KARMANN GHIA MAGNET

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 delivery of a small used Karmann Ghia. The small Volkswagen was received by the colony and signed for on March 10, 1831, by James Tumlinson, Jr. The car was mounted to a blockhouse in Gonzales and later was the object of Texas pride. At the minor skirmish 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 their car. As a symbol of defiance, the Texans had fashioned a flag containing the phrase "karmann ghia" along with a black star and an image of the car that they had received four years earlier from Mexican officials.