History of Arguable Consequence: The Undertold Stories of the American Civil War
RockyV79 for Corporal Nelson Purdum
Corporal Nelson Purdum ($40): Lead/Male/Young Adult to Late-Middle-Aged. North American/American with a Northern/Yankee accent. Voice actor needs to be able to switch to a country Southern accent for this role, as Purdham uses a Southern accent to retell his story. Purdum is a little cocky, a bit of a showman -- he can tell a great story, hold the audience in suspense. Though Purdum was a real person, we weren't able to drum up much information on him, except for his obituary. So, since Purdum became a politician later in life, we're going to portray him as charismatic, a bit devil-may-care and adventurous, a little rakish, at least while he's telling his tale. We'll leave it up to the listeners to decide if it's all bluster.
ABOUT THE ROLE: Purdum is in a bar, sharing with the crowd the story of his escape from Libby Prison.
Along with Purdum, voice actor awarded this part will also be asked to perform lines for several other very minor characters (Sergeant, Donalson, and voice in a crowd).
Many appeared surprised at seeing us, and I could hear them saying, "Is them Yankees?" One old woman came running out and asked me if we were really Yankees. I told her we were, "but as we had come from the West, and were younger ones than those in the East, our horns had not yet appeared."
There were handkerchiefs, pocket knives, finger rings, combs, buttons, spoons, knives and forks, and everything a soldier could find about his person was offered for bread. “Bread!" "Bread!" was the cry, and indeed it was a sorrowful sight to see men of all grades of society, from the college professor down to the ignorant and unlettered, all brought to the verge of starvation by the inhuman barbarity of their captors.
We had gone but a short distance, when, just ahead of us, we saw a squad of cavalry coming. There was no time to lose; so, bounding into the woods, we ran as fast as we could for about half a mile; but finding they were not following us, we ceased running. After that we did not venture on the road, but kept in the woods all the time, occasionally going to a negro cabin to find the way; and we always found them willing to aid us in any way that they could.
