To Ric...
I am always glad to answer a question about Samurai history. And yes, I do know all this off the top of my head.
The true final rebellion of the Samurai was call the Satsuma rebellion. It lasted from 1876 to 1877, and was led by a man named Takamori Saigo...a former loyal retainer of the Satsuma clan who had fallowed the laws of the Meiji government for years until finally the dishonor became to much for him. He gathered a Samurai army numbering about 20,000 when all was said and done, around his former masters domain in....uh....uh...Kyushu Island. (holy crap I need to restudy this)
He took his Samurai against a total of 60,000 heavily armed "modern" Meiji troops in a series of battles, and lost all of them. until finally Saigo and about 300...I think...of the last Samurai retreated into the hills of an area called Shiroyama where they were surrounded and shelled with artillery until Saigo was finally wounded and committed seppuku along with the rest of the remaining Samurai on sept 24, 1877.
Many years later though, the Meiji government, posthumously pardoned Saigo and all of the Samurai that served under him. And to this day his memory is honor, and his courage, his shrewdness and his skill in battle.....are legend.
Seriously though, he was honored as hero to the Japanese people.
So I say...fight like them ....just don't die like them.