Historians Keep the Saga of the ‘San Patricios’ Green

Irish immigrant soldiers who deserted and fought for the enemy during the war with Mexico are revered south of the border, honored in Ireland and all but forgotten in the United States.

It’s time for this country to acknowledge that the San Patricios existed, says Patrick Coggins, who is leading a crusade to dust off the history books.

The San Patricios (the St. Patrick’s brigade) was the name of the unit the men formed in the Mexican Army. They fought well, maybe too well. Once back in American hands, 50 of them ended up at the end of a rope. Many others were branded on the right cheek with a two-inch letter D--for deserter.

Coggins and some friends will don San Patricio uniforms and march in San Francisco’s St. Patrick’s Day parade today. Last year the unit took first place.

“There’s a lot of stuff coming out, most of it in the last 10 years or so,” said Coggins, a retired lawbook publisher’s representative who lives in Mill Valley, north of here.

Coggins thinks there’s a lot to learn from a story that’s more than a century old. He mentions “the San Patricios,” a 1995 documentary film by producer Mark Day.

In the 49-minute film, the Irish soldiers are shown fighting under a green flag with images of St. Patrick, a shamrock and an Irish harp.

Some people objected to the heroic portrayal of the Irish soldiers when the film was shown last year in San Antonio, said Day, who first heard of the San Patricios while working with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in Delano 25 years ago.

“It strikes a chord and reopens the debate about the war with Mexico,” he said. “People don’t even know we had a war.”

The conflict, which lasted from 1846 to 1848, may be dismissed as irrelevant “history” north of the border, but not south of it.

Every year the San Patricios are remembered with a ceremony in Mexico City. There is also one in County Galway, Ireland, birthplace of the brigade’s commanding officer.

Coggins sees a natural link between the Irish and Mexicans. He’s even formed an organization called the Irish Mexican Assn.

“The central event of modern Irish history was the Great Famine that coincided with the war between the United States and Mexico,” he said. “That’s when tens of thousands of Irishmen came to America and found their first jobs in the Army.”

Coggins thinks the Irish experience in the United States has been cast aside as the descendants of the immigrants of the famine moved up the social ladder.

The Irish developed a “huge mental and spiritual block” to be accepted in the United States, he thinks.

“I cringe when people call me ‘Anglo,’ ” Coggins said. “All whites aren’t Anglo,” meaning of English heritage.

In the war with Mexico, Irish soldiers who stayed loyal to the United States welcomed the execution of the deserters.

Raphael Semmes, a Roman Catholic and a Navy officer during the war, was quoted in a 1995 magazine article, recalling that Irish soldiers rejoiced more than the “native-born Americans even, as they felt keenly the stigma which this conduct of their countrymen had cast upon them.”

Day’s film is not the only recent work on the San Patricios. Santa Cruz playwright Chris Mathews has written “A Flag to Fly,” which portrays the executions of the soldiers on a hill overlooking the final battle site near Mexico City.

There’s also a book, “Shamrock and Sword,” by Robert Miller of Berkeley, that takes a more scholarly approach.

Miller points out that the 200-man San Patricio Battalion was the only unit made up mainly of defectors from the U.S. Army to fight against U.S. forces in any war. And not all the soldiers were Irish. He estimated that Germans made up 13% of the unit.

According to Miller, the war had a desertion rate of 8.3%, higher by several points than any other American war.

Among other reasons for fleeing, Miller said soldiers suffered truly brutal punishment for the slightest infraction. These included being flogged or spread-eagled in the blazing sun for days at a time.

In addition to escaping such harsh conditions, religion played a factor in the decision by the Irish soldiers to change uniforms, Coggins said.

“When they came to America, these men faced anti-Catholic prejudice in the East that included ‘No Irish Need Apply’ signs,” he said.

While the religion of the soldiers was a drawback in the United States, he said, it became a plus in Mexico, where only Catholics could own land.

“It went from being a liability to an asset,” he said.

Perhaps the real reason had nothing to do with the U.S. Army or Mexico at all.

The contingent in the St. Patrick’s Day parade will march under the same flag the Irishmen did. Not the flag of Mexico, but one representing a nation the San Patricios did not live to see. It was the green banner of Ireland.