ktbluegray

Tim: The book we read was called __The Blue and the Gray Undercover__. Jon: The book was a collection of short stories that were MOSTLY about spies during the civil War Tim: (with some exceptions.) Kevin: We liked most of these stories Tim: (with some other exceptions) Kevin: and we are going to be counting down our top 9. Nick: Why top 9? Because we were too lazy to do 10. Tim: First off is our number 9 story, A Small and Private War. Nick: This story is about midgets fighting behind closed doors. Tim: (Wait a minute that doesn’t sound right.) Kevin: No. It’s actually about a Southern man named Sam Monroe. Sam was born a southerner but moved north after marrying a Northern lady. When his brother is killed by the Union, he is consumed with a thirst for vengeance. He joins a group called the copper heads. Jon: For those in the audience that don’t know, the copperheads are Northerners that support the Southern Cause. Kevin: He is given the mission to assassinate one Mr. Kimble, a prominent figure in the Union. When he is followed by his wife and she discovers him attempting to assassinate Kimble, they struggle for the gun, and one of them is shot. Nick: Please enjoy your suspense ^^ Jon: We liked this story since it showed a family that was shattered by war, and how each side dealt with it. Tim: And now for our number 8 feature, the story with the shortest title in the book, the title that captures the plot more completely than any other in this collection. –deep breath- Monica Van Telflin and the Proper Application of Pressure –exhales- Wait a moment, that was the longest title… And it didn’t capture the plot at all! Stupid teleprompter… Nick: Okay, I’ll tell this one seriously. So The British are preparing to send a Blockade Runner Jon: A ship that runs through blockades. Nick: Thank you for the lovely interruption Jon. As I was saying, they are preparing to send the Blockade Runner Reindeer to supply the confederates. Now Monica, being a Union Spy stationed in Bermuda, doesn’t like this one little bit. She plans to sabotage the boat, since it is just a prototype with minimal funding. If she succeeds in sabotaging it then nobody would be stupid enough to invest in a failed boat. If she doesn’t it will be invested in and have many more made just like it. Which would be a serious problem for the Union seeing how good a ship it is. So she and her friend, Mr. Greenly, go onto the boat disguising themselves as people wanting to invest in it. Then He distracts them by arguing about how the boat will fail, and she, in a vary James Bond Like Fashion, Sabotages the boat. The boat tries to run the blockades and is ripped apart because of the damage already done to it. This story was incredibly intense, and my personal favorite in the book. Tim: Y ahora presentando el número siete, los caballeros de la libertad! Nick: I’m sorry for that annoying interruption. Now Presenting, number seven. The Knights of Liberty! Tim: Timothy Webster was a Union spy working under Allen Pinkerton. When he was undercover in the South as a confederate supporter, he is invited to join the knights of liberty Jon: The Knights of Liberty is a Confederate organization Tim: He begins to gather information on them, and when he is ready to present it to his superiors, he is discovered to be a spy. This story had significantly more espionage in it than most of the others in the book, and we love it for that. Tim: And now we would like to present our number 6 choice, The Courtship of Captain Swenk, written by our very own… Mr. Nagel! Nagel: (Yells at us) Tim: Okay, So it was a different Mr. Nagle. Nick: So this story is about a very legal boat captained by Mr. Swenk. Kevin: Running low on puns now, eh Nick? Nathanial Swenk was a former military captain who moved to a small town called Chambersburg. He begins courting quite a bit in the town Jon: Courting is basically trying to hit on people. Kevin: But while he is out courting, he and two other men Mr. Ball and Mr. Buck are spying on the Confederates in the town. When another spy in the town is discovered and taken prison, they begin to think that one of the three is actually a spy. Mr. Ball and Mr. Buck suspect Swenk, since he is leaving the group regularly to go on “dates” During their stay, there is a meeting of Confederate Generals in the town. Mr. Ball and Mr. Buck leave to deliver the information to the Union army. On their way, they are intercepted by Swenk. Mr. Buck pulls guns out and aims at both of them, revealing himself to be the spy. Ball and Swenk overwhelm Buck in a struggle for the gun, and Buck is shot in the struggle. Swenk and Ball make their escape and are hailed as heroes. This story was suspenseful, you didn’t know until the end who the spy was, as they all seemed like they could do it. Tim: Now for the number 5 story in the countdown… that… Other…….1? Nick: You forgot the name Tim? Really? Tim: No, that’s the title the Other…….1. Nick: Tim stop stalling. Just say the title. Tim: I just did! It’s the Other…..1! Kevin: Both of you be quite. The actual title is Other….1. Nick: Oh, okay. Got it. Tim: Told you. Jon: So Other…..1 Is about a German man named Ulrich Luserk who gets a once in a lifetime opportunity. He