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

By Patrick K. O'Donnell

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special operations, O’Donnell transports readers into the action, immersing them in vivid battle scenes from previously unpublished firsthand accounts.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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Release date: May 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9780802162878

Book preview

Cover: 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 by Patrick K. O’Donnell

Also by Patrick K. O’Donnell

The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington across the Delaware

The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Solider and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home

Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution

First SEALs: The Untold Story of the Forging of America’s Most Elite Unit

Dog Company: The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc—the Rangers Who Landed at D-Day and Fought across Europe

Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War’s Greatest Untold Story—the Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company

They Dared Return: The True Story of Jewish Spies behind the Line in Nazi Germany

The Brenner Assignment: The Untold Story of the Daring Spy Mission of World War II

We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah

Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of World War II’s OSS

Into the Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II’s Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat

Beyond Valor: World War II’s Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat

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

Patrick K. O’Donnell

Atlantic Monthly Press

New York

Copyright © 2024 by Patrick K. O’Donnell

Jacket design by Becca Fox Design

Jacket image of Sgt. Joseph Frith, courtesy of Art Frith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [e-mail].

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FIRST EDITION

Published simultaneously in Canada

First Grove Atlantic edition: May 2024

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.

ISBN 978-0-8021-6286-1

eISBN 978-0-8021-6287-8

Atlantic Monthly Press

an imprint of Grove Atlantic

154 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Distributed by Publishers Group West

groveatlantic.com

To Union Jessie Scouts Sergeant Joseph Frith, Major Henry Young, and all of America’s Shadow Warriors who gave the last full measure of their devotion to the United States and have never been brought home.

CONTENTS

Preface

Prologue

Part I: The Jessie Scouts and Mosby’s Rangers

Virginia and West Virginia, 1862–1863

1. The Jessie Scouts

2. Three Winters and the Rise of the Irregulars

3. I Am Mosby

4. Miskel Farm

5. The Grapewood Farm Engagement

6. Back in the Saddle

7. The Legion of Honor: Blazer’s Scouts

8. Deliverance: The Thurmonds

9. Lewis Powell

10. Lurk like Wild Creatures in the Darkness

11. The Salem Raid: Life in One Hand and Seeming Dishonor in the Other

12. Crimson Snow

1864

13. Riverboat Gamblers and General Crook

14. Kill Jefferson Davis and Burn Richmond: The Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid

Part II: The Confederate Secret Service

15. The Department of Dirty Tricks

16. Canada, the Confederate Secret Service, Election Interference, and the Northwest Conspiracy

17. U. S. Grant

18. The Scout toward Aldie

19. The Dublin Raid

The Shenandoah Valley

20. Into the Valley: Staunton and Lexington

21. Shadow War Canada: Influencing the Democracy

22. To Threaten Washington

23. Mosby’s Calico Raid and Showdown at Mount Zion Church

24. I Don’t Think Many People, North or South, Realize How Close Washington Came to Falling

25. The High-Water Mark: Chambersburg Burns

26. Moorefield

27. An Embedded Combat Artist, General Sheridan, and Mosby’s Great Berryville Wagon Raid

Part III: Sheridan’s Scouts and Come Retribution

28. I Have 100 Men Who Will Take the Contract to Clean Out Mosby’s Gang

29. The Most Important Election in American History

30. Takedown at Myer’s Ford

31. Sheridan’s Scouts: The Tide Turns

32. Ranger Lewis Powell

33. Early Strikes Back: Cedar Creek

34. The Greenback Raid

35. Artist and Retribution

36. Doppelgangers

37. John Wilkes Booth and Special Operations That Would Make the World Shudder

38. Blazer Strikes Again: Battle in the Vineyard

39. Shootout at Kabletown

40. The Road South and Rising from the Ashes

41. Henry Harrison Young: A Man Born for War

42. The Devil Takes Care of His Own

43. A Changed Man

1865

44. Young’s Scouts and the Journey

45. To Catch a Partisan Chief

46. Sheridan’s War

47. The Plot to Kidnap President Lincoln

48. Five Forks

49. The Road to Appomattox

50. Those Infernal Machines: Aimed at the White House

51. Powell’s Mission

52. The Last Call of Mosby’s Rangers

53. The Last Scout: Mexico

Epilogue

Dramatis Personae

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

PREFACE

[America needs] guerrilla bands of bold and daring men organized … to sow the dragon’s teeth … [behind the lines] … men calculatingly reckless with disciplined daring, who were trained for aggressive action … it will mean a return to our old tradition of the Scouts, the Raiders, and the Rangers.¹ In the midst of a raging World War, Colonel Wild Bill Donovan warned President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States’ dire need for special operations forces and introduced his bold plans to draw inspiration from irregular or unconventional Civil War units to forge those forces.

