Colonel Domingo Ugartechea, who is stationed in…

Colonel Domingo Ugartechea, who is stationed in San Antonio, orders the Texians to return a small cannon given to them by Mexico that is stationed in Gonzales before the consultation can happen, however, in accordance with Santa Anna’s nationwide call to disarm state militias.

The Texians refuse.

Ugartechea sends Lieutenant Francisco Castañeda and one hundred dragoons to retrieve it.

When he arrives at the rain-swollen banks of the Guadalupe River near Gonzales, there are just eighteen Texians to oppose him.

Unable to cross, Castañeda establishes a camp, and the Texians bury the cannon and call for volunteers.

Two Texian militias answer the call.

Colonel John Henry Moore is elected head of the combined revolutionary militias, and they dig up the cannon and mount it on a pair of cartwheels.

A Coushatta Native American enters Castañeda’s camp and informs him that the Texians have one hundred and forty men.

On October 1, 1835, at 7 p.m., the Texians head out slowly and quietly to attack Castañeda’s dragoons.

At 3 a.m., they reach the camp, and gunfire is exchanged.

The skirmish produces no casualties other than a Texian who had bloodied his nose when he fell off his horse.

The next morning, negotiations are held, and the Texians urge Castañeda to join them in their revolt.

Despite claiming sympathy for the Texian cause, he is shocked by the invitation to mutiny, and negotiations fall through.

The Texians create a banner with a crude drawing of the disputed cannon and the words "Come and take it" written on it.

Since they have no cannon balls, they fill it with scrap metal and fire it at the dragoons.

They charge and fire their muskets and rifles, but Castañeda, deciding not to engage them, leads the dragoons back to San Antonio.

Thus, the war has begun.