Exclusive—Patrick K. O’Donnell: Union Hunter Killer Teams Pursue the South’s Most Dangerous MenPatrick K. O'Donnell 24 Dec 2024
A key component of modern special operations is capturing or killing high-value targets. During the American Civil War, a specialized unit within the Union Army, the Jessie Scouts, was created to do just that.
Dressed in Confederate uniforms, they went after the South’s most dangerous men, setting up an epic series of engagements among elite units. These Union operatives were the US Army’s first hunter-killer teams. In February 1865, General Philip Sheridan unleashed the Jessie Scouts to hunt down the notorious partisan chief, Major Harry Gilmor.
Braving the bitterly cold weather, snow drifts, and icy roads, smooth-talking their way through Confederate pickets, two Jessie Scouts in Confederate butternut made their way through the enemy territory of the Shenandoah Valley in search of Gilmor’s lair. The expert Scouts accomplished their arduous task in a mere forty-eight hours. “Returned on Thursday, reported to the General the whereabouts of Harry Gilmor and command,” recorded Scout Arch Rowand.
Sheridan wasted no time in following up on the Scouts’ critical intelligence and swiftly assembled a force of 300 cavalry. Disguised in Confederate butternut, twenty Jessie Scouts rode ahead of the Union cavalry to “pass off as a body of recruits for Gilmor coming from Maryland.” They planned to inform Gilmor’s men deceptively that a large Union force of cavalry was just behind them to discern the exact whereabouts of the partisan leader.
more
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/24/exclusive-patrick-k-odonnell-union-hunter-killer-teams-pursue-the-souths-most-dangerous-men/