During the fall of 1941, Germany appeared on the verge of winning World War II. Enemy special operations played a crucial role in the conquering Axis tide. Of the major powers of World War II, America was the furthest behind, lacking special operations forces entirely. With America on the brink of war, Donovan desperately prepared his organization for the conflict. The brilliant and daring, yet soft-spoken, visionary took risks and embodied the spirit of the new organization he led: the Office of the Coordinator of Information. Within a year, it would emerge as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).²

Facing an existential threat, Donovan understood the urgency of creating these units expeditiously. From the three-story granite building atop Navy Hill in Southwest Washington, DC, Donovan would gather his senior staff in his office, Room 109. Donovan despised red tape and bureaucracy, and his door was open to members of any rank or station for innovative suggestions. The flat and nimble organization was an idea factory that teemed with extraordinary Americans from all walks of life, including President Roosevelt’s son Jimmy.³

The hands-on World War I Medal of Honor recipient’s mind whirled with ideas—most brilliant, some fantastical. Crumpled notebook paper often littered Room 109, the nerve center of the former trial lawyer’s organization, as Donovan’s operatives sifted through ideas for the agency. In a race against time, American amateurs were up against German professionals. William J. Donovan knew America must play a bush-league game, stealing the ball and killing the umpire.⁴ Likely Donovan’s idea, the OSS would mine America’s rich history of irregular warfare and would draw inspiration from the Civil War. For months, Donovan had been fighting an uphill battle against America’s aversion to shadow warfare and ossified bureaucrats who believed elite units bled away manpower from conventional forces. In the fall of 1941, the OSS forged the Special Activities Branch.⁵ OSS commandos and frogmen operating behind the lines during World War II are the stuff of legend. Their derring-do was decades ahead of their time, much like today’s special operations forces, and OSS utilized and enhanced important tenets developed by their Civil War predecessors. Many tactics and principles remain the same to this day. What is old is new. They extensively researched the actions of the Jessie Scouts, Rangers, and Confederate Secret Service during the Civil War.

PROLOGUE

I have spent much of my life researching and dissecting America’s elite special operations units—capturing thousands of their oral histories, unearthing their stories in the archives, attending their reunions, and walking their battlefields. Many OSS veterans mentioned the OSS connection to the Civil War. All thirteen books I have written focus on American elite and special operations units. Four books focus on the OSS, and I am a director and historian of the OSS Society. These extraordinary individuals were my friends. My daughter called many of these exceptional Americans Uncle. Every day, I wear Uncle Frank Monteleone’s wartime scapula. He wore the same scapula as super spy Moe Berg’s radio operator when the two OSS men hunted for Nazi nuclear technology behind the lines. Frank gifted the priceless artifact to me weeks before I left for Iraq and the Battle of Fallujah. He fatefully told me, Where you are going, you will need this now.

Two lonely roadside signs stand today along winding Virginia country byways. One marks the site of a hanging tree where Union Jessie Scout Jack Sterry spoke his last words. Through his cunning, he tried to lead the Confederate Army down the wrong road, away from where it was crucially needed. The other placard, pitted with flaked silver paint, memorializes where John Singleton Mosby’s Rangers deployed a mountain howitzer to destroy a Federal supply train on May 30, 1863. During that action, a shell from the artillery piece pierced the train’s boiler, causing a massive explosion of steam and metal. At Grapewood Farm, the Confederates made a desperate stand with the howitzer that nearly killed their leader and some of his finest Rangers. I serendipitously stumbled upon the placards, inspiring me to ask questions and make connections. Another book found me. Both markers proved to be portals into this epic untold story about the same units the OSS analyzed to forge American special operations in World War II.

Kabletown, West Virginia, November 18, 1864

Lead balls whizzed past the Jessie Scout’s head as he made the ride of his life. Confederate riders bore down on Private Henry Pancake, firing volleys from their pistols and barely missing the Federal Scout. Glancing back to his rear, the Union rider watched another group of Mosby’s Rangers murder a wounded Union officer. I had to beat them in that horse race or die, and as there were forty horses on the track after me it looked every minute like dying.¹ The Jessie Scout knew that if he were captured, he would be executed as a spy for wearing the Confederate uniform in disguise. The swarm of Mosby’s Rangers edged closer. As Pancake sped west toward the tiny hamlet of Rippon, he recognized a rider in Union blue, his captain, Richard Blazer.

