8/8: The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby’s Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America’s Special Operations Hardcover – by Patrick K. O'Donnell (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2024
⏱️ 6 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Unvanquished-Lincolns-Special-Americas-Operations/dp/080216286X
At the heart of this groundbreaking narrative is the epic story of Lincoln’s special forces, the Jessie Scouts, told in its entirety for the first time. In a contest fought between irregular units, the Scouts hunted John Singleton Mosby’s Confederate Rangers from the middle of 1863 up to war’s end at Appomattox. With both sides employing pioneering tradecraft, they engaged in dozens of raids and spy missions, often perilously wearing the other’s uniform, risking penalty of death if captured. Clashing violently on horseback, the unconventional units attacked critical supply lines, often capturing or killing high-value targets. North and South deployed special operations that could have changed the war’s direction in 1864, and crucially during the Appomattox Campaign, Jessie Scouts led the Union Army to a final victory. They later engaged in a history-altering proxy war against France in Mexico, earning seven Medals of Honor; many Scouts mysteriously disappeared during that conflict, taking their stories to their graves
1865 June 10 Army of Georgia General Slocum and staff passing in review, Grand Army of the Republic
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Bachelor with Patrick K O'Donnell, the best-selling Patrick K O'Donnell, my friend. |
| 0:09.7 | The unvanquish, the untold story of Lincoln Special Forces, the manhunt for Mosby's |
| 0:14.2 | Rangers, the Shadow War that forged America's special operations, and details |
| 0:19.0 | we've never had before. Lee must make a decision. He's surrounded by counselors, including the |
| 0:26.3 | governor of Virginia and his generals, and there is the choice. The choice is |
| 0:31.6 | become irregular forces, become guerrillas, go to the mountains, or surrender. |
| 0:37.0 | Patrick, how does Lee decide this? |
| 0:40.5 | This is one of the great decisions in American history. |
| 0:44.0 | Lee puts America first instead of the Confederacy first. |
| 0:49.0 | He puts the fact that he wants southern women in the children of the South and |
| 0:54.4 | those that are that are in the next generation first he directly disobeys |
| 1:00.4 | Jefferson Davis's order to conduct guerrilla warfare. And from a military |
| 1:05.3 | sense it made a lot of it made sense to connect guerrilla warfare and if Lee had |
| 1:11.0 | been determined to do so they would have been almost impossible to defeat. |
| 1:15.0 | If they fled to the mountains and they had scattered the various commands, |
| 1:19.0 | because remember, the South had not been occupied and the southern population while war weary |
| 1:26.0 | still had lost so many men they were still behind the war itself and as we know |
| 1:31.8 | in insurgencies to this day when it what a the war itself and as we know in |
| 1:32.9 | insurgencies to this day when a population has a large |
| 1:37.5 | support of that population has supports the insurgency |
| 1:40.4 | they're almost impossible to defeat. But Lee puts you know America first |
| 1:45.8 | instead of the South and decides to disobey a direct order and's, you know, General Grant is wise and provides respect to his |
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