The Echoes: Dispatches from the Hunt | David R Leng

The Echoes

Dispatches from the Hunt

Periodic dispatches on American history, buried secrets, and the stories behind the Echoes of Fortune series.

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New dispatches delivered periodically. No spam. Just the hunt.

Past Dispatches

Each issue: the real history behind the books, plus what's coming next.

Latest
August 28, 2026

The Code They Were Sure No One Could Break

The Confederacy trusted its orders to a cipher it believed unbreakable. Three young men in a telegraph office were already reading them. Includes a Vigenère cipher to crack yourself, and signed hardcovers for the readers who do.

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August 4, 2026

The Monument That Would Not Stay

Six weeks after the first battle of the Civil War, a Georgia colonel’s own men raised a marble monument where he fell on Henry Hill. Within a year it had vanished, and no one has ever settled who took it. What stands there today was placed in 1936, and it does not quite tell the truth.

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June 24, 2026

271 Years Ago Today

On June 24, 1755, Braddock’s flying column was hacking toward Fort Duquesne while George Washington lay sick at Bear Camp, desperate not to miss it. Fifteen days later: the Monongahela.

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Issue 01 April 2026

The Man with the Metal Detector

About ten years ago, I was kayaking the Youghiogheny River when a stranger on the bank told me he was searching for Braddock's gold. That moment crystallized everything, and led to a story I had promised someone very important I would write.

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Issue 00 Welcome Dispatch

Welcome to the Hunt

New here? Start with this one. It’s the map of the whole world: the novels, the free short stories, and the one restricted file I keep off the shelf.

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