Digging his spurs into his horse, he galloped toward the officer.

Where’s the boys? Blazer stammered.

All I know is just one behind, and I guess they’ve got him by this time,² yelled Pancake.

Another storm of lead flew by. The Rangers closed within thirty yards, their revolvers peppering away at the two. From the throng of Confederates, four men broke out to pursue Blazer and Pancake. They were the best soldiers in Mosby’s command:³ Sam Alexander, Syd Ferguson, Cab Maddux, and Lewis Terrible Powell. Riding one of the fastest and fleetest and hardiest animals in the battalion, Ferguson gained on Blazer and Pancake. I am going to get out of this,⁴ muttered Pancake as he spurred his horse and bolted forward.

The hunters had become the hunted—one of the countless engagements involving irregulars in a largely unknown shadow war that raged behind the scenes of the great battles of the Civil War.

---

The Civil War irregulars on both sides who raided trains, sabotaged supply lines, captured generals, and gathered critical intelligence were the most eclectic, motley crew imaginable. Patriots and traitors, soldiers of fortune, rascals, heroes, and visionaries, they innovated and expanded on a unique form of American warfare.

On the Union side, the Jessie Scouts, and another little-known Federal group, Richard Blazer’s Independent Scouts, disguised themselves as Confederates to gather intelligence and perform hazardous, special missions behind enemy lines. For their valor, they earned seven⁵ Medals of Honor, including one awarded to a former Confederate who switched sides to fight for the North. Many would not survive the conflict to receive recognition or medals, and as a result, their story has been overlooked.

The two groups of Federal Scouts borrowed tradecraft from each other, worked together, and eventually moved closer until they merged. Through their irregular tactics, they changed the course of the war. They were also, arguably, the US Army’s first modern* special operators and counterinsurgency forces. The Unvanquished follows this core group of Union Scouts throughout the war; they underwent various name changes but are referred to here by their original title: Jessie Scouts.

The Scouts sought to counter many of the South’s most dangerous men, including Mosby’s Rangers. Led by John Singleton Mosby, with just hundreds of disciplined men, they tied down tens of thousands of Federal troops, cut Union supply lines, captured generals, and pioneered a form of warfare that, had the South adopted it on a larger scale, would have prolonged the Civil War and perhaps resulted in a different outcome. Meeting like rivals in a Western, the groups engaged in encounters that escalated into fights to the death on horseback.

This book intertwines the Union and Confederate stories, telling both in their entirety for the first time, emphasizing the Jessie Scouts. Their story is the narrative through line that connects the groups. This narrative uncovers a much larger story, which touches on many inflection points of the Civil War and provides a new perspective on the conflict. In the latter portion of the war, the South leaned on irregular forces, led by the Confederate Secret Service, to extend its survival and change the course of the war. In bold, novel operations, they employed political warfare to influence a population and the presidential election of 1864 in the hope of securing the South’s independence. Southern operatives attempted to execute massive jailbreaks to free prisoners of war and assassination. Initially gatherers of crucial tactical intelligence that led to the severing of Southern railways, the North’s Scouts later deployed to combat irregulars and Mosby’s Rangers. In a previously untold story, these commandos played a vital role in winning key battles that directly influenced the election, and, later, the intelligence they gathered led to the defeat of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Jessie Scouts also helped foil the South’s more extensive plans for guerrilla warfare. Ultimately, they roved beyond the southern border to conduct one of America’s first proxy wars, with a major European power in Mexico bristling with tens of thousands of troops.

Despite the Jessie Scouts’, Rangers’, and Confederate Secret Services’ different backgrounds and points of view, they had one thing in common: they all started from scratch, creating tactics and organizations, often on the fly, that laid the basic framework for modern American special operations and unconventional warfare.⁶

The book’s narrative, told by those at the tip of the spear, thrusts the reader into the boots of the participants. Ingrained with true grit, these visionaries and pioneers were often in the right place at the right time, and their individual and collective actions changed history. Events and actions affected by the Jessie Scouts that occurred nearly 160 years ago, often at tremendous personal cost, secured Americans’ freedom. Their legacy remains imbued in the fabric of today’s modern operators.

