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As warfare evolves, elite units play an ever-increasing role, but not every soldier can perform these specialized duties. Special operations forces require special men. Union major Henry Harrison Young was such a man—born for war. “It was very rare to find a man who found in the most deadly peril his greatest pleasure, and who sought out danger not only in the line of duty.
Young’s commanding officer observed, “We had many officers who in civil life had shown nothing above average ability, that in the hour of trial, amidst the carnage of battle, proved themselves possessed of heroic quality, yet these gallant men were not fearless; they loved life, and they knew the danger they were going to meet, and could be relied upon to charge up to certain death without faltering.
Sheridan wanted to expand his elite scouts and put them under the leadership of a hands-on, fighting officer. Young fit the bill perfectly. To penetrate enemy lines, he would don a Confederate uniform. A master of disguise, the Rhode Islander served behind the lines so often that “his disguises had to be changed and varied constantly; now it was one role, now another—private soldier, deserter, countryman, peddler, Confederate officer.
Once Sheridan had found the man to lead his Jessie Scouts, he decided to make it a larger organization. Realizing the news would leak to the Confederates, the general called it a battalion of Scouts when it was, in fact, only a company.
Lincoln’s Special forces would lead Sheridan’s army to victory, and then, as the war came to a close, these commandos would covertly be sent to fight in one of America’s first proxy wars against a European power, against the French, who had tens of thousands of troops in Mexico. Young and his men armed, trained insurgents, and conducted covert operations, hazardous and perilous duty; most, including Young, would never return home.
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