 In January 1923, he was captured by Free State forces near Clonmel and sentenced to death.He then signed a document ordering the men under his command to surrender themselves and their arms to the government and for this he was spared execution.Republicans denounced him as a traitor and a coward for this action but Deasy argued in his book, "Brother against Brother", that he was opposed to continuing the civil war anyway and would have called on republicans to surrender whether or not he had been captured.