The Red Badge

of Courage
An Episode of
the American Civil War
War
by

Stephen Crane

An Electronic Classics Series Publication

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 Stephen Crane
cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long
The Red Badge troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, am-
ber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army’s

of Courage feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful
blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of
hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.
An Episode of Once a certain tall soldier developed virtues and went reso-
lutely to wash a shirt. He came flying back from a brook wav-
the American Civil War ing his garment bannerlike. He was swelled with a tale he had
heard from a reliable friend, who had heard it from a truthful
by cavalryman, who had heard it from his trustworthy brother,
one of the order-lies at division headquarters. He adopted the
important air of a herald in red and gold. “We’re goin’ t’ move
Stephen Crane t’ morrah—sure,” he said pompously to a group in the com-
pany street. “We’re goin’ ‘way up the river, cut across, an’
CHAPTER I come around in behint ‘em.”
To his attentive audience he drew a loud and elaborate plan
of a very brilliant campaign. When he had finished, the blue-
THE COLD PASSED reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring
clothed men scattered into small arguing groups between the
fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the
rows of squat brown huts. A negro teamster who had been
landscape changed from brown to green, the army awak-ened,
dancing upon a cracker box with the hilarious encouragement
and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It

3
 The Red Badge of Courage
of twoscore soldiers was deserted. He sat mournfully down. numbers making futile bids for the pop-ular attention. Mean-
Smoke drifted lazily from a multitude of quaint chim-neys. while, the soldier who had fetched the rumor bustled about with
“It’s a lie! that’s all it is—a thunderin’ lie!” said another pri- much importance. He was continually assailed by questions.
vate loudly. His smooth face was flushed, and his hands were “What’s up, Jim?”
thrust sulkily into his trousers’ pockets. He took the matter as “Th’ army’s goin’ t’ move.”
an affront to him. “I don’t believe the derned old army’s ever “Ah, what yeh talkin’ about? How yeh know it is?”
going to move. We’re set. I’ve got ready to move eight times “Well, yeh kin b’lieve me er not, jest as yeh like. I don’t care
in the last two weeks, and we ain’t moved yet.” a hang.”
The tall soldier felt called upon to defend the truth of a rumor There was much food for thought in the man-ner in which he
he himself had intro-duced. He and the loud one came near to replied. He came near to con-vincing them by disdaining to
fight-ing over it. produce proofs. They grew excited over it.
A corporal began to swear before the assem-blage. He had There was a youthful private who listened with eager ears to
just put a costly board floor in his house, he said. During the the words of the tall soldier and to the varied comments of his
early spring he had refrained from adding extensively to the comrades. After receiving a fill of discussions concerning
comfort of his environment because he had felt that the army marches and attacks, he went to his hut and crawled through
might start on the march at any moment. Of late, however, he an intricate hole that served it as a door. He wished to be
had been im-pressed that they were in a sort of eternal camp. alone with some new thoughts that had lately come to him.
Many of the men engaged in a spirited debate. One outlined He lay down on a wide bank that stretched across the end
in a peculiarly lucid manner all the plans of the commanding of the room. In the other end, cracker boxes were made to
general. He was op-posed by men who advocated that there serve as furniture. They were grouped about the fireplace. A
were other plans of campaign. They clamored at each other, pic-ture from an illustrated weekly was upon the log walls,

4
 Stephen Crane
and three rifles were paralleled on pegs. Equipments hunt on bygone with his thought-images of heavy crowns and high
handy projections, and some tin dishes lay upon a small pile of castles. There was a portion of the world’s history which he
firewood. A folded tent was serving as a roof. The sunlight, had regarded as the time of wars, but it, he thought, had been
without, beating upon it, made it glow a light yellow shade. A long gone over the horizon and had disappeared forever.
small window shot an oblique square of whiter light upon the From his home his youthful eyes had looked upon the war in
cluttered floor. The smoke from the fire at times neglected the his own country with distrust. It must be some sort of a play
clay chimney and wreathed into the room, and this flimsy chim- affair. He had long despaired of witnessing a Greeklike struggle.
ney of clay and sticks made end-less threats to set ablaze the Such would be no more, he had said. Men were better, or
whole establishment. more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the
The youth was in a little trance of astonish-ment. So they throat-grappling in-stinct, or else firm finance held in check the
were at last going to fight. On the morrow, perhaps, there would passions.
be a battle, and he would be in it. For a time he was obliged to He had burned several times to enlist. Tales of great move-
labor to make himself believe. He could not accept with as- ments shook the land. They might not be distinctly Homeric,
surance an omen that he was about to mingle in one of those but there seemed to be much glory in them. He had read of
great affairs of the earth. marches, sieges, conflicts, and he had longed to see it all. His
He had, of course, dreamed of battles all his life—of vague busy mind had drawn for him large pictures extravagant in color,
and bloody conflicts that had thrilled him with their sweep and lurid with breathless deeds.
fire. In visions he had seen himself in many struggles. He had But his mother had discouraged him. She had affected to
imagined peoples secure in the shadow of his eagle-eyed prow- look with some contempt upon the quality of his war ardor
ess. But awake he had regarded battles as crimson blotches and patriotism. She could calmly seat herself and with no ap-
on the pages of the past. He had put them as things of the parent difficulty give him many hundreds of reasons why he

5
 The Red Badge of Courage
was of vastly more importance on the farm than on the field of Nevertheless, the next morning he had gone to a town that
battle. She had had certain ways of expression that told him was near his mother’s farm and had enlisted in a company that
that her statements on the subject came from a deep con- was forming there. When he had returned home his mother
viction. Moreover, on her side, was his belief that her ethical was milking the brindle cow. Four others stood waiting. “Ma,
motive in the argument was impregnable. I’ve enlisted,” he had said to her diffidently. There was a short
At last, however, he had made firm rebellion against this silence. “The Lord’s will be done, Henry,” she had finally re-
yellow light thrown upon the color of his ambitions. The news- plied, and had then continued to milk the brindle cow.
papers, the gossip of the village, his own picturings had aroused When he had stood in the doorway with his soldier’s clothes
him to an uncheckable degree. They were in truth fighting finely on his back, and with the light of excitement and expectancy
down there. Almost every day the newspapers printed ac- in his eyes almost defeating the glow of regret for the home
counts of a decisive victory. bonds, he had seen two tears leaving their trails on his
One night, as he lay in bed, the winds had carried to him mother’s scarred cheeks.
the clangoring of the church bell as some enthusiast jerked Still, she had disappointed him by saying nothing whatever
the rope frantically to tell the twisted news of a great battle. about returning with his shield or on it. He had privately primed
This voice of the people rejoicing in the night had made him himself for a beautiful scene. He had prepared certain sen-
shiver in a prolonged ecstasy of ex-citement. Later, he had tences which he thought could be used with touching effect.
gone down to his mother’s room and had spoken thus: “Ma, But her words destroyed his plans. She had doggedly peeled
I’m going to enlist.” potatoes and addressed him as follows: “You watch out, Henry,
“Henry, don’t you be a fool,” his mother had replied. She an’ take good care of yerself in this here fighting business—
had then covered her face with the quilt. There was an end to you watch out, an’ take good care of yerself. Don’t go a-
the matter for that night. thinkin’ you can lick the hull rebel army at the start, because

6
 Stephen Crane
yeh can’t. Yer jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others, yeh must never do no shirking, child, on my account. If so be
and yeh’ve got to keep quiet an’ do what they tell yeh. I know a time comes when yeh have to be kilt or do a mean thing,
how you are, Henry. why, Henry, don’t think of anything ‘cept what’s right, be-
“I’ve knet yeh eight pair of socks, Henry, and I’ve put in all cause there’s many a woman has to bear up ‘ginst sech things
yer best shirts, because I want my boy to be jest as warm and these times, and the Lord ‘ll take keer of us all.
comf’able as anybody in the army. Whenever they get holes in “Don’t forgit about the socks and the shirts, child; and I’ve
‘em, I want yeh to send ‘em right-away back to me, so’s I kin put a cup of blackberry jam with yer bundle, because I know
dern ‘em. yeh like it above all things. Good-by, Henry. Watch out, and
“An’ allus be careful an’ choose yer comp’ny. There’s lots be a good boy.”
of bad men in the army, Henry. The army makes ‘em wild, and He had, of course, been impatient under the ordeal of this
they like nothing better than the job of leading off a young speech. It had not been quite what he expected, and he had
feller like you, as ain’t never been away from home much and borne it with an air of irritation. He departed feeling vague
has allus had a mother, an’ a-learning ‘em to drink and swear. relief.
Keep clear of them folks, Henry. I don’t want yeh to ever do Still, when he had looked back from the gate, he had seen
any-thing, Henry, that yeh would be ‘shamed to let me know his mother kneeling among the po-tato parings. Her brown
about. Jest think as if I was a-watchin’ yeh. If yeh keep that in face, upraised, was stained with tears, and her spare form was
yer mind allus, I guess yeh’ll come out about right. quivering. He bowed his head and went on, feeling suddenly
“Yeh must allus remember yer father, too, child, an’ remem- ashamed of his purposes.
ber he never drunk a drop of licker in his life, and seldom From his home he had gone to the seminary to bid adieu to
swore a cross oath. many schoolmates. They had thronged about him with won-
“I don’t know what else to tell yeh, Henry, excepting that der and admiration. He had felt the gulf now between them

