
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
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Narrated by:
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Fred Sanders
About this listen
From the bestselling author of The Indispensables, the unknown and dramatic story of irregular guerrilla warfare that altered the course of the Civil War and inspired the origins of America’s modern special operations forces.
The Civil War is most remembered for the grand battles that have come to define it: Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, among others. However, as bestselling author Patrick K. O’Donnell reveals in The Unvanquished, a vital shadow war raged amid and away from the major battlefields that was in many ways equally consequential to the conflict’s outcome.
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.
An expert on special operations, O’Donnell transports listeners into the action, immersing them in vivid battle scenes from previously unpublished firsthand accounts. He introduces indelible characters such as Scout Archibald Rowand; Scout leader Richard Blazer; Mosby, the master of guerrilla warfare; and enslaved spy Thomas Laws. O’Donnell also brings to light the Confederate Secret Service’s covert efforts to deliver the 1864 election to Peace Democrats through ballot fraud, election interference, and attempts to destabilize a population fatigued by a seemingly forever war. Most audaciously, the Secret Service and Mosby’s Rangers planned to kidnap Abraham Lincoln in order to maintain the South’s independence.
A little-known chronicle of the shadow war between North and South, rich in action and offering original perspective on history, The Unvanquished is a dynamic and essential addition to the literature of the Civil War.
©2024 Patrick K. O'Donnell (P)2024 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern listeners were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous—or infamous—moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James. The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends.
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Like History? You will thoroughly enjoy this book!
- By JRC on 04-26-24
By: Chris Wimmer
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Beyond Valor
- World War II's Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Previous books have promised to describe the combat experience of the World War II GI, but there has never been a book like Patrick O'Donnell's Beyond Valor. Here is the first combat history of the war in Europe in the words of the men themselves, and perhaps the most honest and brutal account of combat possible.
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Can't get enough.
- By C,L, Richey on 01-08-12
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They Dared Return
- The True Story of Jewish Spies Behind the Lines in Nazi Germany
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Ken Kliban
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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At the height of World War II, with the Third Reich's final solution in full operation, a small group of Jews who had barely escaped the Nazis did the unthinkable: They went back. Spies now, these men took on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. They Dared Return is their story - a tale of adventure, espionage, love, and revenge.
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Excellent book
- By Alon Deutsch on 07-01-17
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The Unknowns
- The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliantly researched and vividly told, The Unknowns is a timeless tale of heeding the calls of duty and brotherhood and humanizes the most consequential event of the 20th century, which still casts a shadow a century later. Celebrated military historian and best-selling author Patrick O'Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and recreates the moving ceremony during which it was consecrated.
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The Unknowns
- By Logophile on 05-09-19
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The Brenner Assignment
- The Untold Story of the Most Daring Spy Mission of World War II
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Like a scene from Where Eagles Dare, a small team of American spies parachutes into Italy behind enemy lines. Their orders: link up with local partisans and sabotage the well-guarded Brenner Pass - the Nazis' crucial supply route through the Alps - thereby bringing the German war effort in Italy to a grinding halt.
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Incredible!
- By Anton J. Anderson on 02-15-25
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The American Civil War
- A Military History
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name.
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A Novel Approach (As Opposed to Novelistic)
- By margot on 11-18-12
By: John Keegan
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The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby
- By: Colonel John S. Mosby, Charles Wells Russell - editor
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In the American Civil War, or the War between the States, three dashing cavalry leaders - Stuart, Forrest, and Mosby - so captured the public imagination that their exploits took on a glamour, which we associate - as did the writers of the time - with the deeds of the Waverley characters and the heroes of chivalry. Of the three leaders, Colonel John S. Mosby (1833 - 1916), was, perhaps, the most romantic figure. In the South, his dashing exploits made him one of the great heroes of the "Lost Cause". In the North, he was painted as the blackest of redoubtable scoundrels.
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Remarkable Personality
- By peter on 05-24-18
By: Colonel John S. Mosby, and others
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The Second Manassas Campaign
- By: Caroline E. Janney - editor, Kathryn J. Shively - editor
- Narrated by: April Doty
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Waged from June 26 to September 1, 1862, the Second Manassas campaign pitted the US Armies of Virginia and the Potomac against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and its new commander, Robert E. Lee. The campaign unfolded against a backdrop of momentous US political decisions regarding confiscation, emancipation, and Confederate civilians. These decisions dismayed and energized Confederates, sparking the debut of Lee's offensive strategy. Weeks of strategic movements were punctuated by savage fighting that culminated in a climactic battle on August 28-30.
