Responsibilty for the sadistic execution of the Irish captives after the battle of Capultepec was delegated to Colonel Harney, the infamous ravisher and murderer of Indian squaws during the Blackhawk and Seminole Wars. According to the official US War Office correspondence, Harney was "notorious for profanity, brutality, incompetnce, peculation,recklesness, insubordination,tyranny and mendacity". The prisoners on the hill of Mixcoac were forced to stand to attention in the wagons with nooses around their necks from 5.30am till the moment four hours later when the victorious US flag was raised over Chapultepec and they were "launched into eternity" uncowed and cheering. Ard Mhacha.