Gone For Soldiers
by Jeff Shaara

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Book Reviews of Gone For Soldiers

Book Review: I liked it
Summary: 5 Stars

The chapter tags are mainly:

Robert E. Lee the old new captain(40 years old) immediatly shows his talent for the battle field as a scout and engineer which is immediatly recognised by Winfield Scott. You watch him perform his functions with skill and daring and yet still have moments of doubt. You watch him grow into the postion and see the makings of the future commander of the South.

Winfield Scott, ol Fuss and Feathers, comes to highly regard Lee and shows it by desiring his company more then his staff. Scott the commanding General deals with goverment politics, glory hunting divisional comanders as he tries to lead the army in a new way of combat versus the outdated principles of Napoleon. The author did a good job at trying to get his feeling for the man across. He a soldier to the core and dispises political people and the glory seekers. He can't stand his son-in-law, his adjunt, and he torments his Sargent to no end. You see him become a diplomat and is actually offered Dictatorship of Mexico. All in all you get a good introduction to one of America's best and probably most unknown generals. Much of his acomplishments were overshadowed by the Civil War. A tribute to the man is the fact that the West Point Uniforms are the uniforms Scott's troops wore in the War of 1812. Also, the Duke of Wellington called him the best soldier of his generation.

Along the way you meet other personalities.

The dark and brooding Thomas Jackson as Lee remarked "This man needs War" You get to a chapter of his famous duel with Mexican Cannons at Chapultepec.

Ulysis S. Grant and his attack at the gates of Mexico City.
Joseph E. Johnston - you see who the friendship was developed with Lee and later lost in the Civil War.

Pete Longstreet
George Picket.
Commadore Mathew Perry.
P.G.T Beuregard

All in all it's a good read and will give you a taste of an ignored war.

Summary of Gone For Soldiers

The veteran major-general Winfield Scott and an upstart Robert E. Lee anchor Gone for Soldiers. Headstrong, brilliant, and generally distrustful of his less able subordinates, Scott leads the U.S. troops slowly and inevitably toward Mexico City, imparting martial lessons along the way. "The worst consequence of fighting a war is not if you lose, Mr. Lee," he sighs. "The worst thing you can do is win badly." Lee distinguishes himself throughout the campaign, his meticulous scouting and shrewd inferences winning both Scott's admiration and the jealousy of officers whose ambition surpasses their experience. Lee, too, frequently assesses his place in the hierarchy, but he--like Scott--remains more bemused than seduced by the glitter of fame.

This sympathy between the two men grows as Lee observes Scott embroiled in the distracting politics of war: officers salivating for promotion, enemies more preoccupied with saving face than lives, distant legislators issuing directives. If Gone for Soldiers occasionally bogs down during its many lengthy battle scenes, unexpected and delightful small touches arise nearly as often--the "capture" of Mexican leader Santa Anna's wooden leg or the chance encounter between Lee and a young Ulysses S. Grant. Duty-bound and humble, Lee cultivates a perpetual stoicism. "Now we're out here in some place God may not want us to be. It's hard to believe He is happy watching us fight a war," he muses, a sobering coda to the grim calculations of victory. --Ben Guterson

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