By: Caroline E. Janney - editor, and others
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This Fierce People
- The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
- By: Alan Pell Crawford
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking, important recovery of history; the overlooked story—fully explored—of the critical aspect of America’s Revolutionary War that was fought in the South, showing that the British surrender at Yorktown was the direct result of the southern campaign, and that the battles that emerged south of the Mason-Dixon line between loyalists to the Crown and patriots who fought for independence were, in fact, America’s first civil war.
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Ghastly
- By Wayne on 09-09-24
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Lincoln's Lieutenants
- The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 32 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
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Good, but not what I thought
- By Paul S. on 08-10-17
By: Stephen W. Sears
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On Great Fields
- The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
- By: Ronald C. White
- Narrated by: Ronald C. White
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. His colleagues were shocked when he volunteered for the Union army, but he was undeterred and later became known as one of the North’s greatest heroes: On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers.
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Unknown facts on a Maine and Civil War hero. Very well written
- By Uncle Techy on 04-20-24
By: Ronald C. White
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First SEALs
- The Untold Story of the Forging of America's Most Elite Unit
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1942, an extraordinary group of men - among them a dentist, a medical student, a Hollywood star, an archaeologist, a British commando, and even former enemies of the Allies - formed an exceptional unit that would later become the US Navy's Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams.
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This story had NOTHING to do with SEALs!
- By Michael "Benny" Benedict on 04-17-21
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The Unvanquished
- By: William Faulkner
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Unvanquished focuses on the Sartoris family, who, with their code of personal responsibility and courage, stand for the best of the Old South's traditions.
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Humorous and poignant
- By Doug on 02-17-11
By: William Faulkner
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A Brutal Reckoning
- Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South
- By: Peter Cozzens
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history, leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S. soil. A conflict involving not only white Americans and Native Americans, but also the British and the Spanish, the Creek War opened the Deep South to the Cotton Kingdom, setting the stage for the American Civil War yet to come. No other single Indian conflict had such significant impact on the fate of America—and A Brutal Reckoning is the definitive book on this forgotten chapter in our history.
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Non-political history
- By Ryan S. on 02-09-25
By: Peter Cozzens
What listeners say about The Unvanquished
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- Bill Dudley
- 05-25-24
Excellent.
Best Civil War book I have read in years. Well done and researched. Non judgmental solid history.
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- Jonathan R. Jones
- 09-01-24
A little known gem
Having read every single one of the major works on the Civil War and some more obscure ones I was a little hesitant when a family member bought me this book… The first few pages I was thoroughly engrossed in the story of the Jesse scouts and Mosby. Learning things I never had in 20 years of reading Civil Warbooks… Cannot recommend this book enough. Usually, I say give a book 100 pages and if you don’t like it, put it down, but I tell you this one give it ten, you’ll read the rest.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jihad
- 11-06-24
Time travel
This was an amazing book I felt I went back in time. Can’t wait to visit many of the historical sites in Virginia.
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- Brent D. Brumagin
- 01-03-25
The Unvanquished — great book!
The book has extensive coverage of the Federal Jesse Scouts, Blazer Scouts, and other organizations that represented some of the first special warfare operators in the US military. The author has written several new pieces of information about American history at its greatest. Best book of 2024. It will not disappoint.
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- O. G. Ramos
- 07-29-24
Gray Ghost
Being a former Marine, I enjoy military books and its history. But, I was never into the civil war. Until I read the title of this book and decided to listen to it. I was blown away by its content. I had no idea how bloody it was. How cunning the rangers were. Never knew about the Confederate secret service. Initially I thought 12 hrs was too long. Towards the end, I wanted more. Excellent book!
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- Anonymous User
- 06-14-24
The research to bring history alive.
I was not aware of the importance these men played in our country’s civil war history. Well research and explained in this book. A must read.
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- Dana
- 11-28-24
the unique individual stories of the scouts
narration was a bit monotone, the stories of the individuals were dramatic and compelling
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-15-24
Very well researched.
This one really gets into the weeds. It’s not survey course. There is no skirmish too small to note here. Sometimes it’s get a little hard to follow because so many small stories come and go. The reader is a little monotone so any tense situations come off the same as a story about a journey down a road.
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- Noah Miller
- 01-04-25
good but could have been better
unfortunately the narration was about the worst I have ever heard. it almost sounds like it was red by artificial intelligence or a robot the narrator's timing almost made me quit listening to it on several occasions
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- Louis Knox
- 06-04-24
Solid history that is often wrapped in suspense.
I really enjoyed this audiobook. Being a lifelong history nerd it covered material that I hadn’t encountered before concerning Mosby and Jesse’s Scouts. Not my first book of Patrick O’Donnell and it won’t be my last. Bravo!
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