History of Arguable Consequence: The Undertold Stories of the American Civil War
venividivici45 for Correspondant
Correspondent ($15): Male or Female/Young to Middle-Aged/Adult. North American/American, Yankee/Northern accent, possibly light Midwestern, Souther or Irish/Scottish accent. While the Correspondent was a real person, we have no details about his name, origins, etc, and so this role is open for some interpretation. Overall, we'd like to portray him/her as bright, lively, curious, and incredibly interested in the stories Carpenter has to tell (perhaps they'd like to have been a Jessie Scout themself...?)
ABOUT THE ROLE: The role of the Correspondent is part narration, part audio drama. After retelling the story or Captain Carpenter of the Jessie Scouts (Narration), the Correspondent finalizes his/her article with an interview from Captian Carpenter (Interview with Carpenter/audio drama).
Along with the Correspondent, voice actor awarded this part will also be asked to perform lines for several other very minor characters (voice in a crowd).
The secret history of any military campaign would be of absorbing interest; much more the secret story of our war. In all camps there are men whose occupation it is to gain for the commanding general information of the enemy's force, positions, and movements. Much depends on this, and the most successful generals have always been the best informed.
Probably no man in this war has lived through as many exciting and desperate adventures as Capt. Carpenter, who was leader of the "Jessie Scouts." He was originally one of " John Brown's men,'' and participated in the attack on Harper's Ferry', where he escaped 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; he has notions about the crime of claiming ownership in men which to some would seem extreme, and he certainly thinks almost anything good enough for a man-selling aristocrat who rebels against the Union.
The writer of this passed a few quiet hours with Capt. Carpenter lately, while the latter was an invalid from a severe wound received last fall in Western Virginia. Some of the campaigning stories then heard will interest the reader, and will attract the sympathy of all who admire daring, skill, and invention — especially where, as in this case, all these faculties are sharpened and vivified by a single-hearted and fiery devotion to liberty and the Union. Capt. Carpenter boasts, in a quiet way, that no army for which he has scouted has ever suffered from a " raid " in its rear, or has ever been surprised.