* The Civil War is arguably the first modern war in the industrial age, and these Jessie Scouts, Rangers, and Confederate Secret Service operatives were born in that cauldron. America has a long history of unconventional warfare from before the American Revolutionary War up to the Civil War, but this book links the origins of modern special operations to this Civil War period. The scope of The Unvanquished is to unearth and tell the stories of the Civil War units the OSS examined for inspiration during World War II when they formed special operations units in the various branches of the organization. What the OSS did to forge these specialized units in 1941 and throughout the war is a complex story, as are the decades after the war that led to the enhancement of modern American special operations. This period of development is a separate story that demands its own book.

I

THE JESSIE SCOUTS AND MOSBY’S RANGERS

VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA, 1862–1863

1. THE JESSIE SCOUTS

This way, General Hood, said the Confederate guide as he gracefully saluted and pointed northward. Mounted and clad in the butternut of a cavalry trooper, the guide sat astride the fork in the road at the tiny hamlet of The Plains, Virginia.

General John Bell Hood halted his column and closely questioned the guide, feeling certain that he was in error. And yet it would seem that the guide must be right. He was intelligent, confident, definite, certain of his instructions, and prompt and clear in his replies.

That morning, August 28, 1862, at 10 a.m., Hood’s Confederate troops marched up the road toward Thoroughfare Gap to Manassas. As the Second Battle of Bull Run raged, Hood needed to reinforce General Stonewall Jackson immediately or Jackson’s troops might be overwhelmed by the Federals. The situation was critical; no exigency of war could be more so. It was not merely the issue of a battle, but the fate of a campaign that hung in the balance,¹ recalled John Cussons, head of General Hood’s scouts, who was present at that moment.

The guide convincingly urged Hood to take the road north away from the battlefield, where he claimed General Jackson was retreating.

Did General Jackson himself give you these instructions? asked Hood.

Yes, General.

Stonewall Jackson’s trains, General. He is pushing them toward Aldie, where I supposed you would join him, responded the guide.

I have heard nothing of all this! exclaimed an astounded Hood.

Then I’ll tell you what it is, General Hood; those devilish Jessie Scouts are at it again!—cutting off Stuart’s couriers! Jackson has heard nothing from Longstreet since yesterday morning, and he’s afraid you’ll follow the old order and try to join him by Thoroughfare Gap.

How did you learn all these things? asked General Hood, and there was a note of severity in his voice. The guide furnished Hood with a somewhat plausible answer, but Hood grew suspicious.

Who and what are you? demanded General Hood. As Cussons recalled, the general was perplexed and anxious, yet scarcely suspicious of treachery—the guide was so bland and free and unconstrained.

I am Frank Lamar, of Athens, Georgia, enrolled with the cavalry of Hampton’s Legion, but now detailed on courier service at the headquarters of Stonewall Jackson.

Where’s your saber?

I captured a handsome pistol from a Yankee officer at Port Republic and have discarded my saber.

Let me see your pistol.

The weapon was a fine, silver-mounted Colt revolver with one chamber empty.

When did you fire that shot?

Yesterday morning, General Hood, I shot at a turkey buzzard sitting on the fence.

Hood handed the pistol to Captain Cussons, who scrutinized it and determined the weapon had been recently fired. According to Cussons’ recollection, The guide interposed, saying that he had reloaded after yesterday’s practice, and had fired the shot in question at another buzzard just before the column came in sight, but that he didn’t suppose General Hood would be interested in such a matter. Cussons observed, The guide was mistaken. General Hood was decidedly interested in the matter.

The Hampton Legion marched with Hood, and a message went down the line requesting that the colonel commanding the legion immediately report to the crossroads. With that order, the guide suddenly remembered that he had never really belonged to Hampton’s Legion; that the story grew out of a little romance of his and had grown out of a love affair. In the Shenandoah Valley, he explained, there was a beautiful maiden who had caught his fancy, but the girl was romantic and did not care for plodding foot-soldiers. All her dreams were of knights and heroes and cavaliers on prancing steeds, so he had deserted from the infantry and captured a horse, and his real name was Harry Brooks.

Search that man! exclaimed General Hood, impatiently; for the general was baffled and still uncertain. As Cussons noted, All his life had been passed in active service, yet this was a new experience to him.

The next discovery raised eyebrows. In the lining of the man’s vest was found the insignia of a Confederate captain—three gold bars.

What is the meaning of that? asked General Hood, sternly.

Really, General Hood, he said, you ask me such embarrassing questions. But I will tell you. It was just this way. Our girls, God bless them, are as devoted and as patriotic as can be, but you couldn’t imagine the difference they make between a commissioned officer and a private soldier. In short, I soon saw it was all up with Harry unless he could get a promotion.

