[2] His father died when he was twelve years old, and Plácido de Castro had to work to help support his mother and six brothers.

Early in 1899 he accepted an offer from the engineer Orlando Correia Lopes to go to Acre to work on delimiting rubber concessions.

[5] The newspapers now reported an alleged agreement where Bolivia would lease Acre to an Anglo-American "Bolivian syndicate" for 30 years, and would send troops armed by the United States to defend the territory.

[7] Plácido de Castro was working in the Purus River area when he heard of the Bolivian government's leasing plan.

[3] Plácido de Castro took a boat up the Acre river, ostensibly to conduct land surveys in the south but in fact carrying arms and ammunition.

[8] Plácido participated in the 1 July 1902 meeting at which the revolutionary junta was formed with a goal of obtaining the independence of Acre and then integrating it with Brazil.

[1] Although he argued for immediately attacking the garrison of 230 troops at Puerto Alonso, Plácido de Castro was persuaded to first take the outpost at Xapuri.

He planned to next take Puerto Acre, but news of an approaching column of Bolivian troops from the Orthon River caused many of his 200 men to desert.

[10] When the remaining 63 rebels were attacked at Volta da Empresa (now Rio Branco) on 18 September 1902 they were decisively defeated, losing half their number.

He made camp at Volta da Empresa and sent messengers to Puerto Alonso and Riberalta asking for fresh guns and ammunition [11] Plácido de Castro surrounded the Bolivian camp but failed to achieve surprise in an attack on 5 October 1902 and instead settled into a siege, digging diagonal trenches to close in on the Bolivians.

[12] On 14 October 1902 the rebels captured some of the outer defences of Puerto Alonso and the armed Bolivian launch Rio Afua, which they renamed the Independencia.

[13] Further successful fighting continued in the south against a column of Bolivian rubber tappers and a picket of poorly trained troops at Santa Rosa del Abuná.

[12] Plácido de Castro could not persuade his men to continue south to destroy the Bolivian base on the Orthon, and turned back towards Puerto Alonso.

[15] Plácido de Castro's leadership skills had played a key role in the success of the revolt, helped by supplies of food, ammunition and weapons from the great rubber barons of Acre.

[16] However, under the Treaty of Petrópolis of 17 November 1903 Brazil formally acquired Acre for two million pounds sterling, ceded some land in Mato Grosso and undertook to build the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad to allow export of Bolivian products via the Amazon River.

[9] After leaving office Plácido de Castro bought the Capatará rubber concession on credit, and also obtained property in Bolivia.

[18] José Plácido de Castro was included in the Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom in Brasília on 17 November 2004 as the liberator of Acre.