TIL of the St Patrick’s Battalion, a unit of the Mexican Army, was composed mainly of Irish Catholic immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army to fight for Mexico, due to sympathy for the Mexican cause based on similarities between the situations in Mexico and Ireland.

Read more: https://aaregistry.org/story/recognizing-the-saint-patricks-battalion/

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  2. A quick search says that only a handful of the members of this unit were former US citizens, and incentives included increases in pay and land grants. Further, a big assumed motivation is religion as Mexico was majority Catholics while the US was majority Protestant.

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