With panache and confidence, the guide smoothly answered Hood that Southern women were starstruck over officers instead of lowly grunts. He put forth an air of boyish diffidence and a touch of reproach in [his] reply. Its demure humor was half playful, yet modest and natural, and its effect on the spectators was mainly ingratiating, remembered Cussons. General Hood missed all of this. He was standing apart, talking earnestly with two of his commanders, Colonel Wofford and Colonel J. B. Robertson.… General Hood felt the responsibility of his position, felt it keenly, painfully.… Communicative as the guide was, the general could not read him. He might be an honest youth whose callow loquacity sprung from no worse a source than that of inexperience and undisciplined zeal, or he might be one of the most daring and dangerous spies that ever hid supernal subtlety beneath the mask of guilelessness.

Cussons recalled, "Meantime, the precious moments were slipping by!—fateful moments!—moments on which hung the tide of war; the fate of a great campaign; the doom perhaps of a newborn nation.

And there at the parting of the ways sat our boyish guide—frank, communicative, well-informed—leaning on the pommel of his saddle, with the negligent grace of youth and replying with perfect good humor to all our questioning.

As soon as Hood felt suspicious of the guide’s story, he sent out men to verify his statements. Reconnaissance was made down each road, all of which were infested with Yankee cavalry. But, as Cussons observed, priceless moments were thus lost, and altho’ we felt that Stonewall must be sore beset, yet we could not guess which road would take us to his battle or lead us away from it.

Meantime diligent questioning went on by staff officers and couriers, the benefit of every doubt being freely accorded, for many of us believed, almost to the last, that the guide was a true man. As the men continued to interrogate him, Hood’s soldiers brought a mortally wounded Confederate scout they had found left for dead and hidden in the bushes. With his dying words, the scout conveyed that he had been shot by one of our own men! and his dispatches stolen. All eyes immediately turned to the guide. Unshaken, he boldly declared:

Stop! I have three more words for you. I am neither Frank Lamar, of Georgia nor Harry Brooks, of Virginia. I am Jack Sterry, of the Jessie Scouts. I did not kill that rebel, but I was with those who did. His dispatches by this time are safe enough! I should like my friends to know that I palavered with your army for a good half hour while General Pope was battering down your precious old Stonewall. Now men, I am ready!—and in parting, I will simply ask you to say, if you should ever speak of this, that Jack Sterry, when the rebels got him, died as a Jessie Scout should!

A handful of men selected a large tree* and hurled a rope over a heavy limb, then snuggly affixed a noose around Sterry’s neck as he remained mounted on his horse. General Hood gave the order for the men to march.

The writhing figure swung for a little while in the soft morning air, and was still, and there had gone forth to God who gave it as dauntless a spirit as ever throbbed in mortal clay, recalled Cussons.

---

Jack Sterry sat astride the crossroads of history; at the right time and right place, he tried to shape the course of events by his actions. Sterry was part of an extraordinary group of men. Often referred to as Jessie Scouts, they were named after the wife of Major General John Charles Frémont, an explorer and a politician who was a US Senator from California and the first presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1856. At the start of the Civil War, Frémont was a general officer in command of the Department of the West. Known as the Pathfinder for his pioneering missions that explored and mapped the West while fending off hostile Native Americans, Frémont organized the specialized group of operators at the beginning of the war in St. Louis and employed them in Missouri, which was embroiled in guerrilla fighting.

His wife, Jessie Ann Benton Frémont, was the daughter of a US senator. The flaxen-haired beauty grew up at her father’s side, rubbing elbows with politicians and sharing his political views, including becoming an outspoken advocate against slavery. Brilliant, powerful, charismatic, and a tremendous advocate for her husband, one admiring journalist of the time dubbed Jessie not only a historic woman but the greatest woman in America. In many circles, it was known Jessie was the better man of the two. Reportedly, she first advised her husband’s Scouts to wear their enemies’ uniforms. Jessie, who had been with her husband until lately, frequently saw these men and became very popular with them. Hence their present attachment to her. They swear by her and wear her initials on their coats, inserted in a very modest but coarse style.² In addition to embroidering her initials, they also adopted Jessie as their namesake.

