Antonio Canales Rosillo was a 19th century politician, surveyor, and military officer.

Career

Canales fought in the Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 wars in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and under the many conservative attempts to control the Mexican national government of the 19th century. Canales was in discord with President Antonio López de Santa Anna

Antonio López de Santa Anna

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...

's Centralist move against the Mexican Constitution of 1824.

He served as commander-in-chief

Commander-in-Chief

A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...

 of the army

Army

An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...

 of the rebellion and, along with José María Jesús Carbajal

José María Jesús Carbajal

José María Jesús Carbajal was a Mexican freedom fighter, who opposed the Centralist government installed by Antonio López de Santa Anna. Carbajal was a direct descendant of Canary Islands settlers who emigrated to San Antonio, Texas in the 18th Century. As a teenager in San Antonio, he was...

, sought to establish the Republic of the Rio Grande

Republic of the Rio Grande

The Republic of the Rio Grande was an independent nation that insurgents against the Central Mexican Government sought to establish in northern Mexico. The rebellion lasted from January 17 to November 6, 1840 and the Republic of the Rio Grande was never officially recognized.- Background :After a...

 during the short existence of that rebellion in 1840.

After a portion of his army was captured, Canales eventually abandoned the cause of the rebellion and received a commission

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 as Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 in the Mexican Army

Mexican Army

The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...

.

In 1842, he led campaigns against the Texans at Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

 and Lipantitlán near San Patricio, Texas

San Patricio, Texas

San Patricio is a city in Nueces and San Patricio Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 318 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, San Patricio, located at , has a total area of 3.9 square miles , of which, 3.8 square miles of it is...

 and participated in capturing the Mier Expedition

Mier Expedition

The Mier Expedition, was an offshoot that developed originally out of the Somervell Expedition, which was a unsuccessful military operation launched in November 1842 by a Texian militia against Mexican border settlements. It included a major battle at Ciudad Mier on December 26 and 27, 1842 which...

 at Ciudad Mier

Ciudad Mier

Mier , also known as El Paso del Cántaro, is a city in Mier Municipality in Tamaulipas, located in northern Mexico near the Rio Grande, just south of Falcon Dam. It is north east of Monterrey on Mexico Highway 2. In 1990 the population was recorded at 6,190. By the 2010 census, it had dropped...

.

Later, Canales badgered the United States troops stationed between Corpus Christi and Matamoros during the Mexican-American War. He participated in the battles at Resaca de Guerrero - Palo Alto

Battle of Palo Alto

The Battle of Palo Alto was the first major battle of the Mexican-American War and was fought on May 8, 1846, on disputed ground five miles from the modern-day city of Brownsville, Texas...

. He served under General Pedro de Ampudia

Pedro de Ampudia

Pedro de Ampudia was born in Havana, Cuba and served Mexico as a Northern army officer for most of his life. He was also governor of the state of Nuevo León in 1846 and from 1853 to 1854....

 at Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon and under Santa Anna during the Battle of Buena Vista

Battle of Buena Vista

The Battle of Buena Vista , also known as the Battle of Angostura, saw the United States Army use artillery to repulse the much larger Mexican army in the Mexican-American War...

.

He also participated in other rebellions under the patronage of the governor of Coahuila

Coahuila

Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...

 and later of Nuevo Leon

Nuevo León

Nuevo León It is located in Northeastern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east, San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León has a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...

, Vidaurri

Santiago Vidaurri

José Santiago Vidarrui was a controversial and powerful governor of the Mexican state of Nuevo León between 1855 and 1864. His tenure was marked by secessionist ambitions and an unparalleled commerce with the Confederate States of America...

.

Some sources cite Canales as one the Mexican fillibusters.

Footnotes