Come and Take It. Twin Sisters. Travis' 18-pounder. Phrases without context to outsiders, but not to Texans. These revered, iconic cannons played an outsized role in the creation of the Republic of Texas in 1836. Before that, there were many other cannons involved in the tumultuous history of this state. Each of the countries of the Six Flags that flew over Texas brought artillery to the state. This article looks at the early history of cannons in Texas, from Spanish discovery to brief French occupation and then part of New Spain, and finally to the end of Texas as a state in the Republic of Mexico in 1836. The research presented in this book has revealed some interesting and heretofore unrecognized facts relative to Spanish / Mexican cannons from the Revolutionary period that are on display in San Antonio, Gonzales and Goliad today. For example, five were brought here by Americans and French privateers in 1817 who were participating in the insurgency to free Mexico from Spanish rule, and were abandoned in a grounded ship in Matagorda Bay. Spanish soldiers recovered the guns and sent them to San Antonio, where they remained in storage until used in the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Five are in San Antonio today. At Goliad is a "Frankenstein" cannon made from three pieces of older cannons that had been stored at Los Adaes before 1763, taken to Bucareli in 1774 and abandoned there in 1779, and later retrieved and sent to La Bahia in 1795. And the small iron swivel gun that is in the Gonzales Memorial Museum not only fired the first shot in the Battle of Gonzales, but did the same thing in the Battle of Velasco three years earlier! The oldest known remaining Texas cannons were discovered in the remains of a Spanish ship that ran ashore on Padre Island in 1554. Ten cannons were brought here by LaSalle in 1685, nine are in Victoria and Austin. Others were brought by French troops to their fort at Natchitoches before 1763; one of these is in the Alamo today. Another in the Alamo today was used in the Battles of Rosillio, Alazan and Medina in 1813, the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Extensive primary source citations are included for those interested in further pursuing this fascinating history.