The Gonzales Flag - Come And Take It

"The Old Cannon Flag" In 1831, Mexican authorities had given the colonists at Gonzales a small cannon for defense against hostile Indians. When things appeared to be coming to a head in 1835, they wanted it back. Cynthia Burns and Evaline DeWitt painted this flag and the men of Gonzales carried the message to Col. Ugartechea's dragoons. The Mexican troops withdrew under fire. Noah Smithwick wrote about the flag in 1899, saying: "the first Lone Star flag used in the revolution was gotten up at Gonzales for Austin's army and consisted of a breadth of white cotton cloth about six feet long, in the center of which was painted in black a picture of the old cannon, above it a lone star and beneath it the words, "Come and take it," a challenge which was lost on the Mexicans. It was not called the Lone Star, however, but the Old Cannon flag. I doubt if there is another man living who rode out of Gonzales behind it that October morning. ... Some were for independence; some for the constitution