Editing Saint Patrick's Battalion (section)

==Aftermath of Churubusco==

===Trials===
The {{lang|es|San Patricios}} captured by the U.S. Army were treated and punished as traitors for desertion in time of war. Seventy-two men were immediately charged with desertion by the Army.{{sfn|Howes|2003|p=181}}

Two separate courts-martial were held, one at [[Tacubaya]] on 23 August, and another at [[San Ángel]] on 26 August. At neither of these trials were the men represented by lawyers nor were transcripts made of the proceedings. This lack of formal legal advice could account for the fact that several of the men claimed that drunkenness had led them to desert (a common defense in military trials at the time that sometimes led to lighter sentences), and others described how they were forced to join the Mexican Army in some form or another. The majority of the {{lang|es|San Patricios}} either offered no defense or their defenses were not recorded. Wealthy Mexicans came to the {{lang|es|San Patricios}}' defence at the trials, and members of Mexico's first families visited them in prison.{{sfn|Foos|2002|p=112}}

===Sentences===
One soldier who claimed he was forced to fight by the Mexicans after he was captured by them, and who subsequently refused to do so, was sentenced to death by firing squad instead of hanging, along with another who was found not to have officially joined the Mexican Army.{{sfn|Howes|2003|p=181}}

Most of the convicted {{lang|es|San Patricios}} were sentenced to death by hanging: 30 from the Tacubaya trial and 18 from San Ángel. The rationale was that they had entered Mexican military service following the declaration of war. Execution by hanging was in violation of the contemporary [[Articles of War]], which stipulated that the penalty for desertion and/or defecting to the enemy during a time of war was death by [[firing squad]], regardless of the circumstances. Hanging was reserved only for spies (without uniform) and for "atrocities against civilians", neither of which activities were among the charges brought against any members of the Saint Patrick's Battalion.{{sfn|Hogan|2006}} Although more than 9,000 U.S. soldiers deserted the army during the Mexican–American War, only the {{lang|es|San Patricios}} (who unlike almost all other deserters had also fought against the United States) were punished by hanging.{{sfn|Hogan|1998|p=19}}

Those soldiers who had left military service before the official [[declaration of war]] on Mexico (Riley among them) were sentenced to "... receive 50 lashes on their bare backs, to be branded with the letter 'D' for deserter, and to wear iron yokes around their necks for the duration of the war."{{sfn|Frías|1984|p=173}} This, too, went against the Articles of War; deserters who left prior to a declaration of war were supposed to be branded, [[scourge]]d, ''or'' sentenced to hard labor. The ''San Patricios'' instead received all three punishments, a fate that once again was given to no other deserters during the war.{{sfn|Hogan|1997}}

===Executions===
In all, 50 Saint Patrick's Battalion members were officially executed by the U.S. Army, all but two by hanging. Collectively, this was the largest [[mass execution]] in United States history. (The hanging of 38 [[Sioux]] at the conclusion of the [[Dakota War of 1862#Execution|Dakota War of 1862]] appears to have been the largest execution by hanging at a single event.) En masse executions for [[treason]] took place at three separate locations on three separate dates; 16 were executed on 10 September 1847 at San Ángel, four were executed the following day at the village of Mixcoac on 11 September, and 30 were hanged at [[Chapultepec]] on 13 September.{{sfnm|1a1=McCaffery|1y=1994|1p=196|2a1=Eisenhower|2y=1999|2p=297}} One {{lang|es|San Patricio}} was murdered by American soldiers when he was recognised among the prisoners of war in the aftermath of the [[Battle of Molino del Rey]], by being thrown "into a mill flume and crushed by the wheel".{{sfn|McCaffery|1994|p=181}} 
At the San Ángel hangings all prisoners were executed without incident except for Patrick Dalton, who, as an American captain described, was "literally choked to death". Dalton had previously voiced concerns regarding his treatment.{{sfn|Miller|1989|pp=93, 105}}

By order of Gen. [[Winfield Scott]], thirty {{lang|es|San Patricios}} were to be executed at Chapultepec in full view of the two armies while they fought the [[Battle of Chapultepec]], at the precise moment that the flag of the U.S. replaced the flag of Mexico atop the citadel. This order was carried out by Col. [[William Harney]].{{sfn|Hogan|2006}} Harney was taunted and jeered by the condemned men.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1999|p=297}} 
While overseeing the hangings, Harney ordered Francis O'Connor hanged although he had had both legs amputated the previous day. When the army surgeon informed the colonel that the absent soldier had lost both his legs in battle, Harney replied: "Bring the damned son of a bitch out! My order was to hang 30 and by God I'll do it!"{{sfn|Wunn|1984|p=14}}
[[File:Sanpatricioshang.jpg|thumb|270px|right|The mass hanging of {{lang|es|San Patricios}}, as portrayed by [[Samuel Chamberlain]], c. 1867]]
The U.S. flag appeared on the flagpole at 9.30 a.m. Legend has it that the Mexican flag had been taken by a cadet, {{ill|Juan Escutia|es}} of the [[Niños Héroes]], who leapt with it to his death from [[Chapultepec Castle]] to deny the Americans the honor of capturing it. In a final act of defiance, the men about to be hanged cheered the [[Mexican flag]], as one onlooker remarked; "Hands tied, feet tied, their voices still free".{{sfn|Stevens|1999|p=275}} At Harney's signal, the carts holding the tied and noosed men pulled away.{{sfn|Hogan|1998|p=287}} Harney refused to cut the bodies down, stating that "I was ordered to have them hanged, and have no orders to ''unhang'' them".{{sfn|McCaffery|1994|p=197}} Harney was subsequently promoted to brigadier general, which rank he held while the U.S. Army occupied Mexico City.

The Mexican government described the hangings as "a cruel death or horrible torments, improper in a civilized age, and [ironic] for a people who aspire to the title of illustrious and humane",{{sfn|Downey|1955}} and by a writer covering the war as "a refinement of cruelty and ... fiendish".{{sfn|Fast|1993}} George Ballentine remarked, in his account of his American military service in Mexico, ''"[T]he desertion of our soldiers to the Mexican army ... were still numerous, in spite of the fearful example of the executions at Churubusco, [and] also served to inspire that party with hope."'' {{sfn|Ballentine|1860|p=281}}