When John Charles Frémont moved east in the spring of 1862 to take command of the Mountain Department, located in southwest Virginia and what would become West Virginia, he brought men who understood rugged terrain and an enemy skilled in guerrilla fighting. The taming of the American West and conflict with Native Americans, including the adaptation of some of their fighting tactics, would have a profound impact on the foundations of American special operations and unconventional warfare. One contemporary stated that the Pathfinder proceeded to follow his notion derived from experience in the Western frontier. He knew that the safety and efficiency of his army in a wild, wooded, and rugged region depended on the accuracy with which he received information of the plans and movements of the enemy. He at once called around him a set of Western frontiersmen, who had served all through the campaign in Missouri. Some had been in the border wars of Kansas; some served long years on the Plains, hunting the buffalo and the Indian; men accustomed to every form of hardship, thoroughly skilled, not only in the use of the rifle, but drilled in all cunning ways and devices to discover the intentions, position, and strength of a foe. The best of these men were selected and placed in a small organization called the Jessie Scouts.³

One of the Jessie Scouts’ mentors, and an original member, was Old Clayton, who had come with General Frémont from the West. Old Clayton developed his survival skills while exploring the American West with Frémont and contending with hostile Native Americans. As chief scout and trainer of raw recruits, he conceived a great fancy for ‘the boys’ and gave them a deal of advice and instruction.⁴

Commonly known in camp as Clarence Clayton, but also Chatfield Hardaway, Old Clayton could not only give advice to colleagues but also serve up tactical acumen to their opponents. One such incident occurred in the fall of 1862. When scouting in a Confederate uniform in advance of a large Union cavalry force, he saw a lighted house on the side of the road. When he approached the dwelling, a Confederate picket challenged him. Clayton coolly responded that he was a friend.

When Clayton bantered with the picket, the soldier revealed he was with a Confederate cavalry unit. Suddenly, nine men, including a Rebel officer, darted out of the house onto their saddles and confronted Clayton with their cocked revolvers. The Confederate officer demanded to know his identity. The wily scout informed the Confederate officer that he was a scout of Captain Duval’s Confederate Cavalry,⁵ and they were riding to reinforce a certain Confederate cavalry colonel. The Jessie Scout was told that the very officer he was going to reinforce was standing before him.

Captain Duval will be overjoyed to meet [you], Clayton convincingly responded.

According to a contemporary account, At that moment the cavalry came down the road, and while the Colonel and his men were covering the scout, Clayton called for the captain to come over and calmly introduced him to the Confederate colonel. The Union captain and his men surrounded the Southerners and very coolly asked them for their arms. Old Clayton then apologized for practicing the ruse to save his life. The Rebel colonel reportedly then asked for a knothole to crawl into, remarking that he had been sold too cheap.⁶

Members of the US Army, civilians, and later even a turncoat former Confederate cavalry trooper,⁷ the Scouts morphed into the enemy, taking on their uniforms, accents, and mannerisms: He seems a Tennessean, a Georgian, an Irishman, a German—anything indeed but what he really is, recalled one contemporary.⁸ To pass off as Confederates, the Jessie Scouts developed false backgrounds for men they impersonated and learned convincing cover stories to pass themselves off as the enemy. They began wearing white scarves knotted around their necks in a particular way in order to identify each other behind the lines. Jessie Scouts also developed a stilted coded conversation to identify friend from foe.

SCOUT ONE: Good morning.

SCOUT TWO: These are perilous times.

SCOUT ONE: Yes, but we are looking for better.

SCOUT TWO: To what shall we look?

SCOUT ONE: To the red and white cord.⁹

They developed the exchange deliberately so that it could not be guessed.

By the summer of 1862, the group numbered roughly two dozen men, including three Scouts recently captured and executed by Confederate troops. Considered spies for wearing the enemy’s uniform, they faced death if they fell into enemy hands.¹⁰

Their first commander, Captain Charles Carpenter, was initially a fitting leader for this handpicked group: He was by no means a figure to be passed by. Fancy a poacher who is half brigand and wholly daredevil, and you catch a glimpse of his air. His high-topped velvet boots are drawn up over his wide velvet trousers. No vest is worn, and the expanse of a broad chest affords a fine field for the once snowy shirt-bosom of Parisian pretensions and fine material.¹¹ Dark haired, blue eyed, five feet six, and sinewy and ready for a fight, fun, or frolic, [Carpenter] mingled his dash and boldness with remarkable prudence and caution. Armed with a Colt and a breechloading rifle for distance shooting, Carpenter bragged he was a crack shot at more than a quarter of a mile.¹² Trappings and appearance aside, at his core, Carpenter ardently hated slavery and told one reporter a tall tale that he was a member of John Brown’s party that attacked the Harpers Ferry arsenal in 1859 by crawling through a long culvert, or covered drain, which led from the famous engine-house to the river. The Captain does not love the slave lords,¹³ the journalist wrote after interviewing Carpenter.

