Divine Wind

In an "outtake" from the beloved "The Civil War" series by Ken Burns, Shelby Foote, crammed into his library, regales us with the story of an obscure Confederate Lt. Colonel Zebulon Beauregard Stuart who was bivouacked on what was then the well-known Old Widow Douglas Plantation, which had been turned into one of the South’s premiere finishing schools for girls. Thanks to an embarrassing case of the vapors by one of the belles, Ol' Zeb chanced upon a desperate solution to striking back at them damn Yankees. Thanks to their hoop skirts which caged the lethal gasses, he'd feed 'em and fire 'em across enemy lines with dynamite strapped to their bodies. J.B. Stuart had not only created the first airborne squadron, he also created a place for women in combat that predated the Israeli Air Force by 120 years. When the Japanese stumbled upon this, they immediately adapted it for their own desperate hours. Knowing the origin of the Kamikaze, one can see that the word takes on new meaning when you realize it means “divine wind.”

The final image shows Ol' Jeb riding a belle belching smoke from the bottom of her hoop skirt with a stick of dynamite in her mouth as they arc across enemy lines.

Parodying the style of "The Civil War," the action/images can be staged and shot with a still camera as if they were black and white tintypes from that era. Only one actor-- "Shelby Foote"-- speaks on camera