Sgt. John Riley, San Patricio Battalion, Formerly U.S. Army

San Patricio Battalion's Flag

Originally, I'm from a small town in Ireland. I joined the U.S. Army and became a drillmaster at West Point, training men to be soldiers. Now the army considers me a deserter a traitor. That's not how I see it. I was sent to invade Mexico with the Army. The U.S. had no right to be there. It was like the British occupying Ireland. Mexicans were treated cruelly. The Mexicans appealed to me to leave the U.S. Army and to join theirs. And I did. I became a lieutenant and about 260 U.S. soldiers joined me fighting on the Mexican side. In Boston and Philadelphia, the Protestants had burned our Catholic Churches. The Mexicans are Catholic too. But now, we are captured. Most of us have been sentenced to death by hanging. The "lucky" ones are to be given 50 lashes with a whip, forced to dig the graves for our friends who will be executed, and then branded on our cheeks with the letter "D" for deserter.

They brand with hot irons the faces of the Irish deserters and then hang them from the gallows. The Saint Patrick Irish Battalion arrived with the invaders, but fought alongside the invaded.
From the north to Molino del Rey, the Irish made theirs the fate, ill fate, of the Mexicans. Many died defending the Churubusco monastery without ammunition. The prisoners, their faces burned, rock to and fro on the gallows. -Eduardo Galeano, Masks and Faces
This is a quote from the book of Masks and Faces by Eduardo Galeano. In this quote it shows how the Mexicans honored the San Patricio Battalion. It tells about how they suffered by being ironed on their face and some executed yet they still fought and kept moving forward. These soldiers of the San Patricio Battalion with everything they had all until they ran out ammunition and finally they were put down in the Battle of Churubusco.