No problem *No's*....here is another one for you:
The Saint Patrick's Brigade:
SAN PATRICIO - THE IRISHMEN WHO DIED FOR MEXICO
by John Vincent
An Irish Batallion unique in military history.
Anyone who is Irish or of Irish descent and who has lived or travelled in Mexico will no doubt be familiar with one of the best kept secrets in the colourful world of Irish emigrants. The famous Saint Patrick's Battalion of the Mexican Army during the US-Mexican War has placed the Irish as a revered race in Mexico; even to this day, an Irish person in Mexico will be told a countless number of times about the famous 'Irish Martyrs' who defected from the US Army and gave their lives trying to save Mexico from US aggression from 1846-1848.
The legend of the Saint Patrick's Battalion, or 'los San Patricios' as they are referred to in Spanish, has been widely written about in Mexico over the last 150 years. Articles in historical magazines and journals have appeared in the US, as well as a romanticized play about this famous battalion, but not until the recent publication of Shamrock and Sword: The Saint Patrick's Battalion in the US-Mexican War, by Robert Ryal Miller, a professor of Mexican history at California State University at Hayward, has a major study of the San Patricios been done in the English language.
Since the Saint Patrick's Battalion was made up of deserters from the US Army, it only seems natural that they have been erased from American history. Professor Miller spent more than two years researching this story in Mexico, the US and Ireland. First and foremost, his book tells the compelling story of this forgotten band of Irish renegades; however, Miller also provides readers with a thorough history of the US-Mexican War, which traditionally has been considered less significant in American history than the Revolutionary War which preceded it and the Civil War which followed shortly afterward.
On the other hand, in Mexico this war has been taught, in a doctrinaire manner, as the most devastating event in Mexican history. Excluding Texas, which had won independence from Mexico a few years earlier, Mexico lost one-half of its total land, which now accounts for the US states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Montana; this, more than half a million square miles that Mexico was forced to cede to the US, represents an area larger than France, Spain and Italy combined. Small wonder that this war continues to be a sore point for Mexican attitudes towards the US, especially in light of the fact that the subsequent discovery of rich gold and silver deposits in California and Nevada sparked an economic boom and the westward expansion of the US into a bi-coastal nation.
John Riley
The story of this famed group begins with the founder and chief conspirator, John Riley, a Galway native born in 1817. Riley deserted from the British army while stationed in Canada and went to Michigan, where he later enlisted in the US Army in 1845. He was able to defect to the Mexican Army when his commander granted him permission to cross into Mexico to attend mass. It was there, in Matamoros, Riley joined the Mexican Army as a lieutenant, which resulted in his pay rising from seven dollars per month to 57 dollars per month. While desertion from the US armed forces was punishable by death, Riley was not deterred in capitalizing on the dis-satisfaction of many Irish-born US soldiers with their adopted country. Aided by his second-in-command, Patrick Dalton, who was from the parish of Tirawley, near Ballina, County Mayo, Riley at first was successful in persuading 48 Irishmen to defect, and these men made up the original Saint Patrick's Battalion. In addition to more Irishmen joining, they welcomed other foreign-born US deserters, as well as American-born deserters. Also, some Irish-born civilian residents of Mexico were persuaded to join the struggle. Even when the number of San Patricios rose to more than 200, Irish-born members still represented nearly 50 per cent.
Miller describes in detail the ways that Riley and Dalton collaborated with Mexican generals to distribute handbills urging Irish and other foreign-born Catholic soldiers to defect. For instance, one such handbill read:
Irishmen! Listen to the words of your brothers, hear the accents of Catholic people . . . Is religion no longer the strongest of human bonds? . . . Can you fight by the side of those who set fire to your temples in Boston and Philadelphia? Are Catholic Irishmen to be the destroyers of Catholic temples, the murderers of Catholic priests . . ? Come over to us; you will be received under the laws of that truly Christian hospitality and good faith which Irish guests are entitled to expect and obtain from a Catholic nation . . .May Mexicans and Irishmen, united by the sacred tie of religion and benevolence, form only one people.
