Interesting of Irish soldiers who
deserted from the USA and joined the Mexican Army:
One
of the least-known stories of the Irish who came to America in the 1840s is
that of the Irish battalion that fought on the Mexican side in the U.S.-Mexico
War of 1846-1848. They came to Mexico and died, some gloriously in combat,
others ignominiously on the gallows. United under a green banner, they
participated in all the major battles of the war and were cited for bravery by
General López de Santa Anna, the Mexican commander in chief and president. At
the penultimate battle of the war, these Irishmen fought until their ammunition
was exhausted and even then tore down the white flag that was raised by their
Mexican comrades in arms, preferring to struggle on with bayonets until finally
being overwhelmed by the Yankees. Despite their brave resistance, however, 85
of the Irish battalion were captured and sentenced to bizarre tortures and
deaths at the hands of the Americans, resulting in what is considered even
today as the “largest hanging affair in North America.” . . .
Reasons for Defection
It seems odd that anyone would defect from a superior force sure
of victory to join an obviously inferior one certain to be defeated, even if,
as most U.S. accounts assert, there were offers of money and land from the
Mexicans. There was plenty of free land to the west, much easier to come by
than risking one’s life in combat against a Yankee army. Simple desertion and
refuge in the rich valleys of California would have accomplished that purpose.
To determine the true causes of the defection of these men, it is necessary to
reflect on the temper of the times.
The potato blight that began in 1845 (roughly coinciding with the
Mexican War and lasting for its duration) brought a devastation to Europe more
horrible than the Black Death. For the Irish, it was the beginning of massive
evictions, starvation, sickness, and death. Of the many fortunate enough to
afford the fare for an escape to the New World, tens of thousands would die en
route as a result of the inhuman conditions aboard Great Britain’s vessels.
Victims of oppression in the Old World, they were to experience it
again in the New. Confronted by enormous numbers of Irish-Catholic immigrants
in the 1840s, American nativism reared its ugly head. “All the world knows,” wrote
historian Thomas Gallagher, “that Yankee hates Paddy.” And so it seemed to
those who had survived the perilous journey to America only to be labeled
inferior by demagogic politicians and feared by Anglo-American workmen. Victims
of prejudice in the New World, it should not be considered strange that they
would shortly find themselves becoming sympathetic to the Mexicans. Here was
another Catholic people being invaded by Protestant foreigners. According to a
contemporary account, “On reaching Mexico they discovered they had been hired by
heretics to slaughter brethren of their own church. On top of this they were
confronted with the hatred of their fellow soldiers.”
The intense prejudice of many of the American soldiers, especially
the volunteers, has been commented upon by at least one careful historian.
According to K. Jack Bauer, author of The
Mexican War: 1846-48, the majority of American soldiers were products of a
militantly Protestant culture that still viewed Catholicism as a misdirected
and misbegotten religion. Although the regulars included a significant number
of Catholic enlisted men, the volunteers did not. This strengthened the
tendency to ignore the rights and privileges of the Church in a Catholic
country as well as increase the harassing of that Church. Some of the volunteers’
acts, like the stabling of horses in the Shrine of San Francisco in Monterrey,
so upset the Mexicans that they still mention it in modern works.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.