Book Review: Gone for Soldiers by Jeff Shaara

The award-winning Jeff Shaara takes us back thirteen years before the commencement of the United States Civil War, to a time when the men who were on either side of that bloody war were in the same army, fighting for the same cause, albeit a dubious one. Yes, the Mexican-American War could easily be called a Bully's War. It was a consequence of the Manifest Destiny, and basically involved the US Army, led by the old hero, Winfield Scott, marching south into Mexico looking to expand American borders. I knew nothing about the war, except that it happened, and only then because it was mentioned in the film Gettysburg. Fiction based on anecdotes from letters and journals, Shaara has opened up this conflict to a brand-new auidence.

The politics aside, the experience in Mexico gave men such as Ulysses S. Grant, James Longstreet, George Pickett, Joe Johnston, Thomas Jackson and Pierre Beauregard, amongst many others, the chance to see what fighting was all about. It was experience against charismatic Mexican General Santa Anna's numerically superior forces that would stand all these men (and a host of others) in such good stead during the malestorm of the Civil War, little more than a decade late.

Shaara focuses mostly on Scott, the grizzled old veteran, commander of the army, who has a group of subordinate generals - Worth, Pillow, Twiggs - seeking to undercut him at any opportunity to ensure they have their slice of any 'glory' from the war. The Americans are on the long march to Mexico City, knowing that taking the Mexican capital will end the war.

Scott takes a shine to an engineer on staff, a mere captain, but one whom the commanding general believes is destined for big things. His name? Robert E. Lee. Of course, Lee will gain notoriety as commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, but here he is a somewhat inexperienced engineer whose abilities becoming increasingly clearer to Scott as battles are turned in favour of the American army, thanks to Lee's scouting, sometimes in the face of some danger.

Where Shaara excels  in Gone for Soldiers is the great passages where Lee meets men who will later play a big part in his life and in his defence of the Confederacy. He meets an awkward Thomas Jackson, a man who seems more interested in his guns than in talking with senior offices, and there's an equally-awkward moment between Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The two men will end the Civil War in April 1865 when Lee surrenders to Grant's Union Army at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

Then, there is Shaara's incredible ability to make battle scenes burst off the pages. He puts you right in the middle of the action, amidst the cannon fire and musket volleys, as the American army draw closer and closer to Mexico City, and to ending the war. The chapters featuring Santa Anna are brilliant, too. His paranoia and charisma are equally on show. According to the general, he never really lost a battle. His losses were always sustained because of traitors and liars. Shaara brings his personality to life perfectly.

A great prequel to the Shaara Civil War Trilogy, begun by the late Michael Shaara with The Killer Angels, and book-ended on either side by Jeff, with Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure.