It was fought near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army soldiers.

In 1831, Green DeWitt asked the Mexican authorities to lend the Gonzales colonists a cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids.

As the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales with a weapon and requested the return of the cannon.

The soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities.

[2] Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution.

Two cannons were used by the Texians in the fighting, the bronze six-pounder under dispute and a smaller Spanish esmeril made of iron, its caliber being a one pounder or less.

A bronze six-pounder was noted as one of twenty-one large guns captured and buried by the Mexicans at the Alamo, dug up in 1852 and sent to New York in 1874 to be cast into a bell that hangs in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio; while a smaller iron gun was abandoned in a creek and uncovered by a flood in 1936, on show in the Gonzales Memorial Museum as of 2020[update].

In 1825, American Green DeWitt received permission to settle 400 families in Texas near the confluence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers.

[4] The DeWitt Colony quickly became a favorite raiding target of local Karankawa, Tonkawa, and Comanche tribes, and in July 1826 they destroyed the capital city, Gonzales.

[8] In June, a small group of settlers in Texas used the political unrest as an excuse to rebel against customs duties, in an incident known as the Anahuac Disturbances.

[11] Others, including Gonzales, declared their loyalty to Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna's centralist government.

[12] Local leaders began calling for a Consultation to determine whether a majority of settlers favored independence, a return to federalism, or the status quo.

Although some leaders worried that Mexican officials would see this type of gathering as a step toward revolution, by the end of August most communities had agreed to send delegates to the Consultation, scheduled for October 15.

[16] Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, sent a corporal and five enlisted men to retrieve the cannon that had been loaned to the colonists.

Stephen F. Austin, one of the most respected men in Texas and the de facto leader of the settlers, sent messengers to inform surrounding communities of the situation.

Albert Martin, captain of the Gonzales Texian Militia company, informed the soldiers that Ponton was out of town, and until his return the army must remain on the west side of the river.

[22] Texian Militia companies generally elected their own leaders, and the men now gathered in Gonzales invoked their right to choose their own captain rather than report to Martin.

[24] In San Antonio de Béxar, Ugartechea asked Dr. Launcelot Smither, a Gonzales resident in town on personal business, to help Castañeda convince the settlers to follow orders.

[21] When Smither arrived on October 1, he met with militia captain Mathew Caldwell to explain that the soldiers meant no harm if the settlers would peacefully return the cannon.

[2] As Moore returned to camp, the Texians raised a homemade white banner with an image of the cannon painted in black in the center, over the words "Come and Take It".

[31] A large number of Texians had taken an armed stand against the Mexican army, and they had no intention of returning to their neutral stance towards Santa Anna's government.

[2] Before fighting had officially erupted, Santa Anna had realized that stronger measures were needed to ensure calm in Texas.

The following day, Austin led the men on a march towards San Antonio de Béxar to lay siege to Cos's troops.

According to the memoirs (written in the 1890s) of Gonzales blacksmith Noah Smithwick, the cannon was abandoned after the cart's axles began to smoke during a march to San Antonio de Béxar to assist in Austin's siege.

The Curator of Military History at the Smithsonian Institution verified that Wagner's cannon was a type of small swivel gun used in America through 1836.

The Conservation Laboratory at the University of Texas confirmed that Wagner's cannon had been buried in moist ground for an extended time period.

[38] Writing in the Handbook of Texas, historian Thomas Ricks Lindley maintains that the Wagner cannon does not match the Smithwick account.

[1] Historians such as Lindley think it likely that the bronze six-pounder cannon which caused the dispute was taken to San Antonio de Béxar, where it was used during the Battle of the Alamo and captured by Mexican troops in March 1836.