The Last Stand of the Rebel Monster

     Steadfast and stalwart, Virginia stood, like an island of stone in a torrent. A single speck of gray in a sea of blue. With a sigh she strode forward, her rigging bristling and her guns at the ready. Across the field stood her formidable foe. Lines upon lines of Union infantry, cannons, and cavalry stood in formation as unmoving as the strictest guard. The silence slowly broken with the shriek of metal on metal as Virginia draws her blade. Her eyes narrow at the blue hoard. The strained groans of torn metal reverberate as her rigging shuffles into place, half the guns missing from their ports. She tilts her hat back with a grin, the audible clang as each shell slams into battery and their respective breeches slam shut.

And once again...silence.

     You could almost hear the breath as the bugle caller raises his horn to his lips. The shrill melody replaced with a deafening roar as hundreds of men charge forward. Cannons on either side bark their reports. Great plumes of smoke, dirt, and blood fly as shells and bullets slam home. But through it all Virginia stood strong. She was the pride of her nation, she would not fall. She would not let down those who sacrificed so much to keep her here. She would stand firm, she would fire, and she would fight.

     As the first soldier neared she took her first step into battle. Her blade sings as it slices through the air. The sword cleaving fabric, flesh, and bone. Man after man charged her, and one by one they were cut down. Her guns roared and her blade rang. But even so, her feet no longer moved forward...they went back. The wide arc of her blade forcing men back but their bayonets jabbed in. Cloth tore, blood flowed, and yet she stood fast. She would step back but she would never fall. She had to much pride to accept anything but victory. Her rigging fanned out deflecting bayonets and musket fire. The clang of metal as bullet hit iron. She was the first and she wouldn't be the last.

     Virginia took step after step back until she was almost backpedaling. More and more they pushed. Bullets ripping their way through her coat. Her hat flying from her head but she remained unfazed. She kept up her own relentless assault. But even with her stalwart defense, she was being overrun. Her rigging dissipated as she turned and fled towards the river. The massive hull of the Virginia materialized in a flash. It's gangplank lowered and Virginia stopped at it's base. She brandished her blade in defiance. It was a challenge the men were all to happy to accept. They swarmed the only entrance to the mighty Ironclad. Board by board they made their way up, no matter how many Virginia cut down or thew into the river below. Bayonet and saber clash as she reels.

     With a great push the soldiers break through. The dam had broken and now they flooded the decks. Doors went down and men swarmed the hull. All the while Virginia stood tall. A circle of wood the only separation from the Union troops. Her swings slowing and her guns falling silent. The circle closed tighter and tighter until...it stopped. The very men that had pushed her this far back now turned and fled. Her brief moment of relief broken by the fires of hell itself. The ferocious burn clashing with the coolness of the river below her feet. The mighty Virginia, the bane of the Union fleet, went up in a plume of fire bright enough to rival the sun itself. The coolness of the water and the burn warring like the very countries they were in. Slowly and surely, bit by bit, the coolness turned cold as ice as she slipped down the bank and below the waves. The Monster had been slain.