When not adorned in velvet and gold chains, daredevil and glory-hound Carpenter had sneaked into Confederate Fort Donelson† in Tennessee in early February 1862 wearing a Confederate uniform, masquerading as an enemy officer: I went into Fort Henry two days before the attack on it and brought General Grant an accurate account of the position and number of the Rebel forces and defenses, he later recalled to a journalist. I have General Grant’s letter certifying to that. Also, I went into Fort Donelson, while our troops lay at Fort Henry. I went in there in Confederate uniform; and I have General McClernand’s letter to show that I brought him information that proved to be accurate. On my way out a cavalry force passed me, while I lay by the roadside; and its commander told one of his men to leave a fine flag, which he feared would be torn on the way. The flag‡ was stuck into the road, that a returning rebel picket might carry it in. But I got it, wrapped it around my body, and rode into Fort Henry with it.¹⁴

Carpenter’s information gleaned while posing as a Confederate no doubt had a role in the battle for Fort Donelson waged between February 11 and 16, 1862. The capture of the fort opened the Cumberland River as a route of invasion into the South. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant forced General Simon Bolivar Buckner to accept terms of unconditional surrender, earning Grant the immortal nickname Unconditional Surrender Grant.

A master of disguise, Carpenter once wore a woman’s dress to execute a clandestine mission: Once [I] Rode down to the Rebel pickets at Wilson Creek, dressed as a woman to deliver a letter … and this trip was made because ‘the General’ wanted to know precisely the position of part of the Rebel lines. Not so lucky, other members of Carpenter’s command were sometimes captured by Union forces. One Jessie Scout was initially arrested for being an enemy spy, James Alexander, who was arrested in the uniform of a [Confederate] Captain of Cavalry, was released yesterday. Finding him to be one of the Jessie Scouts, as he reported.¹⁵

Ingenuity was a hallmark of the Scouts, who often had to perilously improvise on the job. They were selected for their aplomb, audacity, valor, and intelligence, special faculties born in some few men,¹⁶ wrote one contemporary author.

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In the fall of 1862, Company K of the 1st West Virginia Cavalry was drawn up into formation. Mostly teenagers who had nonetheless experienced the fire and test of combat, they listened to their commander, who sternly called for volunteers for extra dangerous duty.¹⁷

Seeking excitement, seventeen-year-old, dark-haired, blue-eyed Archibald Hamilton Rowand Jr., from Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, glanced at his best friend.¹⁸ They discovered they were of one mind. Nicknamed Barefoot, the strapping five-foot-nine cavalryman recalled, I looked at Ike Harris and Ike looked at me, and then we both stepped forward.¹⁹

The two young soldiers had volunteered without realizing the seriousness of their decision.

[We were] directed to exchange our blue uniforms for suits of Confederate gray taken from the prisoners.²⁰ The shock that they would be impersonating enemy scouts and operating behind Confederate lines fell full upon them. We wished we had not come.²¹ Although gifted with a powerful intellect, Rowand did not yet fully comprehend the gravity of hazardous duty. We were boys—wanted to know what was the ‘extra dangerous duty’ and when we found out hadn’t the face to back down.²² Asked after the war if men still existed who would do what he had done, he responded, Yes, if they begin as young as I began, and have no better sense.²³ Fortunately for Rowand, his youthful upbringing in South Carolina granted him a mastery of the Southern dialect that, combined with his quick wit, saved him from many close encounters. Ike Harris, his brother James, and many of Rowand’s fellow Jessie Scouts would meet death, either at the ends of Confederate ropes, like Jack Sterry, or while attempting to shoot their way out of an ambush.

Reluctant twenty-two-year-old James White was forced to join the Jessie Scouts. Having lost his mother at an early age and then his father after they moved to Lewis County, Virginia (now West Virginia), the native Rhode Island orphan apprenticed as a cabinetmaker before joining the 1st West Virginia Cavalry, where he acted as a guide and courier. A natural escape artist, White broke free from Confederate captivity behind enemy lines multiple times before and after joining the Jessie Scouts. White initially wanted no part of the motley crew and requested to return to his old unit. So notorious were they for acts of lawlessness, and so little were they acquainted with the country that [I] resolved to not become recognized with that body.²⁴ But White had immediately proved too valuable as a Scout, and he was denied permission to go back to his old cavalry unit.

