The San Patricios, or Saint Patrick's Brigade

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Read this in the book Liberty: The God That Failed by Christopher Ferrara. Thought it was an interesting tidbit of American history.
One of the bloodiest battles of the war took place at the monastery of Churubusco near Mexico City on August 20, 1847. Among the defenders of the monastery were a brigade of several hundred defectors from the American army known as the San Patricios or Saint Patrick’s Brigade, so named because it was composed mostly of Irish Catholic immigrants. The San Patricios were led by the Irishman John Riley, who had served as an artillery sergeant in the British army. In a Catholic version of the last stand at the Alamo, sixty percent of the San Patricios were wiped out during the battle. The San Patricios are viewed by Mexicans as martyr-heroes of Mexican history, with “medals, memorial plaques, annual ceremonies, and public schools honoring them…” During the battle General Scott had suffered the loss of more than 1000 men or twelve percent of his 9000-man army, the worst losses for the American forces during the entire Mexican war. General Santa Anna (returned from exile) declared that “if he had commanded a few hundred more men like them, he would have won the battle.” While a hundred of the San Patricios escaped, Riley and numerous others were captured and would face the death penalty.
The San Patricios are dismissed as craven deserters in the American narrative of the glorious Mexican conquest. But it was no ordinary group of deserters that not only left the American ranks but fought for Mexico as the single most formidable brigade in the Mexican army, marching under a green silk banner bearing the Mexican coat of arms, the legend Erin go Bragh (“Ireland Forever”) and an image of Saint Patrick.
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General Scott dealt with them justly as traitors in perhaps the most fitting way possible.
 
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WingedHussar said:
General Scott dealt with them justly as traitors, in perhaps the most fitting way possible.
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After the hardships they endured at the hands of the army I don’t blame then for turning sides.

I sympathize more with the Saint Patrick’s Brigade.
 
I do not.

I do have more than a passing interest in the Mexican-American War as it played a significant role in USMC history. It was the first time Marines conquered a foreign capital and hoisted the US flag over it. During that battle, 90% of the Marine officers and non-commissioned officers were casualties. So to this day, Marine officers and non-commissioned officers wear the bloodstripe on the trousers of the iconic dress blue uniform in remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice made by their leadership.

The Marine Corps Hymn also references this in the opening lines. “From the halls of Montezuma…”
 
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The Texas Declaration of Independence… included the requisite Protestant denunciations of the “army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty” and the “despotism of the sword and the priesthood,” as well as Mexico’s intolerable “support of a national religion” (Catholicism) and its unpardonable failure to “establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources.”
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They were being oppressed by a majority Catholic government. I imagine that may have played into their denunciation of Catholicism.
 
They are Irish Catholics who fought for Mexico. I do not begrudge Mexican or Irish honors to them. I still hold that they were traitors to the United States and that as an American, giving them honor would be inappropriate. At any rate though, this happened almost 200 years ago.
 
As an Irish Catholic American, this has always interested me.
 
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