José María Jesús Carbajal (1809–1874) (also spelled Carvajal, Caravajal, Carabajal, and Carbahal) was a Mexican Tejano who opposed the Centralist government installed by Antonio López de Santa Anna, but was a conscientious objector who refused to take up arms against his own people.

Mexican conscientious objectors paid a price for their refusals, in that Texan Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Rusk confiscated the homes of those who wished to remain neutral in the war.

(m.1729) of the settling Spanish soldier's founders of Villa de Bejar in 1718[1] and Canary Islands settlers who immigrated to San Antonio, Texas in the 18th century.

As a teenager in San Antonio, he was mentored by Stephen F. Austin and came under the spiritual guidance of Alexander Campbell while attending school in Virginia.

[9] Carbajal returned to Texas in 1830 and requested Austin's assistance in marketing bibles that had been translated into Spanish by the Bishop of Madrid.

His bi-lingual abilities gave him an advantage when communicating to Anglo settlers the complex legal documents written in Spanish.

[14] The Law of April 6, 1830 of Mexico had been passed to stop the tide of Anglo immigration into the country, hoping to safeguard against the annexation of Texas by the United States.

[16] A confrontation about the granting of the titles arose between Madero and Mexican Colonel Juan Davis Bradburn, who was the military governor over Galveston Bay.

Santa Anna revoked the 1824 Constitution of Mexico and replaced its Federalist form of government with a Centralist regime to further his military dictatorship.

It authorized the governor to sell up to four hundred leagues (1.5 million acres) in Texas, in order to generate income for the state treasury for the purpose of a volunteer militia to protect the citizenry specifically against Indian attacks.

[31] Colonel Domingo Ugartechea,[32] as principal commandant of Coahuila y Texas, ordered Carbajal arrested, but soldiers were unsuccessful in their attempts at doing so when they arrived in Victoria.

During a pursuit by the Mexican warship Bravo on the return trip with the purchased equipment, the crew was forced to dump the cargo into the Gulf of Mexico.

[43] During the Texas War of Independence many Mexicans were opposed to Santa Anna's regime but refused to take up arms against their own people.

Mexicans who refused to take up arms were suspected as sympathizers, if not active allies, of the Santa Anna regime, and they were treated accordingly.

In July 1836, Rusk ordered the Carbajal, Benavides and De Leon families of Victoria escorted off their own land.

Carbajal and Antonio Canales Rosillo[47] recruited insurgents to resist the Centralist troops, and to try to establish a breakaway republic.

[49]Seeing an opportunity to revive the Federalist cause, Canales Rosillo sent a letter to Zachary Taylor on January 29, 1846, requesting a meeting with either himself or Carbajal, to discuss United States aid in ousting the Centralist government.

Carbajal and Canales Rosillo threw their loyalties behind the Centralist government, conducting guerilla warfare in the border regions against the United States.

[55] Abolitionists in Texas had developed an underground to assist runaway slaves to escape to freedom in the Mexican border area.

The initial seed money for Carbajal's army was raised in June 1851 through the sale of Mexican land grants to disgruntled merchants in Texas.

His action was countered by Mexican General Francisco Avalos, who announced a tariff cut for any goods entering Mexico through Matamoros.

This time they were beaten back by National Guard troops from Ciudad Victoria, under the command of Antonio Canales Rosillo.

[74] During the Texas state fair held in Corpus Christi in May 1852, Carbajal was a featured speaker, raising funds and support for his Federalist cause.

[80] In October 1855, Texas Ranger James Hugh Callahan,[81] retreating from a skirmish with Seminole Indians, burned Piedras Negras to the ground.

[86] The sale of Mexican lands to the United States was a tipping point that helped foster the Plan of Ayutla, removing Santa Anna from office once again in 1855.

[87] Carbajal sided with Minister of Justice Benito Juárez, who became president of Mexico in 1858.General David E. Twiggs abandoned Fort Brown in 1859.

With no clear victory in Carbajal's incursion, Benito Juarez declared martial law in Tamaulipas and named Santiago Vidaurri as state military commander.

[92] The Reform War drove the Juarez government of Mexico into debt with four powerful countries: France, England, the United States and Spain.

[98] President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton sent General Lew Wallace on a covert operation to assist Carbajal in procurement of arms and ammunition.

[14][107] During the Civil War, Carbajal enrolled his two surviving sons in Bethany College in West Virginia, where they lived with Alexander Campbell.