Shortly after Frémont moved his unit east, Carpenter’s shadier exploits, exemplifying White’s impression of the unit, caught up with him. A contemporary newspaper called Carpenter as consummate a rogue as can be found outside any state prison in the country. A con man and a thief, he would take anything that wasn’t nailed down. Coming upon a deserted mill [in Union Missouri] and finding nothing else of value that could be stolen, [he] carried off the cylinder head of a steam engine and sold it for old iron.²⁵ He stooped so low as to promise old women and children a concert on a steamboat and, after collecting their money, disappeared with it. After being arrested by Federal authorities for one of his countless infractions, Carpenter warranted these words from a judge advocate: "I have no doubt about Carpenter being a bad man, one in whom no confidence could be placed, and a man who would do almost anything for money."²⁶ Carpenter had mixed motives, rabid antislavery blending with a desire for personal gain, and he was drummed out of the service.

In the wake of the scandals and Frémont’s refusal to serve under Major General John Pope in the newly formed Union Army of Virginia, which culminated in his eventual resignation from the US Army, the Jessie Scouts were largely disbanded. But a small remnant, including Rowand, White, and others, remained in General Robert H. Milroy’s command, and they would courageously repair the unit’s reputation. The Unvanquished follows this core group and other men who would join their ranks through the war. The term Jessie Scout would also be universally adopted by both sides to refer to Federal Scouts who wore Confederate uniforms. Despite his fall from grace, Carpenter offered an evocative description of his unit that captured its unique quality: A scout is a man who finds out how far the enemy’s pickets extend, the position and strength of the enemy, and also ascertains such general facts as may be useful in the conduct of war. There are no rules for the operations of scouts: they are generally independent and have little if any organization; they are in fact, spies. You cannot call ‘us fellows’ anything less than spies, but scout is a more respectable name. Scouts are armed, and either fight or surrender, according to the chances. I have often been asked what was the business of the scout; and the best answer I ever gave was, that it is his business to find out other men’s business.²⁷

The line between scout and spy blurred. Scouts led armies in the field, advancing far ahead of their commands to conduct reconnaissance and gain intelligence on enemy forces. In all advance movements … of the commands, I served under, the scouts were sent in advance, Rowand recalled. [We] would capture a Confederate, would ride up to a Southern citizen, man or woman, get all the information out of them, and being dressed in Confederate uniform the Southerners would naturally think we were their own men and tell us everything they knew.²⁸

One source at the time described the Scouts as men whose hearts were zeal for the Union and of hatred for the slave aristocracy and their rebellion. Such men, when they have also the activity, and presence of mind, ingenuity, and courage needed for this office, are the best that can be got.²⁹

* A historical Civil War roadside marker located in The Plains, Virginia, titled Death of a ‘Jessie Scout’ provides an epilogue to the incident: Nearly 75 years later, highway workers unearthed the remains of two soldiers, thought to be the spy and his victim when widening Route 55. I spent many days writing my books The Unknowns and The Indispensables at the Front Porch restaurant. This marker sits next to a favorite writing nook on the literal front porch of the establishment. The location where Hood’s men hanged Jack Sterry and the location of the incident are only yards away.

† I found Carpenter’s original crudely drawn map of Fort Donelson in a dusty box located in the National Archives.

‡ A portion of Carpenter’s captured flag still exists and is on display at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.

2. THREE WINTERS AND THE RISE OF THE IRREGULARS

By 1863, the Civil War that immersed Archibald Rowand, James White, and the other Jessie Scouts had entered its third winter. The hope for a short war envisioned at the beginning of 1861 seemed nowhere in sight, and the massive modern conflict had mushroomed into a constant clash of hundreds of thousands of troops on multiple fronts stretched across well over a thousand miles. Through scores of battles, the South proved remarkably resilient and, recently, once again, victorious at Fredericksburg.

The butcher’s bill of battles through the early months of 1863 had been immense, and the days of a flood tide of volunteer enlistments in the North were gone. Flagging support for the war forced the North first to pay bounties to encourage soldiers to enlist, and when that failed to secure adequate numbers of bodies to fill the ranks, the Federals would soon be forced to resort to a draft.

On the first day of 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free.¹ The proclamation fundamentally transformed the nature and tone of the war and its ideals, even though it was limited to enslaved individuals in the Confederacy and did not include Union border states where slavery remained legal. It would also enable hundreds of thousands of Black Americans to enlist in the Union Army and Navy.

The previous year, 1862, had brought bloody fighting and larger armies. In massive battles such as in Shiloh, Tennessee, the Confederacy had an opportunity to annihilate a western Federal army under the command of Ulysses S.