Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara
Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara
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Gone for Soldiers
A Novel of the Mexican War

Author: Jeff Shaara

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Unabridged: 19 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/05/2000


Synopsis

With his acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara expanded upon his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War classic, The Killer Angels--ushering the reader through the poignant drama of this most bloody chapter in our history. Now, in Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back fifteen years before that momentous conflict, when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat for the first time in the Mexican-American War.

In March 1847, the U.S. Navy delivers eight thousand soldiers on the beaches of Vera Cruz. They are led by the army's commanding general, Winfield Scott, a heroic veteran of the War of 1812, short tempered, vain, and nostalgic for the glories of his youth. At his right hand is Robert E. Lee, a forty-year-old engineer, a dignified, serious man who has never seen combat.

Scott leads his troops against the imperious Mexican dictator, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana. Obsessed with glory and his place in history, Santa Ana arrogantly underestimates the will and the heart of Scott and his army. As the Americans fight their way inland, both sides understand that the inevitable final conflict will come at the gates and fortified walls of the ancient capital, Mexico City.

Cut off from communication and their only supply line, the Americans learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. While Scott must weigh his own place in history, fighting what many consider a bully's war, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.

In vivid, brilliant prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers and their commanders trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the haunted personalities and magnificent backdrop, the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war. Gone for Soldiers is an extraordinary achievement that will remain with you long after the final page is turned.

About The Author

Jeff Shaara is the New York Times bestselling author of A Chain of Thunder, A Blaze of Glory, The Final Storm, No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives again in Tallahassee.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Philip on May 28, 2020

Wow, what a surprise! This was just an excellent book, far more enjoyable than Gods and Generals, which was the only previous Jeff Shaara book I read, and which paled in comparison to his father's The Killer Angels. However, Shaara Jr. has become a better writer, and in taking on the Mexico City Cam......more

Goodreads review by Barry on December 06, 2021

Jeff Shaara weaves a fine historical fiction storyline that keeps you intrigued! It’s interesting to read about the future leaders in the Civil War working together as one in the Mexican-American War. I’m a fan of both Jeff and his father Michael (Killer Angels is one of my favorite books), so I kne......more

Goodreads review by Simon on October 19, 2020

The Mexican-American War. A dispute over which river was the border resolved by the United States making it the Pacific Ocean. Gone for Soldiers is a campaign diary of all the people Shaara thought were the good guys. Maybe they removed Indians via the Trail of Tears. Maybe they were slaveholders. N......more

Goodreads review by Dee on November 04, 2022

Audible credit 19 hours 41 min. Narrated by Jonathan Davis (A)......more

Goodreads review by Donna on September 01, 2012

I was teaching history, but I always skipped the war between the US and Mexico. There was more curriculum than I could rightfully cover during the school year, and this was my favorite war to skip. It seemed dull as dirt, and there was no real righteousness behind it, as there had been with the Amer......more