"On October 2, 1835, the growing tensions between Mexico and Texas erupted into violence when Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, sparking the Texan war for independence.
Texas -- or Tejas as the Mexicans called it -- had technically been a part of the Spanish empire since the 17th century. However, even as late as the 1820s, there were only about 3,000 Spanish-Mexican settlers in Texas, and Mexico City's hold on the territory was tenuous at best. After winning its own independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico welcomed large numbers of Anglo-American immigrants into Texas in the hopes they would become loyal Mexican citizens and keep the territory from falling into the hands of the United States. During the next decade men like Stephen Austin brought more than 25,000 people to Texas, most of them Americans. But while these emigrants legally became Mexican citizens, they continued to speak English, formed their own schools, and had closer trading ties to the United States than to Mexico.
In 1835, the president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, overthrew the constitution and appointed himself dictator. Recognizing that the "American" Texans were likely to use his rise to power as an excuse to secede, Santa Anna ordered the Mexican military to begin disarming the Texans whenever possible. This proved more difficult than expected, and on October 2, 1835, Mexican soldiers attempting to take a small cannon from the village of Gonzales encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia of Texans. After a brief fight, the Mexicans retreated and the Texans kept their cannon.
The determined Texans would continue to battle Santa Ana and his army for another year and a half before winning their independence and establishing the Republic of Texas."
Source - The "History Channel" website: (
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This particular monument marks the site (at least within 1.5 miles) where the Texans fired the first cannon shot against the Mexican army on that fateful October day of 1835, the first day of the Texas Revolution.
Its associated monument, commissioned by the Texas state legislature in 1935 and completed in 1936 (the year of the Texas Centennial), is made of Texas gray granite and measures approximately 16' x 14' (W x H). Its great bronze plaque and decorative figures carved in granite were designed by Waldine Tauch. The monument's wording reads:
"Near here on October 2, 1835 was fired the first shot of the Texas Revolution of 1835-36 -- the shot heard round the world. At Gonzales the Texans defied the Mexican government and refused their demand for the Gonzales cannon with the "come and take it" challenge until reinforcements arrived from other parts of DeWitt's Colony and from the colonies on the Colorado and Brazos. They then pursued the Mexicans from Gonzales to near this point and fired upon them with this cannon, driving them back to Bexar. This shot started the revolution and was directly responsible for adding more territory to the United States than was acquired by the freeing of the original thirteen colonies from England. (Erected by the State of Texas 1936)"
There is also another small marker nearby -- closer to the road, erected by the Texas Highway Department -- which reads:
"One and one-half miles from here the first shot of the Texas Revolution was fired from a small cannon by Texans under the command of Col. John H. Moore, October 2, 1835."