Film Treatment for "The Shohola Five"

 TITLE:  The Shohola Five

WRITER/CONTACT:  Rob Fulfer - robfulfer@yahoo.com - 615-260-0916

LOGLINE: Five mysterious survivors of The Great Shohola Train Wreck at the end of the Civil War go on to take part in other future disastrous events in American history

OPENING SCENE:  A reenactment of the historic and horrific train wreck that occurred near Shohola, Pennsylvania, in July 1864 as the Civil War was drawing to a close. There were a total of 65 prisoners, guards and railway workers killed.  The large majority killed were Confederate soldiers. 

ACT ONE:  Five survivors of the wreck, all Confederate prisoners, are able to slip away during the melee each vowing to avenge their compatriots who were not so lucky as to survive the wreck or the war.   Short intros and back stories of each of the five survivors. 

ACT TWO:  Survivor 1 meets up with John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators in Washington D.C. in April of 1865. 

Survivor 2 secretly helps sabotage the Sultana steamboat on April 27, 1865, north of Memphis killing over 1,100 people, many of whom were Union prisoners of war who survived the infamous Andersonville Prison, an event largely overshadowed by the president's recent assassination. His "practice" was the sinking of the smaller Eclipse steamboat in January 1865 on the Tennessee River near Paducah, KY, with 38 Union soldiers perishing. 

Survivor 3 witnesses the public hanging of Henry Wirz, the only Confederate officer executed as a war criminal, in November 1865.  He then attends the beginnings of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, TN, in December of 1865.

Survivor 4 is part of the Jesse James gang that commits the first daylight bank robbery recorded in the U.S. in Liberty, Missouri, in February 1866. 

ACT THREE:  Survivor 5 heads back home with no intention of honoring the pact he has made but to go back to college instead.   When he arrives in his hometown of Lebanon, TN, he sees the Confederates burning the buildings of the small Cumberland University there in desperation.  He then returns to his home nearby to find it burned as well and his parents nowhere to be found.  A neighbor tells him both his father and mother were killed by the Union two years earlier during the Battle of Lebanon.  Enraged at both sides now, he becomes a serial arsonist bent on revenge.  He perfects his craft over the next few years until arriving in Chicago in 1871 where he starts his masterpiece, The Great Chicago Fire.  Heading back home to Wisconsin afterwards, he finds his house has been destroyed and his new bride has perished in the Peshtigo Fire which happened on the same day in 1871 with many more casualties but is overshadowed in the news and history by the fire in Chicago.

FINAL SCENE:  Survivor 5 amid the ruins of the Peshtigo Fire weeps for the things he has seen and done in his short lifespan.  

CHARACTER LIST:  

Survivor One (no last names) - Edmond - a South Carolina blacksmith turned soldier, then prisoner 

Survivor Two - Martin - a farmer from Georgia turned soldier, then prisoner 

Survivor Three - Edgar - a barkeep from Memphis turned soldier, then prisoner 

Survivor Four -   Henry - a career soldier from North Carolina, turned prisoner 

Survivor Five - George - the youngest of the group, just 19, a college freshman in Lebanon, TN, turned soldier, then prisoner 

BACKSTORY/RESEARCH:  The Great Shohola Train Wreck is a real event and the fact that Confederate prisoners did escape without a trace afterwards is true although the number varies from two to five.  These are all true events in American history that occurred after the train wreck.  That each survivor participated in these events is fictitious...as far as we know.