Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0345427521, Mass Market Paperback)

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Amazon.com (ISBN 0345427505, Hardcover)

Having chronicled the Civil War in Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure, Jeff Shaara casts his eye on the earlier proving ground of the Mexican War in his third novel, Gone for Soldiers. Although it secured the Southwest for a nation emboldened by Manifest Destiny, this two-year conflict has nearly faded into oblivion, eclipsed by the subsequent domestic dispute a dozen years later. Shaara's hallmarks--the deliberations of leaders and the brutal facts of battle--illuminate his engaging diversion into an oft-overlooked struggle in which men who would come to oppose one another fought under a single flag.

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

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0345427505, Hardcover)

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.

Amazon.com Download Description (ISBN 0345427505, Hardcover)

In "Gone for Soldiers", Jeff shaara carries us back thirteen years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time 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, eight thousand soldiers land on the beaches of Vera Cruz, 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 agaainst the imperious Mexican dictator General Atonio Lopez de Santa Ana, who arroganatly underestimates Scott and his army. The Americans soon learn about their enemy and themselves, as young men witness for the first time the horror of war. And while Scott weighs his own place in history, Lee the engineer becomes Lee the hero, the one man in Scott's command whose extraordinary destiny as a soldier is clear.

In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the legendary characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0375430571, Hardcover)

In Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back 15 years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time 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, 8,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Vera Cruz, 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.

In vivid prose that illuminates the dark psychology of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, Jeff Shaara brings to life the familiar characters, the stunning triumphs and soul-crushing defeats of this fascinating, long-forgotten war.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0553502549, Audio Cassette)

Four cassettes, 6 hours

From Jeff Shaara, The New York Times bestselling author of Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure comes a tale of the men who helped to define the nation.

Thirteen years before the outbreak of the Civil War, many of the leaders on the opposite sides of that war, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Longstreet, Jackson, Hancock, et al., travelled to Mexico to battle the wily and enigmatic Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.  Told through the eyes of two very different men, Robert E. Lee and General Winfield Scott, GONE FOR SOLDIERS is not merely the story of the two-year struggle on unfamiliar soil.  It is also the story of an untested engineer first experiencing the horrors of war and assuming a position as a leader of men.

Combining stirring battle scenes with the kind of penetrating psychological and strategic insight that made his two previous books New York Times bestsellers, GONE FOR SOLDIERS is sure to make its own place in history.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0345427513, Paperback)

In this stunning, unforgettable novel, Jeff Shaara carries us back thirteen years before the Civil War, when that momentous conflict'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.

"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT."
--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

SHAARA RELIES "ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE MEN AND THEIR CAMPAIGNS TO TELL THE TALE. . . . Most poignant of all is the appearance of so many characters who will fight under opposing flags 13 years later. Stonewall Jackson shows up as a humorless young lieutenant with a spiritual reverence for his artillery, and Ulysses S. Grant awkwardly meets [Robert E.] Lee. . . . The salvaging of such episodes from history is ultimately a patriotic task, deserving of gratitude."
--The Washington Post Book World

"COMPELLING . . . THRILLING . . . Shaara briskly drives the U.S. forces to Mexico City, building suspense at each battle, all towards the climactic storming of the gates of the capital. . . . [He] has humanized the mythos of Lee as no one ever has and, in doing, makes an enduring contribution to literature."
--Civil War Book Review

"SHAARA, AS USUAL, IS AT HIS BEST IN ACTION AND CONFRONTATION AND IN EVOKING HOW IT FELT TO BE THERE."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer