A&M doing conservation work on historic artillery piece.

GUN

Was this the one they found down the well?

Beats me.

They claim it was used in the Battle of Medina, which is the climactic event in my book, although I'm not sure how they know that. It's certainly plausible, but the sources on which guns where there are really thin to my knowledge.

So reach out to the magazine and/or A&M and enquire about it……

It makes sense that cannon used at the Medina River
by the Spanish would later be stationed at the Alamo
or other posts around San Antonio or Goliad.
There used to be a tall thin Spanish watchtower
fort located near the entrance to the SA Zoo-
I have a memory (possibly faulty) of it having
a bronze plaque that said something about Medina.

The link just says it was used at the Battle of Medina, but not from which side. It could be either. The rebels had a couple of really small cannons when they first invaded - there is some speculation that the Come and Take It cannon may have come from them. They also had captured Spanish cannon. This seems pretty small, but I think the article said it was of Spanish design. That suggests it was already in Texas and was captured, though it's not impossible a Spanish cannon came in from Louisiana, which of course had been Spanish.

That come and take it cannon is really small. When I took my son to the museum in Gonzales I was surprised how small it is. The image on a standard Come and Take It flag is bigger than the actual cannon.

Saw this on the history blog today, which is pretty cool.

Quote:

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They aren't sure exactly what the white material is even now, but it's a precipitate of the electrolysis process used to clean the cannon previously. Instead of cleaning it, somehow the combination of caustic chemicals in the electrolysis tank combined with the non-standard metal composition in this cannon to create carbonate blooms that are now marring the surface.

To remove the white substance and prevent it from reoccurring, researchers have enlisted another chemical, a 5% solution of formic acid and deionized water. It removed the chalky deposits without harming the bronze underneath. They applied the solution with cloths on the outside of the cannon and a tennis ball on a stick to apply it down the full length of the bore. The white substance disappears on contact, but conservators had to apply the solution in several coats over the course of months. This process was done in view of the public. Now that it is complete, the cleaned cannon is back on display at the Alamo Museum.

One hopes this chemical doesn't suffer from the law of unintended consequences like the last one did, but ultimately the conservation team preferred to roll the dice with a dilute organic acid the cannon might have brushed against on its own rolling over an anthill or stinging nettles or a pineapple rather than allow the white substance to proliferate with potentially damaging long-term side-effects.
Because the team's work on the cannon occurred during regular museum hours, enabling numerous school groups to observe the process, Lanham says their preservation efforts also had an invaluable educational impact, inspiring the next generation of historians and conservationists.

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aalan94 said:

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They claim it was used in the Battle of Medina, which is the climactic event in my book, although I'm not sure how they know that. It's certainly plausible, but the sources on which guns where there are really thin to my knowledge.

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In the above video, the narrator says "may have been one" of the guns at Medina. So, apparently, they aren't sure.

Clearly it was "de-mil-ed" with the cascabel and trunnions knocked off...

FTACo88-FDT24dad said:

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That come and take it cannon is really small. When I took my son to the museum in Gonzales I was surprised how small it is. The image on a standard Come and Take It flag is bigger than the actual cannon.

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If I remember correctly, the cannon at the Gonzales museum is not the "Come and Take It" cannon, which wasn't very big either, but was most likely taken to the Alamo. The one in the museum is most likely another smaller cannon that the Texians had and used at Gonzales, but not the one that Mexicans were coming to get.