No cannon controversy

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I admit I had concerns when I wrote the story on Jan. 20 about a gathering I attended a few days earlier with some members of the Gonzales County Historical Commission, a couple of historians examining Mexican Army records and a longtime researcher on the Come and Take It Cannon.

In that story I tried to alleviate concerns that participants were questioning the authenticity of the cannon at the Gonzales Memorial Museum. If anything, several of us came away from that meeting more convinced that the small cannon Mexican Army officers referred to as “un esmiril” is indeed the artillery piece that fired the first shot in the Battle of Gonzales on Oct. 2, 1835.

Apparently, my inclusion of a couple of paragraphs discussing the “cannonoscopies” and other radiological studies Dr. Pat Wagner ordered to be performed on the cannon have been ignored. Some readers are coming to the opposite conclusion of what was I trying to report.

We are convinced that the cannon you see when you visit the Gonzales Memorial Museum fired the first shot.  The tests performed by Dr. Wagner show evidence of the retrofitting Noah Smithwick describes in his account of the events over those few days in late September and October, 1835.

Smithwick’s alterations to the cannon would certainly make it a unique piece that would be hard to reproduce.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ve just been reappointed to a two-year term on the Historical Commission. I take that duty, along with my role as publisher and custodian of 163 years worth of newspapers that have recorded Gonzales history as it happened, very seriously.  Much of what pediatrician/historian Greg Dimmick has learned from the recently released Mexican Army documents fill in details to the story of the Come and Take It cannon, substantiating our common beliefs.

Longtime cannon scholar Doug Kubicek, who worked alongside Dr. Wagner during much of his effort to reclaim and validate the Come and Take It cannon, is also participating in this project.

Plans are in the works to schedule another session that will give members of the community an opportunity to listen in and/or participate in the discussion.

The Mexican Army documents have many references to a much larger bronze cannon being present at the Battle of Gonzales. Any effort to determine what happened to this second cannon would bring a boost in heritage tourism, so there’s an economic incentive as well as the potential thrill of locating such a historic treasure.

After the Battle of Bexar — the conflict that ended with a victory for the Texians — there were many artillery pieces moving out of San Antonio and through Gonzales. Learning more about those movements helps illustrate what a key role Gonzales played in the ultimate victory in Texas war for independence.

Among the nominees we expect to be appointed to the Historical Commission is one new volunteer that’s fluent in Spanish and can offer additional assistance with this research.

So, just to be clear, no one that’s participating in this effort is disputing the provenance of the Come and Take It cannon at the Gonzales Memorial Museum. But, after more than two decades in the newspaper business, I won’t be surprised to overhear someone discussing this column in line at the grocery store and claiming I wrote something entirely different.

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