7
 The Red Badge of Courage
and had swelled with calm pride. He and some of his fellows After complicated journeyings with many pauses, there had
who had donned blue were quite over-whelmed with privi- come months of monotonous life in a camp. He had had the
leges for all of one afternoon, and it had been a very delicious belief that real war was a series of death struggles with small
thing. They had strutted. time in between for sleep and meals; but since his regiment
A certain light-haired girl had made vivacious fun at his mar- had come to the field the army had done little but sit still and
tial spirit, but there was another and darker girl whom he had try to keep warm.
gazed at steadfastly, and he thought she grew demure and sad He was brought then gradually back to his old ideas.
at sight of his blue and brass. As he had walked down the path Greeklike struggles would be no more. Men were better, or
between the rows of oaks, he had turned his head and de- more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the
tected her at a window watching his departure. As he per- throat-grap-pling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the
ceived her, she had im-mediately begun to stare up through passions.
the high tree branches at the sky. He had seen a good deal of He had grown to regard himself merely as a part of a vast
flurry and haste in her movement as she changed her attitude. blue demonstration. His province was to look out, as far as he
He often thought of it. could, for his per-sonal comfort. For recreation he could
On the way to Washington his spirit had soared. The regi- twiddle his thumbs and speculate on the thoughts which must
ment was fed and caressed at station after station until the agitate the minds of the generals. Also, he was drilled and
youth had believed that he must be a hero. There was a lavish drilled and reviewed, and drilled and drilled and reviewed.
ex-penditure of bread and cold meats, coffee, and pickles and The only foes he had seen were some pickets along the river
cheese. As he basked in the smiles of the girls and was patted bank. They were a sun-tanned, philosophical lot, who some-
and complimented by the old men, he had felt growing within times shot reflectively at the blue pickets. When reproached
him the strength to do mighty deeds of arms. for this afterward, they usually expressed sorrow, and swore

8
 Stephen Crane
by their gods that the guns had exploded without their permis- persistently yelled “Fresh fish!” at him, and were in no wise to
sion. The youth, on guard duty one night, conversed across the be trusted.
stream with one of them. He was a slightly ragged man, who However, he perceived now that it did not greatly matter what
spat skillfully between his shoes and possessed a great fund of kind of soldiers he was going to fight, so long as they fought,
bland and infantile assurance. The youth liked him personally. which fact no one disputed. There was a more serious problem.
“Yank,” the other had informed him, “yer a right dum good He lay in his bunk pondering upon it. He tried to mathematically
feller.” This sentiment, floating to him upon the still air, had prove to himself that he would not run from a battle.
made him tempo-rarily regret war. Previously he had never felt obliged to wrestle too seriously
Various veterans had told him tales. Some talked of gray, with this question. In his life he had taken certain things for granted,
bewhiskered hordes who were advancing with relentless curses never challeng-ing his belief in ultimate success, and bothering
and chewing tobacco with unspeakable valor; tremendous little about means and roads. But here he was confronted with a
bodies of fierce soldiery who were sweeping along like the thing of moment. It had sud-denly appeared to him that perhaps
Huns. Others spoke of tattered and eternally hungry men who in a battle he might run. He was forced to admit that as far as
fired despondent powders. “They’ll charge through hell’s fire war was concerned he knew nothing of himself.
an’ brimstone t’ git a holt on a haversack, an’ sech stomachs A sufficient time before he would have allowed the problem
ain’t a-lastin’ long,” he was told. From the stories, the youth to kick its heels at the outer portals of his mind, but now he felt
imagined the red, live bones sticking out through slits in the compelled to give serious attention to it.
faded uniforms. A little panic-fear grew in his mind. As his imagination went
Still, he could not put a whole faith in veter-ans’ tales, for forward to a fight, he saw hide-ous possibilities. He contem-
recruits were their prey. They talked much of smoke, fire, and plated the lurking menaces of the future, and failed in an effort
blood, but he could not tell how much might be lies. They to see himself standing stoutly in the midst of them. He recalled

