EPISODE 2: SHOUT THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
https://youtu.be/qK3H4JJ-8Bg
https://youtu.be/bW4ZwyYJYbQ
*has close caption lyrics begin at 0:40 and end at 1:46
May 30, 1862
Speeches and Politicians
The various regiments have embarked on a long march—toward the South for Union soldiers, and toward the North for Confederate soldiers. With your full kit strapped on and your weapon slung over your shoulder, you look like a soldier, even if you don’t feel like one yet. You can’t help but be excited that you are finally going to march into battle. After a 30-mile march in the scorching heat, however, you have lost much of your enthusiasm. Some of the soldiers are grumbling about the heat and want to stop and rest. But your orders specify that you must keep up this pace to meet the train that will be taking you to the capital (either to Washington, D.C., for Union soldiers or to Richmond, Virginia, for Confederate soldiers).
Make a Stamina check to see how you are holding up during the march. (Remember, if you carrying more weight than your Strength limit [10 pounds for every Strength point], you must subtract 1 point from your Stamina number before making the following spin.)
If you spins a number equal to or lower than your Stamina number, you are doing fine.
If you spins a number higher than your Stamina number, you must lower your Morale by 1 point. Adjust the numbers in your journal, if necessary.
Next, each unit must decide whether to stop and rest or march on.
Speeches and Politicians
The various regiments have embarked on a long march—toward the South for Union soldiers, and toward the North for Confederate soldiers. With your full kit strapped on and your weapon slung over your shoulder, you look like a soldier, even if you don’t feel like one yet. You can’t help but be excited that you are finally going to march into battle. After a 30-mile march in the scorching heat, however, you have lost much of your enthusiasm. Some of the soldiers are grumbling about the heat and want to stop and rest. But your orders specify that you must keep up this pace to meet the train that will be taking you to the capital (either to Washington, D.C., for Union soldiers or to Richmond, Virginia, for Confederate soldiers).
Make a Stamina check to see how you are holding up during the march. (Remember, if you carrying more weight than your Strength limit [10 pounds for every Strength point], you must subtract 1 point from your Stamina number before making the following spin.)
If you spins a number equal to or lower than your Stamina number, you are doing fine.
If you spins a number higher than your Stamina number, you must lower your Morale by 1 point. Adjust the numbers in your journal, if necessary.
Next, each unit must decide whether to stop and rest or march on.
Union Soldiers:
After spending two cramped days in a boxcar, the Northern soldiers arrive in Washington, D.C., to the cheers of a large crowd waiting at the train station. You are informed that you will be attending a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln at the White House that very afternoon. After washing up, you march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House where you are arranged, along with several other regiments, on the South Lawn of the White House. You see the newly erected platform from which the President will give his speech. An officer steps onto the platform and announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America.” A tall, lanky man dressed in a black suit with a black bow tie steps across the lawn and onto the platform. He takes off the tall stovepipe hat that makes him look even taller than his 6-foot, 4-inch frame. His face is thin and gaunt, and his deep-set eyes look tired. He wears a beard without a mustache, reminding you that he is the first president ever to wear a beard in office. The crowd quiets down as the Commander-in-Chief begins to speak in a voice higher pitched than you had expected. He begins by welcoming the people of Washington and most especially you, the volunteer soldiers of the Union army. He then gets to the heart of his message, responding to recent criticism that he didn’t really have a good reason for fighting the war and that he didn’t know how to handle the issue of slavery:
After spending two cramped days in a boxcar, the Northern soldiers arrive in Washington, D.C., to the cheers of a large crowd waiting at the train station. You are informed that you will be attending a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln at the White House that very afternoon. After washing up, you march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House where you are arranged, along with several other regiments, on the South Lawn of the White House. You see the newly erected platform from which the President will give his speech. An officer steps onto the platform and announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America.” A tall, lanky man dressed in a black suit with a black bow tie steps across the lawn and onto the platform. He takes off the tall stovepipe hat that makes him look even taller than his 6-foot, 4-inch frame. His face is thin and gaunt, and his deep-set eyes look tired. He wears a beard without a mustache, reminding you that he is the first president ever to wear a beard in office. The crowd quiets down as the Commander-in-Chief begins to speak in a voice higher pitched than you had expected. He begins by welcoming the people of Washington and most especially you, the volunteer soldiers of the Union army. He then gets to the heart of his message, responding to recent criticism that he didn’t really have a good reason for fighting the war and that he didn’t know how to handle the issue of slavery:
“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be ‘the Union as it was.’ If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere should be free.”