discovers a man who is on a mission to receive money from a contact in the Indian tribes. The money was part of a deal to the tribes, but the man is trying to reroute the money to give it to the Confederates. Luserk decides to help him, but the man dies during the trip. Luserk then takes his identity and continues the mission. The man gets an Indian child to help him on his way. The child is searching for his spirit animal Nick: Which turns out to be an Ostrich! Jon: So they find the Indian and meet up some Confederate contacts. Ulrich then takes the money and does something Nick/Kevin (same time): Intelligent/Horrible Nick: It was smart. Kevin. It was horrible. Jon: Both of you shut up. What he does is he kills the confederate contact and takes the money for himself. After that he heads back to Germany. This story was very interesting, because it had such a twist of betrayal at the end. Tim: Number 4 is the dead line. The most menacing sounding title in this book. Kevin: This story is about a couple. They meet at a party and get married, but when the man goes back to the war things start going wrong. A major battle is lost and he is captured. He spends a long time in the confederate prison camp, and eventually one of the captors tells him why everything went wrong. The Confederates knew the Union was coming. Because his wife told them. His wife has been working for the confederates the entire time. Later he gets out of the prison camp. Skip to about 50 years later. The man is on a cruise ship and he sees his ex-wife with her new husband. He threatens to throw her over the rail, but decides on something better. He walks up to everyone else with her, and introduces her as her life and then walks away, effectively ruining the rest of her life. Tim: If you can read my mind then you should be able to tell ME what the next story is. … You can’t? HA! See I’m better than you. The number 3 story is Slither Jon: This was the last story in the collection, and it was a great way to go out with a bang. This story was a good representation of the fact that people can hide things about themselves, even if you have known them their whole life. The story about a man named Mackie. He was a Northerner who was captured, along with his regiment. A fellow soldier named Jeremy Slater who Mackie has known since they were children has been getting too friendly with the Southerners. He is accused of being a traitor. Mackie reveals to the rest of the prisoners an old nickname for Jeremy, it is the namesake of this story: Slither. The prisoners outcast him, since they all believe him to be a supporter of the South. In the end, “Slither” uses his knowledge of the Southerners to create a disguise and escape the prison. He wasn’t a traitor after all. Tim: Now you whipersnappers, Lemme tell thisun to you straight. Number two was The Invisi… (sleeping Noises) Nick: Real professional Tim, falling asleep on the Job. Number two is the Invisible Spy. Wait a second… invisible spies… Ghost spies? That’s an awesome Idea! I should write that down… Kevin: Not invisible as not being seen, Invisible as not being cared about. This Story is about a bridge that is being guarded by the confederates. They are checking to make sure that no one comes over the bridge without permission. A few minor people cross it after being checked, and then A seemingly stupid old black man crosses it, saying that he is making a trip for his masters. The guards check his wagon, and see only some tools and 2 small black children wrapped in a blanket. They let the man go by. Little did they know, the blanket was the most important thing there. It was actually a map showing the positions of the confederate troops that could only be read if you had the proper key. The only reason this man was successful was because he made himself look significant, and thus invisible. That’s why we loved this story. Tim: And now for our number 1 story… envelope please. Nick: Here you go. (hands him envelope) Tim: And the number 1 story is… a dozen eggs and a carton of milk!... Nick this is a shopping list. Nick: Flip it over. Tim: (flips it over) OH! Okay, the number one story is… Hobson’s Choice! Jon: The phrase Hobson’s choice is actually a type of problem that boils down to take it or leave it. Nick: Hobson’s choice was about a group of Confederate Soldiers. After being ambushed, they flee into a strange mansion. Inside, they find a wealthy looking lady, and her servant Hobson. She convinces them to stay for awhile, since they are wounded tired and hungry. He doesn’t realize it at the time, but while she is tending to the leader’s bullet wound, she gets him incredibly drunk and questions him about the Confederate plans. They see Hobson leaving to deliver the information to his Union contact, and they execute him. Thinking the woman is actually for the Confederate side, they leave the house. Soon afterwards they meet a man, who tells them that the real Hobson has been dead for years, and the lady is not who she said she was. The men decide that they have been outmatched, and leave in defeat. We liked this story so much since it was incredibly well written, and the plot and characters were so well detailed and well written.