The Saint Patrick's Battalion

On this day of leprechauns, clovers, and revelry, it’s important to think about the impact that Irish culture has had on the world.  Saint Patrick’s legacy in America shouldn’t be confined to green beer, shillelaghs, and corned beef.  If you haven’t heard of Los San Patricios or the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, then you’re not alone.  Most of us have only a narrow understanding of the history which brought us to the present, even if that history involves major events like the Irish Potato Famine, the Mexican American War, or both. 

While most American’s have heard of the famine, many don’t realize that it wasn’t a natural disaster. Rather than an unavoidable occurrence, it was a genocide by starvation. There was an enormous amount of food in Ireland, but the occupying British Empire had control of it. As the very Irish workers producing the food starved to death, British landlords forced the export of as much as 17 million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry in an attempt to extract as much profit as possible from the colony in Ireland. It wasn’t a simple potato blight, but a fiercely implemented form of structural violence.

During the first winter, as many as 400,000 Irish workers starved. It was not unlike the famines caused by British rule in India, although on a much smaller scale. All told, over one million people starved to death in Ireland and millions more were forced to flee.  Trying to escape British oppression, huge numbers of Irish people immigrated to America, right amid the Mexican American War.

Upon arrival, they were promised salaries and land to join the United States Army and defend the nation against their southern neighbor, Mexico.  After joining the army, these Irish soldiers faced anti-Catholic and anti-Irish discrimination, as is typical for immigrants. They were forced to attend Protestant religious services rather than their own Catholic masses.  They were mistreated compared to their non-Irish counterparts and faced harsh punishments for even minor infractions, but perhaps the most impactful experience was their realization of the side for which they were fighting.

Ireland suffered under brutal invasion and colonization beneath British rule.  The Irish had seen firsthand the horrors caused by Imperialism; they knew as well as anyone the dangers posed by a nation of people being stripped of the right to self-determination and freedom.  After fleeing these conditions and joining the United States Army, they found themselves members not of a defensive force, but of the invading military.  They were not fighting for liberation, but for the very imperialism and conquest they had fled.

One such example was an Irishman from Clifden, County Galway. His name was John Riley, and he found himself thousands of miles from home serving in Company K of the 5^th US Infantry Regiment.  He realized that he was an invader, much like the ones which had driven him from his own homeland.  Although desertion was punishable by death, Riley decided it was a risk that he was willing to take.

John Riley deserted the US Army, following his gut and his morals rather than the law of the United States Government. Steadily, other Irishmen followed suit.  Unlike many desertions, these were not acts of cowardice.  The Irish soldiers did not fear death, and they were not fleeing the war.  Riley and the Irishmen simply would not engage in invasion and conquest, not after experiencing the horrors wrought upon their own people by the British.  They weren’t running from the fight; they were changing sides.

John Riley initially joined the Legión de Extranjeros in the Mexican Army.  Eventually, somewhere between 175 and several hundred Irishmen and Europeans joined him.  Together, they formed their own unit: The Saint Patrick’s Battalion.  Their banner was green and emblazoned with the words Erin Go Bragh, an Irish phrase expressing their allegiance to Ireland, the home that was taken from them.

The Saint Patrick’s Battalion found their first official engagement in the Battle of Monterrey on September 21, 1846.  Serving primarily as an artillery unit, they were responsible for the deaths of many invading soldiers.  They also were credited for repelling two or three entire separate assaults upon the city center.  The Saint Patrick’s battalion was so tenacious that soldiers from the very units they were fighting began to join them in service to the defensive army. 

The Saint Patrick’s Battalion saw their numbers continue to grow, eventually swelling to ranks as large as 700.  From Monterrey they marched to Buena Vista, where they were given the three heaviest cannons the Mexican Army had in its possession. During the battle of Buena Vista, these enormous cannons were used by the battalion to command control of the entire plateau—an enormous feat of physical strength and exertion, given the size of the cannons.

The decimation the Saint Patrick’s Battalion wrought upon the invaders during the battle drove U.S. Commander Zachary Taylor to command a squadron of the 1^st Dragoons to “take the damned battery” and eliminate the battalion.  While Los San Patricios routed the dragoons and won the day, the battle was costly.  Roughly one third of their numbers died in Buena Vista.

John Riley and the Battalion fought in several more battles, but their journey culminated in the Battle of Churubusco where they attempted to defend the Franciscan Convent of San Mateo in Mexico City.  General Winfield Scott led the assault against them, commanding a force of nearly 8,500 soldiers.  The Mexican Army’s size paled in comparison, mustering less than 1,500 in defense. Scott’s forces stormed the Convent from multiple sides, determined to take control of the religious grounds.

Although hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded, Los San Patricios and the Mexican Army repelled the attackers until they ran out of their limited ammo. When a Mexican officer raised a white flag, attempting to surrender due to lack of ammunition, Officer Patrick Dalton of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion tore the flag down. Alongside the rest of the battalion, he was determined to fight on.

As the story goes, Mexican officers attempted twice more to raise a white flag, rather than continue to battle on barehanded, but were killed by Los San Patricios who tore down the flags twice more, determined to continue the fight and defend the Catholic convent and church in Churubusco. Eventually, the Saint Patrick’s Battalion was overwhelmed in the battle, and the Mexican Army was routed. John Riley, alongside the surviving members of the battalion, found himself captured by the very army they had deserted. 

Seventy-two members of the Saint Patrick’s battalion were put to trial by the United States. They were court-marshalled as deserters, although the sentencing varied between those who had deserted (like Riley) before war had been declared, and those who had deserted after.  John Riley and the rest who had deserted earlier received 50 lashes as well as being branded with a ‘D’ upon their cheeks to mark them permanently as deserters.  Twenty-two men in total were whipped and branded.  The remaining fifty, who had fought for the freedom of an occupied land, were sentenced to death. 

After travelling thousands of miles in search of freedom, these brave Irishmen had failed to find it.  Instead, they found themselves members of the very force instituting imperial violence. They had found commonality with other anti-imperial forces, the conquered peoples battling for liberation, and chose to stand up and face the violence head on.  In the face of an unbeatable force, the Saint Patrick’s Battalion did not what was easy, not what they were ordered, but what was just.  Hundreds died in the war, twenty-two were whipped and branded, and then fifty were hanged by the neck until dead in pursuit of freedom for a land and a people who were not their own.

The hangings of the Saint Patrick’s Battalion remain the largest mass execution in the history of the United States.  While they were treated as heroes in Mexico, in the USA they were demonized as traitors, punished as cowards, and forgotten. Immigrants continue to face the same discrimination which drove Los San Patricios to revolt, and workers across the globe continue to struggle against the same imperialism against which the Saint Patrick’s Battalion fought. Six counties in Ireland remain occupied by the British Empire to this day. 

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day. Erin Go Bragh.