The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 356
370 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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356 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
CONCERNING TI GONZALES CANNON.-In the notes by Mr.
Winkler on the article contributed to THI-E QTUARTERLY for October
by Sion R. Bostick, of San Saba, 1 find the following concerning
the old cannon, the dispute over the possession of which precipitated
the Texas Revolution: "Brown says it was a valuable four pounder,
but Holley's and Macomb's statements that it was a brass six
pounder have been adopted by Kennedy, Yoakum, and Bancroft."
Col. Noah Smithwick says, in his book, Evolution of a State or
Recollections of Old Texas Days, that the gun "was practically use-
less, having been spiked and the spike driven out, leaving a touch-
hole the size of a man's thumb. * * * The Sowells had a black-
smith shop at Gonzales, and, being a gunsmith, I set to work to
help put the arms in order." * * * "We brushed [bushed] the
old cannon (an iron six-pounder), scoured it out, and mounted it
on old wooden trucks * * * and christened it 'the flying artil-
lery.'
That Mr. Smithwick was a skilled gunsmith and a man of verac-
ity, there are many living witnesses to testify, and it is not an un-
reasonable assumption that having performed the operation above
described he would be enabled to speak authoritatively on all mat-
ters relating to the description of the gun.
Mr. Smithwick further says that the trucks heated so badly that
the old cannon was abandoned at Sandy Creek, on the march to San
Antonio, and he had no knowledge of its reclamation; he, however,
left San Antonio before the assault, and it may have been brought
up in his absence.
Now, what became of the cannon in the Alamo when the Mexi-
cans retook it? Did they carry them off to Mexico? And again,
some historian, Yoakum, I think, says that when the Texans under
General Houston retreated from Gonzales they "threw the cannon
into the river." What cannon was it they had at Gonzales at that
time, and was it ever recovered ?
It certainly seems to me that the old cannon is still in existence
somewhere and could be identified by the above description.
ANNA SMITHWICK DONALDSON,
Historian Wm. B. Travis Chapter, D. R. T.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902, periodical, 1902; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101021/m1/362/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.