Mexican documents refer to 2 cannons at Battle of Gonzales

New research into the Mexican Army’s activities in colonial Texas has historians excited about the voluminous handwritten documents written by Mexican soldiers made available for the first time five years ago. One area that is getting new attention is just what pieces of ordinance the Texians had when they challenged the Mexican Army to Come and Take It.

On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., Texas historian Gregg Dimmick, author of Sea of Mud, will be speaking at a ceremony at the Alamo that unveils a newly conserved brass cannon that was one of the six-pound cannons that defended the Texas shrine in the Seige of Bexar.  Dimmick will discuss the movement of cannons in and out of Gonzales around the time of the Texas Revolution — and where experts have found those cannons.

During a meeting with local historians in Gonzales last Saturday, Dimmick said it is likely that one of those four cannons could have joined the “first shot” cannon in the encounter with the Mexicans at Cost on Oct. 2, 1835. The meeting on Saturday was held to launch an effort to re-explore Gonzales’s role in the Texas Revolution, incorporating the additional documentation from the Mexican Army.

He and fellow historian James Woodrick — who has aided Dimmick in frequent research efforts — are quick to emphasize that nothing in those documents contradicts the status of the cannon housed in the Gonzales Memorial Museum.

Dimmick says that cannon is often referred to in correspondence between officers in the Mexican Army as an esmiril.

Doug Kubicek, who joined Dr. Pat Wagner in his efforts to return the cannon to Gonzales from a private collector, cited a great deal of evidence that demonstrates the authenticity of the piece in the Gonzales Museum. Kubicek refers to himself as the group’s “doubting Thomas.” While he is concerned about the lack of documentation by Texans stating outright that there were two cannons, he conceded that there is enough evidence to merit further study of the “two cannon” theory.

Dr. Wagner performed several diagnostic tests on the cannon in 1980 after it was re-acquired from Guerra. Ordnance experts describe it as a one-pound iron gun. These radiological images— sometimes referred as cannonoscopies — of the piece at the Gonzales Museum match the work done to the cannon by Noah Smithwick at Sowell’s Blacksmith Shop in Gonzales in 1835.

In a short report to his commanding officer, Lt. Castañeda writes at 1 p.m. Oct. 2 that he was attacked by 200 Americans at the home of de la Pena and the Americans had an esmiril and a medium piece.

Dimmick added that looking back at the original battle report by Lt. Castañeda in Spanish which was written immediately after the battle, it becomes more apparent Castañeda is describing shots fired from two different pieces of ordnance.

Castañeda tells Col. Ugartechea, “tiraron un Esmirilaso” [they shot at us with a small cannon]. Later in the report he refers to the Texians responding to his refusal to surrender by “fuego de canon” [firing the cannon].

Dimmick contends the choice of language, shooting the esmiril and firing the cannon was deliberate to describe two different field pieces, and that distinction was glossed over in initial translations to English.

There are several documents related to the initial transport of the cannon to Gonzales. The Republic of Texas also compensated James George $45 for a team of oxen which were crippled by hauling “the Gonzales cannon” to San Antonio. However, the esmiril never made it to San Antonio. It was abandoned at Sandy Creek on Oct. 11 because the wheels groaned, shrieked and smoked despite attempts to use tallow to grease the axles.

On Oct. 19, correspondence with Ugartechea confirms that the Texians are camped at Cibolo Creek with one piece of artillery.

There are numerous other letters between military officers which Dimmick found which discuss which cannon to give Green DeWitt in answer to his numerous requests for a cannon to defend the town from Indians. They describe the cannon bound for Gonzales as a bronze four- or six-pounder.

In March 1831, Ramon Musquiz, the political chief of this department of Texas, drafts a receipt for a reinforced bronze cannon that he asks Green DeWitt to sign and return.

The esmiril weighs about 69 pounds when unmounted — certainly not a piece that would exhaust a pair of oxen or overload Tumlinson’s wagon during the initial transport in 1831.

Eight-pounders have a six-foot barrel, weigh over 2,000 pounds and have a four-inch bore. A six-pound bronze cannon in that era typically weighed about 1,200 pounds when mounted. The inside diameter was 3.5 inches — making them difficult to distinguish from four-pounders.

 Dimmick is continuing his research and translation in connection with a planned two-volume work on the Mexican Army documents. Since Dimmick downloaded the bulk of these historic records, they have been removed from the web site hosted by the Mexican government where he located them.

Woodrick published in 2014 a summary of much of the documentary evidence in “The Battle of Gonzales And Its Two Cannons.” That publication is available for purchase at Amazon.com.

The Gonzales County Historical Commission and a group of volunteers are working to develop a plan for how to make best use of this information in telling the story of Gonzales. You can follow the progress of this effort at www.gonzaleschc.org.