9
 The Red Badge of Courage
his visions of broken-bladed glory, but in the shadow of the you don’t know everything in the world, do you?”
impending tumult he suspected them to be impossible pictures. “Didn’t say I knew everything in the world,” retorted the
He sprang from the bunk and began to pace nervously to other sharply. He began to stow various articles snugly into his
and fro. “Good Lord, what’s th’ matter with me?” he said knapsack.
aloud. The youth, pausing in his nervous walk, looked down at the
He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless. What- busy figure. “Going to be a battle, sure, is there, Jim?” he asked.
ever he had learned of himself was here of no avail. He was an “Of course there is,” replied the tall soldier. “Of course there
unknown quantity. He saw that he would again be obliged to is. You jest wait ‘til to-morrow, and you’ll see one of the big-
experi-ment as he had in early youth. He must accumu-late gest battles ever was. You jest wait.”
information of himself, and meanwhile he re-solved to remain “Thunder!der!” said the youth.
close upon his guard lest those qualities of which he knew “Oh, you’ll see fighting this time, my boy, what’ll be regular
nothing should ever-lastingly disgrace him. “Good Lord!” he out-and-out fighting,” added the tall soldier, with the air of a
re-peated in dismay. man who is about to exhibit a battle for the benefit of his friends.
After a time the tall soldier slid dexterously through the hole. “Huh!” said the loud one from a corner.
The loud private followed. They were wrangling. “Well,” remarked the youth, “like as not this story’ll turn out
“That’s all right,” said the tall soldier as he entered. He waved jest like them others did.”
his hand expressively. “You can believe me or not, jest as you “Not much it won’t,” replied the tall soldier, exasperated.
like. All you got to do is to sit down and wait as quiet as you “Not much it won’t. Didn’t the cavalry all start this morning?”
can. Then pretty soon you’ll find out I was right.” He glared about him. No one denied his statement. “The cav-
His comrade grunted stubbornly. For a mo-ment he seemed alry started this morning,” he continued. “They say there ain’t
to be searching for a formidable reply. Finally he said: “Well, hardly any cavalry left in camp. They’re going to Richmond,

10
 Stephen Crane
or some place, while we fight all the Johnnies. It’s some dodge under fire yet, and it ain’t likely they’ll lick the hull rebel army all-
like that. The regiment’s got orders, too. A feller what seen to-oncet the first time; but I think they’ll fight better than some, if
‘em go to headquarters told me a little while ago. And they’re worse than others. That’s the way I figger. They call the reg’ment
raising blazes all over camp—anybody can see that.” ‘Fresh fish’ and everything; but the boys come of good stock,
“Shucks!” said the loud one. and most of ‘em ‘ll fight like sin after they oncet git shootin’,” he
The youth remained silent for a time. At last he spoke to the added, with a mighty emphasis on the last four words.
tall soldier. “Jim!” “Oh, you think you know—” began the loud soldier with
“What?” scorn.
“How do you think the reg’ment ‘ll do?” The other turned savagely upon him. They had a rapid al-
“Oh, they’ll fight all right, I guess, after they once get into it,” tercation, in which they fastened upon each other various
said the other with cold judg-ment. He made a fine use of the strange epithets.
third person. “There’s been heaps of fun poked at ‘em be- The youth at last interrupted them. “Did you ever think you
cause they’re new, of course, and all that; but they’ll fight all might run yourself, Jim?” he asked. On concluding the sen-
right, I guess.” tence he laughed as if he had meant to aim a joke. The loud
“Think any of the boys ‘ll run?” persisted the youth. soldier also giggled.
“Oh, there may be a few of ‘em run, but there’s them kind in The tall private waved his hand. “Well,” said he profoundly,
every regiment, ‘specially when they first goes under fire,” said “I’ve thought it might get too hot for Jim Conklin in some of
the other in a tolerant way. “Of course it might happen that the them scrimmages, and if a whole lot of boys started and run,
hull kit-and-boodle might start and run, if some big fighting why, I s’pose I’d start and run. And if I once started to run,
came first-off, and then again they might stay and fight like fun. I’d run like the devil, and no mistake. But if everybody was a-
But you can’t bet on nothing. Of course they ain’t never been standing and a-fighting, why, I’d stand and fight. Be jiminey, I

