The Córdova Rebellion, in 1838, was an uprising instigated in and around Nacogdoches, Texas. Alcalde Vicente Córdova and other leaders supported the Texas Revolution as long as it espoused a return to the Constitution of 1824, but after independence was declared they sought to forcefully oppose the new Texas Republic with help from the Cherokee.
Beginning as early as late 1835, Córdova had covertly started to plan and organize local resistance, anticipating Texas would declare independence from Mexico. In the late summer of 1838, word arrived from several sources that Mexico was seeking an arrangement with the Cherokee which would give them title to their land in exchange for assistance in joining a war of extermination against the Texians.
Nacogdochians looking for a stolen horse found a camp of around one hundred armed Tejanos. Rather than allow the local militia to act, President Sam Houston (who was in Nacogdoches at the time) prohibited both sides from assembly or carrying weapons. Local alcalde Vicente Córdova and eighteen other leaders of the revolt issued a proclamation with a number of demands to be met, before the surrender of their arms. After being joined by about three hundred Indian warriors, they moved toward the Cherokee settlements.
Despite Houston's orders that he should not cross the Angelina River to interfere, Thomas J. Rusk, who was at this time Nacogdoches County's Representative in the Texas Congress, sent a party of 150 men under Major Henry Augustine on to confront them.
On March 29, 1839, a company of 80 men commanded by General Edward Burleson defeated Vicente Córdova and the rebels during a fight near Seguin, Texas, at "Battleground Prairie." While wounded and pursued by Mathew Caldwell and his rangers, Córdova was able to make his way to Mexico, but 33 members of the rebellion were tried for treason and later pardoned or released.