Matt Doeden - At the Battle of the Ironclads: An Interactive Battlefield Adventure

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You are living through a pivotal time in the history of the United States. The North and the South are waging a bloody Civil War. The heaviest fighting is on the ground. But the battle goes on at sea as well. Both sides are at work on secret naval weapons ships. Can you survive this bloody time?

In this book youll explore how the choices people made meant the difference between life and death. The events youll experience happened to real people.

Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to read. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the stories. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through history.

Its March 1862 and the Civil War rages across the eastern half of the North American continent. The war is less than a year old but it is becoming clear that the fighting wont be over quickly.

On one side is the , which is made up of the remaining states.

Virginia is at the heart of the fighting. Thats where Union and Confederate troops meet for many of the wars early battles. The Union has a strong navy and industrial resources. The Confederacy is weak in both areas. Now the Union has moved to choke the Confederacy by blockading its ports. Union ships seek to prevent Southern ships from bringing much-needed guns and supplies to Confederate forces. The Union also tries to stop the export of Confederate crops, the lifeblood of the Souths economy.

As you gaze at the Virginia sky, you wonder how long the South can hold out without supplies. Youve heard whispers about each side building secret naval weapons ships covered in armored iron plates. Will these ironclad ships even float? Could they tip the balance of power on the sea?

One way or another, the world is about to change. Forces are gathering for battle. The Battle of the Ironclads will be unlike any battle in the history of the world. It will change naval strategy forever. But will you be able to survive the events that are about to take place?

You move through the mansions bedrooms, pulling sheets off one bed after another. As you work you pay little attention to the voices that spill out of the study and down the hallway.

This will change the war, says one voice. You recognize the speaker as your owner.

A Confederate engineer, your owner has many visitors. You are a slave with no formal education and little chance to learn whats happening in the war. This makes it difficult to understand many of the conversations you overhear. But youre smart and you can tell that this is about something really important. You stop what youre doing and listen.

How can one ship change the war? asks a second voice.

Were rebuilding the will never see it coming!

Suddenly, footsteps thunder down the hallway. In a flash you go back to gathering sheets. As your owner walks past the open door, he hesitates for a moment, staring at you. Pretending to be calm, you hum a quiet tune. He continues down the hallway without a word.

You let out a deep breath. That was close. If he had caught you eavesdropping, you would have been punished. The fact that youre a girl and a house slave might have spared you a brutal whipping. But if your owner is in the wrong mood theres no telling what he might do.

The footsteps fade away down the stairway. Youre all alone.

With a load of bedding under one arm, you take a few quiet steps toward the bedroom door. The glow of the lamp in the study warms the otherwise dark corridor.

Quietly, you creep down the hall, careful not to make a sound. As you reach the entrance of the study, your heart races. It beats so hard and so fast that you place a hand on your chest. You cannot go in. If you were caught sneaking around in the study, there would be no mercy for you.

Yet you cant help yourself. You step inside, inching toward the large oak desk. On it is spread a broad sheet of paper. It shows plans for the Confederate ship the ship that is supposed to give the South control of the seas.

If this ship will help the South win the war, I have to do everything I can to warn the Union, you tell yourself. Youve overheard enough of your owners conversations to know that the only hope you have of being free one day is for the Union to crush the Confederacy. This may be your only chance to help make that happen.

Glancing over your shoulder, you scoop up the plans and tuck them into the stack of bedding youre carrying. Trembling, you stride out of the study, down the hallway, and down the stairs. You try to act as if nothing unusual is happening.

Your owner and his guest, a Confederate officer, stand on the front porch, just outside the front door. As you come to the bottom of the stairway, your nerves get the best of you. You stumble, tripping over one of the sheets. As you collapse on the floor, the bedding spills out in front of you feet from where the two men stand.

You wince, expecting swift punishment. But as you look up, you realize that the bedding still completely covers the stolen plans. Your owner looks down at you with annoyance.

Get up, girl, he barks. I want those sheets clean for our guest tonight. Go!

A drawing depicts the plans for two ironclad ships the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.

As quickly and carefully as you can, you scoop up the bedding, still certain youll be discovered at any moment. But the men turn away. In a moment, youre out of the room and around a corner.

You slump back against a wall, desperately trying to catch your breath and calm your nerves.

What have I done? you ask yourself. Suddenly, your idea of stealing the plans and delivering them to the Union seems foolish. You are a young slave girl who has never left Virginia. What chance do you have to sneak critical military plans north? Its absurd. Its crazy.

You wonder if you could just turn around and sneak the plans back onto the desk. No one would ever have to know.

You cant believe the risk you took. Stealing secret war slaves are punished for even minor offenses. You cant begin to imagine what would happen to you if you were caught.

How foolish, you mutter to yourself as you turn and hurry back up the stairs.

You let the bedding slip to the floor, gather the plans, and hurry back into the office. As you rearrange the paper on the desk, you hear your owners voice at the top of the stairs. Let me collect a few things before we go, he says. You look up to see him standing in the doorway.