I'm John Batcha with Patrick K. O'Donnell, the best-selling Patrick K. O'Donnell, my friend.

The unvanquish, the untold story of Lincoln Special Forces, the manhunt for Mosby's Rangers,

the Shadow War that forged America's special operations, and details we've never had before.

Lee must make a decision. He's surrounded by

counselors including the governor of Virginia and his generals and there is the

choice. The choice is become irregular forces,

become guerrillas, go to the mountains, or surrender.

Patrick, how does Lee decide this?

This is one of the great decisions in American history. Lee puts America first

instead of the Confederacy first. He puts the fact that he wants you women in the children of the South and those that are in the next generation first.

He directly disobeys Jefferson Davis's order to conduct guerrilla warfare.

And from a military sense, it made a lot of, it made sense to connect guerrilla warfare.

And if Lee had been determined to do so they would have been

almost impossible to defeat if they fled to the mountains and they had scattered

the various commands because remember the South had not been occupied and the Southern population

while war weary still had lost so many men they were still behind the war

itself and as we know in

insurgencies to this day when a population has a large support of that

population has supports the insurgency they're almost impossible to defeat.

But Lee puts, you know, America first instead of the South

and decides to disobey a direct order.

And to grants grants you know general grant is wise and provides

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