🕯️ The Union Forever

By Gordon D. Laws, Jr.
(940 words — Civil War historical horror)

Description:
Just south of Gettysburg, a wounded Union soldier awakens amid the carnage of battle — unable to move, unable to scream, as feral hogs begin to feed. What unfolds is not merely a scene of bodily horror, but a meditation on mercy, duty, and the strange calm that comes at the threshold of death.
"The Union Forever" is elegiac horror at its most human — intimate, restrained, and devastatingly sad.

Run-time: Approx. 6 minutes.

Timeline

Audition deadline: October 16, 2025 

Casting decisions: October 17, 2025

Recording deadline: October 21 (have a little flexibility by a couple days if needed)

Release: October 29 on The Cosmographia Codex Substack and Camp Cosmographia Radio on YouTube

🎧 File Requirements

Format: MP3 for auditions; WAV required for final recording

Sample rate: 44.1 kHz or higher

File naming: [YourName]_The_Union_Forever_Audition.mp3 (auditions) / [YourName]_The_Union_Forever_Final.wav (final)

Final files (when ready for production) should be clean, broadcast-ready voice tracks: no background noise, no music/effects, minimal breaths, consistent levels.

Please let me know if you need to know anything more about me or the project. You can also learn more about my writing and production history at https://www.ninaalvarez.com/nina-alvarez-writing

The narrator tells the story in third person, but must also inhabit the voices of the dying soldier (Nicholas Codori), the weary orderly, and Private McAlister, with the gentlest of tonal shifts — never impressions or anything cartoonish.

Voice qualities:

• Calm, low, and grave — the voice of remembrance.

• American or neutral accent.

• Think of Ken Burns–style narration crossed with a ghost story told by the fire.

• Emotion is contained but palpable — we feel the pity beneath the restraint.

Performance direction:

• The narrator should primarily use a neutral American accent — clear, steady, and modern enough for contemporary listeners, but with a hint of 19th-century cadence (slightly more formal phrasing, deliberate rhythm).

• This gives it a timeless feel — not “folksy,” not theatrical.

  Deliver it as though you are walking through the field, seeing what remains.

• Let the horror unfold with empathy, not spectacle.

• Keep tempo slow and contemplative; let the imagery breathe.

• The tone should move gradually from clinical observation → philosophical reflection → spiritual benediction.

Keywords:

solemn · compassionate · haunted · documentary-poetic

Reference:

• Peter Coyote in The Civil War (Ken Burns)

• Sam Elliott toned down 50%

• Liev Schreiber’s narration in Hemingway or War Photographe

Voice qualities:

• 20s, Midwestern or light rural accent.

• Weak, fading — his voice trembles between consciousness and release.

• Emotion: bewildered, pleading, accepting.

Voice qualities:

• 30s–50s, weary, practical.

• Speaks with the measured rhythm of someone who’s done this before.

• a young private, background character, just two lines: "sir," and "yes, sir."