The Saint Patrick Battalion

C
My name is John Riley
     F                    C
I'll have your ear only a while
  F                    C
I left my dear home in Ireland
                            Am
It was death, starvation or exile
    F              C
And when I got to America
   F              Am
It was my duty to go
C                  F
Enter the Army and slog across Texas
   G                       Am
To join in the war against Mexico

C
It was there in the pueblos and 
hillsides
       F                     C
That I saw the mistake I had made
F                    C
Part of a conquering army
                             Am
With the morals of a bayonet blade
          F                        
So in the midst of these poor, 
  C
dying Catholics
          F                    
Screaming children, the burning 
              Am
stench of it all
  C                    F
Myself and two hundred Irishmen
  G                    Am
Decided to rise to the call


[Chorus]

            F             C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G                      Am
We witnessed freedom denied
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side


[Verse]

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   C
We marched 'neath the green flag of 
Saint Patrick
  F                      C
Emblazoned with "Erin Go Bragh"
F                          
Bright with the harp and the 
  C
shamrock
                        Am
And "Libertad pa Mexicana"
F                      C
Just fifty years after Wolftone
F                   Am
Five thousand miles away
          C                    
The Yanks called us a Legion of 
 F
Strangers
    G                     Am
And they can talk as they may


[Chorus]

            F             C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G                      Am
We witnessed freedom denied
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side


[Verse]

   C
We fought them in Matamoros
            F                      
While their volunteers were raping 
    C
the nuns
   F                  C
In Monterey and Cerro Gordo
                          Am
We fought on as Ireland's sons
            F                      
We were the red-headed fighters for
 C
 freedom
             F                     
Amidst these brown-skinned women 
  Am
and men
        C                     
Side by side we fought against 
 F
tyranny
      G                  Am
And I daresay we'd do it again


[Chorus]

            F             C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G                      Am
We witnessed freedom denied
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side


[Verse]

   C
We fought them in five major battles
     F             C
Churobusco was the last
    F                          
Overwhelmed by the cannons from 
 C
Boston
                          Am
We fell after each mortar blast
F                       C
Most of us died on that hillside
       F                      Am
In the service of the Mexican state
   C                     F
So far from our occupied homeland
        G                     Am
We were heroes and victims of fate


[Chorus]

            F             C
From Dublin City to San Diego
G                      Am
We witnessed freedom denied
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side
      F                       
So we formed the Saint Patrick 
     C
Battalion
       G                     Am
And we fought on the Mexican side