“Come and take it” is a historic slogan, first used in 480 BC by Spartan King Leonidas I as a defiant answer and last stand to the surrender demanded by Persian king Xerxes I and later in 1778 at Fort Morris during the American Revolution, and in 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales during the Texas Revolution.
Sunbury, Georgia, is now a ghost town, though in the past it was active as a port, located east of Hinesville, Georgia.
Fort Morris was constructed in Sunbury by the authority of the Continental Congress. A contingent of British soldiers attempted to take the fort on November 25, 1778.
The American contingent at Fort Morris was led by Colonel John McIntosh (c. 1748–1826).
The Americans numbered only 127 Continental soldiers plus militiamen and local citizens. The fort itself was crudely constructed and could not have withstood any concerted attack.
The British commander, Colonel Fuser, demanded Fort Morris’ surrender through a written note to the American rebels.
Though clearly outnumbered (he had only about 200 men plus artillery), Colonel McIntosh’s defiant written response to the British demand included the following line: “As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply: COME AND TAKE IT!”.
The British declined to attack, in large part due to their lack of intelligence regarding other forces in the area. Colonel Fuser believed a recent skirmish in the area, combined with Colonel McIntosh’s bravado, might have reflected reinforcements and so the British withdrew.
In early January 1831, Green DeWitt wrote to Ramón Músquiz, the top political official of Bexar, and requested armament for defense of the colony of Gonzales.
This request was granted by supplying a Spanish made six-pounder bronze cannon on the condition it be returned when asked for, the colony also having a much smaller cast iron cannon of around one pounder calibre.
James Tumlinson, Jr. signed for receipt of the six-pounder cannon on March 10, 1831 in Bexar.
At the minor skirmish in 1835 known as the Battle of Gonzales- the first land battle of the Texas Revolution against Mexico- a small group of Texans successfully resisted the Mexican forces who had orders from Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea to seize the loaned cannon after the Texans had refused to return it when asked.
As a symbol of defiance, Caroline Zumwalt and Eveline DeWitt, young women from Gonzales, made a flag containing the phrase “come and take it” (Spanish: Ven y tómalo) along with a black star and a representation of the cannon that they had been loaned four years earlier by Mexican officials.
This was the same message that was sent to the Mexican government when they told the Texans to comply with the loan condition and return the cannon; the Texan refusal to do so led to the Mexican attempt to regain the cannon using military force.