Motivation
While it is widely perceived in Mexico that the San Patricios defected solely on the issue of religion, this myth is examined in a later chapter entitled 'Why they Defected'. The fact that there was rampant anti-Catholic bigotry in the US at that time does not play as great a role in the formation of the unit as is believed in Mexico. Miller posits that the religious bond was not a main reason why many defected. The attractive offer of high pay in the Mexican Army and the promise of land grants to defectors after the war outweighed the fraternal bond over religion, according to Miller.
A main reason for their hero status in Mexico is derived from their exemplary performance in the battlefield. The San Patricios ultimately suffered severe casualties at the famous battle at Churubusco, which is considered the Waterloo for the Mexican Army in this war. Mexican President Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, who also commanded the armed forces, stated afterwards that if he had commanded a few hundred more men like the San Patricios, Mexico would have won that ill-famed battle.
Each San Patricio who deserted from the US side was interned after the war in Mexico and subsequently given an individual court-martial trial. Many of the Irish were set free, but some paid the ultimate price. Roughly half of the San Patricio defectors who were executed by the US for desertion were Irish. Those Irish who were released by American authorities did not return to the US; some stayed in Mexico while most returned to Ireland, including John Riley who, surprisingly, was spared execution.
Unique
In addition to the interesting story of how the Saint Patrick's Battalion was formed and their significant role for Mexico in the war, Miller makes it clear from the beginning how truly unique the San Patricios are in history. He points out that although many famous generals in world history - such as Augustus Caesar, George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte - made use of foreign legions or alien mercenaries, these foreign brigades were not made up of deserters from the enemy army. Similarly, they cannot be compared to other Irish foreign brigades such as the Royal Irlandais, the Irish contingent that fought with the French at the battle of Malplaquet in 1709; nor to the Irish brigade formed in 1803 that fought with Napoleon Bonaparte; nor to the Irish regiments of Irlanda, Waterford and Ultonia that formed a part of the Spanish Army in the eighteenth century; nor to the famed Irish Legion of several thousand men that aided Simon Bolivar in the liberation of South America; unlike the San Patricios, these groups did not consist of deserters from the enemy either.
Furthermore, Miller makes it clear that the Irish deserters of the Saint Patrick's Battalion were in no way representative of the Irish-born soldiers who made up one-fourth of all enlisted men in the US Army during the US-Mexican War. There were seventeen totally Irish companies who saw action in this war; many were highly decorated units such as the Emmet Guards from Albany, New York; the Jasper Greens of Savannah, Georgia; the Mobile Volunteers of Alabama; the Pittsburgh Hibernian Greens.
Heroes
Robert Miller relates in his book, Shamrock and Sword: The Saint Patrick's Battalion in the US-Mexican War, the importance of these Irish renegades has not waned in Mexico over the years. In 1959, the Mexican government dedicated a commemorative plaque to the San Patricios across from San Jacinto Plaza in the Mexico City suburb of San Angel; it lists the names of all members of the battalion who lost their lives fighting for Mexico, either in battle or by execution. There are ceremonies there twice a year, on September 12 which is the anniversary of the executions, and on Saint Patrick's Day. A major celebration was held there in 1983, when the Mexican government authorized a special commemorative medallion honouring the San Patricios. First there was a special mass at a nearby parish, then school children placed floral wreaths at the plaque; the Mexico City Symphony played the national anthems of both Mexico and Ireland; Mexican officials eulogized the Irish Martyrs, and a few words were spoken by Irish Ambassador Tadgh O'Sullivan.
While the brave soldiers of Saint Patrick's Battalion are not particularly well-known outside Mexico, it is clear in Miller's book that their god-like status in Mexico is enough to compensate for the attention they failed to receive in other countries. This book is fascinating in content, and for the fact that it has taken so long for a major work to be written about the San Patricios in the English language.
