000 people were held enslaved in Texas. Mexico's bans were among the settlers' grievances.

What became of the original homemade flag that Texians flew over their cannon at the Battle of Gonzales?

It was soon lost without a trace while being carried west with the gun, so every version on display today is a conjectural replica.

Months before Gonzales, Texas settlers defied Mexican customs duties in June 1835 disturbances named for which port?

Anahuac had a customs post and garrison that settlers moved against in June 1835. Mexico answered by sending more troops to Texas, raising the stakes at Gonzales.

Which background colour did the homemade Gonzales battle flag use behind its black cannon and defiant motto?

White cloth, a cannon painted in black and a few words of defiance made up the whole design. The Texians raised it over their gun as a parley with the Mexican officer ended.

The Gonzales fight erupted two weeks before Texas delegates were due to meet at which gathering on their future?

The Consultation finally met in November and set up the provisional government that ran Texas until March 1836. It had been called to weigh independence against a return to federalism.

What excuse did Gonzales militiamen give in 1835 for making Mexican cavalry wait on the far bank of the river?

Their leader was away, the militia claimed, so the cavalry must wait across the water. The stall bought time for reinforcements to ride in from nearby settlements.