The president’s speech is greeted with cheering from the crowd. Looking around, however, you notice that there are those who did not seem to like President Lincoln’s ideas about keeping or abolishing slavery.
The president’s speech is greeted with cheering from the crowd. Looking around, however, you notice that there are those who did not seem to like President Lincoln’s ideas about keeping or abolishing slavery.
lincoln.mp4 | |
File Size: | 750 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
Confederate Soldiers:
The Southern soldiers find that their train ride north is short lived. After only one day of travel, the train was forced to stop because the tracks had been washed out by a flash flood. From here you will have to walk to Richmond. The march is hot and dusty, but you finally reach the capital of the Confederacy. As you enter the town, young Southern belles in their huge hoop skirts greet you with cold drinks and praise for your bravery in going to fight those awful “Billy Yanks.” While in town you hear that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, is giving a speech from the balcony of a hotel. You head in that direction to try to catch some of the speech. As you squint up at the balcony, you see a man with wavy hair and a goatee standing at the railing. Despite the heat, he is wearing a vested suit with a full black bow tie. His face is thin and angular, and his hands grip the balcony railing as he speaks:
The Southern soldiers find that their train ride north is short lived. After only one day of travel, the train was forced to stop because the tracks had been washed out by a flash flood. From here you will have to walk to Richmond. The march is hot and dusty, but you finally reach the capital of the Confederacy. As you enter the town, young Southern belles in their huge hoop skirts greet you with cold drinks and praise for your bravery in going to fight those awful “Billy Yanks.” While in town you hear that Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, is giving a speech from the balcony of a hotel. You head in that direction to try to catch some of the speech. As you squint up at the balcony, you see a man with wavy hair and a goatee standing at the railing. Despite the heat, he is wearing a vested suit with a full black bow tie. His face is thin and angular, and his hands grip the balcony railing as he speaks:
“Friends and Fellow Citizens, I thank you for the compliment that your presence conveys. It is an indication of regard, not for the person, but for the position which he holds. The cause in which we are engaged is the cause of the advocacy of rights to which we were born. Those for which our fathers of the Revolution bled: the richest inheritance that ever fell to man. And which is our sacred duty to transmit untarnished to our children. Upon us is devolved the high and holy responsibility of preserving the constitutional liberty of a free government. [The crowd around you breaks into applause.] Those with whom we have lately associated have shown themselves so incapable of appreciating the blessings of the glorious institutions they inherited that they are today stripped of the liberty to which they were born. They have allowed an ignorant usurper to trample upon all the prerogatives of citizenship, and to exercise power never delegated to him, and it has been reserved for your own state, so lately one of the original thirteen, but now, thank God, separated from them, to become the theatre of a great central camp, from which will pour thousands of brave hearts to roll back the tide of this despotism. [More wild cheering from the crowd] Upon every hill which now overlooks Richmond, you have had, and will continue to have, camps containing soldiers from every state in the Confederacy, and to its remotest limits every proud heart beats high with indignation at the thought that the foot of the invader has been set upon the soil of Old Virginia. [Great cheering all around you] There is not one true son of the South who is not ready to shoulder his musket to bleed, to die or to conquer in the cause of liberty here."
davis.mp4 | |
File Size: | 957 kb |
File Type: | mp4 |
The cheering is deafening all around you as you make your way out of the crowd and head to one of those army camps outside the city that President Davis has mentioned. On your way back to camp you think about what Jefferson Davis has said. The Northerners are invaders trying to force the South to give up slavery and their precious way of life. The people of the North have been fooled by Abraham Lincoln, who wants to turn himself into some kind of king and force the people of America to do whatever he thinks is best, regardless of what the people really want. The gentle and fine way of life in the South is in danger of being destroyed by Lincoln and his Union invaders. You are going to make sure that does not happen.
Camp Life
Your regimental commander privately informs you that you will begin the march toward enemy lines before dawn. This precautionary way of communicating ensures that the exact number of soldiers who will be heading out of camp is kept secret. After all, spies abound on both sides, making it difficult to keep troop movements a secret from the enemy. The Colonel announces that he has asked the quartermaster to open his stores if you would like to exchange any of your equipment before the march begins early the next morning.
