Gone for Soldiers was published by Ballantine Books in 1999. After completing the Civil War trilogy, Shaara stepped backward in time to the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 — specifically Winfield Scott’s audacious 1847 campaign from the coast at Veracruz to the heart of Mexico City, one of the most remarkable military campaigns in American history.
The novel’s primary perspectives are General Winfield Scott (the commanding officer, brilliant but vain), Captain Robert E. Lee (the young engineer whose reconnaissance and road-building made the campaign possible), and Lieutenant Sam Grant (the future Ulysses S. Grant, a quartermaster who repeatedly found himself in combat and distinguished himself under fire). Through these three men, Shaara shows how the Mexican War functioned as a proving ground for the officers who would fight on both sides of the Civil War fifteen years later.
The campaign itself was extraordinary: Scott landed at Veracruz with fewer than 12,000 men and marched inland against a Mexican army that outnumbered him at every engagement. His success depended on Lee’s engineering genius — finding paths through supposedly impassable terrain — and on the courage of junior officers who would later become the war’s great commanders. The book captures this quality of men discovering their own capabilities, finding out who they are under fire, and forming the bonds and rivalries that would shape a generation.
Collecting Gone for Soldiers
First edition (Ballantine Books, New York, 1999): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $8–$20
- Signed first edition: $25–$60