Decide if you would like to get rid of or pick up different supplies based on your previous experience with marching. Let your teacher know what you’re keeping and what you’re getting rid of. Make the necessary changes in the supplies list in your journal.
At night you sit around the campfire with the other soldiers in your unit. Many of the soldiers are either playing cards or writing letters home by firelight. Another soldier takes out a harmonica and begins to play a song. It’s almost mealtime. To help prepare the meal, assign two soldiers from your unit to hike three miles to a stream to get water for washing up and making soup.
Have the two soldiers from your unit make a Strength spin to see if they can haul enough water back to camp.
If both soldiers spin a number equal to or lower than their Strength number, they have successfully brought enough water for washing and preparing the meal.
If either soldier spins a number higher than his Strength number, they fail to bring enough water. Every soldier in your unit must subtract 1 point from their Morale number because your unit has a very poor supper that evening. For some time now, the regiments have been living on rations.
Soldiers must make a Health spin to see if the rations are good enough to keep them healthy.
If you have soap or a grooming kit, however, you don’t have to make a spin since these items will help keep you disease-free. Having a water purifier is just a waste because it doesn’t work at all. (Remember, depending on the kind of provisions you received in Episode 1 [i.e., excellent, good, poor, or terrible], you may have to adjust your Health number before making the following spin.
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your adjusted Health number, the rations keep you healthy and disease-free.
If you spin a number higher than your adjusted Health number, you must make another spin:
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your Health number on this second spin, you have caught a cold and lose 1 Health point. The good news is, you don’t have to spin on the Disease Table.
If you spin a number higher than your Health number, you must make a spin on the Disease Table and deal with the consequences.
Now, everyone needs to make a Morale spin due to the harsh conditions of camp life:
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your Morale number, you are doing fine. If you spin a number higher than your current Morale number, you needs to spin on the Morale Table.
Journal Prompt
Write about your experiences from Episode 2. How did you feel after listening to your Commander-in-Chief’s speech? Were you inspired or were they scared? How is camp life so far? Describe your day-to-day life in camp.
Your regimental commander privately informs you that you will begin the march toward enemy lines before dawn. This precautionary way of communicating ensures that the exact number of soldiers who will be heading out of camp is kept secret. After all, spies abound on both sides, making it difficult to keep troop movements a secret from the enemy. The Colonel announces that he has asked the quartermaster to open his stores if you would like to exchange any of your equipment before the march begins early the next morning.
Decide if you would like to get rid of or pick up different supplies based on your previous experience with marching. Let your teacher know what you’re keeping and what you’re getting rid of. Make the necessary changes in the supplies list in your journal.
At night you sit around the campfire with the other soldiers in your unit. Many of the soldiers are either playing cards or writing letters home by firelight. Another soldier takes out a harmonica and begins to play a song. It’s almost mealtime. To help prepare the meal, assign two soldiers from your unit to hike three miles to a stream to get water for washing up and making soup.
Have the two soldiers from your unit make a Strength spin to see if they can haul enough water back to camp.
If both soldiers spin a number equal to or lower than their Strength number, they have successfully brought enough water for washing and preparing the meal.
If either soldier spins a number higher than his Strength number, they fail to bring enough water. Every soldier in your unit must subtract 1 point from their Morale number because your unit has a very poor supper that evening. For some time now, the regiments have been living on rations.
Soldiers must make a Health spin to see if the rations are good enough to keep them healthy.
If you have soap or a grooming kit, however, you don’t have to make a spin since these items will help keep you disease-free. Having a water purifier is just a waste because it doesn’t work at all. (Remember, depending on the kind of provisions you received in Episode 1 [i.e., excellent, good, poor, or terrible], you may have to adjust your Health number before making the following spin.
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your adjusted Health number, the rations keep you healthy and disease-free.
If you spin a number higher than your adjusted Health number, you must make another spin:
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your Health number on this second spin, you have caught a cold and lose 1 Health point. The good news is, you don’t have to spin on the Disease Table.
If you spin a number higher than your Health number, you must make a spin on the Disease Table and deal with the consequences.
Now, everyone needs to make a Morale spin due to the harsh conditions of camp life:
If you spin a number equal to or lower than your Morale number, you are doing fine. If you spin a number higher than your current Morale number, you needs to spin on the Morale Table.
Journal Prompt
Write about your experiences from Episode 2. How did you feel after listening to your Commander-in-Chief’s speech? Were you inspired or were they scared? How is camp life so far? Describe your day-to-day life in camp.