11
 The Red Badge of Courage
would. I’ll bet on it.”
“Huh!” said the loud one.
CHAPTER II
The youth of this tale felt gratitude for these words of his
THE NEXT MORNING the youth discovered that his tall comrade
comrade. He had feared that all of the untried men possessed
had been the fast-flying messen-ger of a mistake. There was
a great and correct confidence. He now was in a measure
much scoffing at the latter by those who had yesterday been
reassured.
firm adherents of his views, and there was even a lit-tle sneering
by men who had never believed the rumor. The tall one fought
with a man from Chatfield Corners and beat him severely.
The youth felt, however, that his problem was in no wise lifted
from him. There was, on the contrary, an irritating prolongation.
The tale had created in him a great concern for himself. Now,
with the newborn question in his mind, he was compelled to
sink back into his old place as part of a blue demonstration.
For days he made ceaseless calculations, but they were all
wondrously unsatisfactory. He found that he could establish
nothing. He final-ly concluded that the only way to prove him-
self was to go into the blaze, and then figuratively to
18 watch his legs to discover their merits and faults. He re-
luctantly admitted that he could not sit still and with a mental
slate and pencil derive an answer. To gain it, he must have
blaze, blood, and danger, even as a chemist requires this, that,
12
 Stephen Crane
and the other. So he fretted for an opportunity. In regard to his companions his mind wa-vered between
Meanwhile he continually tried to measure himself by his two opinions, according to his mood. Sometimes he inclined
comrades. The tall soldier, for one, gave him some assurance. to believing them all heroes. In fact, he usually admitted in
This man’s se-rene unconcern dealt him a measure of con- secret the superior development of the higher qualities in oth-
fidence, for he had known him since childhood, and from his ers. He could conceive of men going very insignificantly about
intimate knowledge he did not see how he could be capable of the world bearing a load of courage unseen, and although he
anything that was beyond him, the youth. Still, he thought that had known many of his comrades through boyhood, he be-
his comrade might be mistaken about himself. Or, on the other gan to fear that his judgment of them had been blind. Then, in
hand, he might be a man here-tofore doomed to peace and other moments, he flouted these theories, and assured himself
obscurity, but, in reality, made to shine in war. that his fellows were all privately wondering and quaking.
The youth would have liked to have discov-ered another His emotions made him feel strange in the presence of men
who suspected himself. A sympa-thetic comparison of mental who talked excitedly of a pro-spective battle as of a drama
notes would have been a joy to him. they were about to witness, with nothing but eagerness and
He occasionally tried to fathom a comrade with seductive curiosity apparent in their faces. It was often that he sus-pected
sentences. He looked about to find men in the proper mood. them to be liars.
All attempts failed to bring forth any statement which looked He did not pass such thoughts without severe condemnation
in any way like a confession to those doubts which he pri- of himself. He dinned reproaches at times. He was convicted by
vately acknowledged in himself. He was afraid to make an himself of many shameful crimes against the gods of traditions.
open declaration of his concern, because he dreaded to place In his great anxiety his heart was continually clamoring at
some unscrupulous confidant upon the high plane of the un- what he considered the intolerable slowness of the generals.
confessed from which elevation he could be derided. They seemed content to perch tranquilly on the river bank,

13
 The Red Badge of Courage
and leave him bowed down by the weight of a great prob-lem. ment come to his ears. Staring once at the red eyes across the
He wanted it settled forthwith. He could not long bear such a river, he conceived them to be grow-ing larger, as the orbs of a
load, he said. Sometimes his anger at the commanders reached row of dragons ad-vancing. He turned toward the colonel and
an acute stage, and he grumbled about the camp like a veteran. saw him lift his gigantic arm and calmly stroke his mustache.
One morning, however, he found himself in the ranks of his At last he heard from along the road at the foot of the hill the
prepared regiment. The men were whispering speculations and clatter of a horse’s galloping hoofs. It must be the coming of
recounting the old rumors. In the gloom before the break of orders. He bent forward, scarce breathing. The exciting
the day their uniforms glowed a deep purple hue. From across clickety-click, as it grew louder and louder, seemed to be beat-
the river the red eyes were still peering. In the eastern sky ing upon his soul. Presently a horseman with jangling equip-
there was a yel-low patch like a rug laid for the feet of the ment drew rein be-fore the colonel of the regiment. The two
com-ing sun; and against it, black and patternlike, loomed the held a short, sharp-worded conversation. The men in the fore-
gigantic figure of the colonel on a gigantic horse. most ranks craned their necks.
From off in the darkness came the trampling of feet. The As the horseman wheeled his animal and gal-loped away he
youth could occasionally see dark shadows that moved like turned to shout over his shoulder, “Don’t forget that box of
monsters. The regi-ment stood at rest for what seemed a long cigars!” The colonel mumbled in reply. The youth wondered
time. The youth grew impatient. It was unendurable the way what a box of cigars had to do with war.
these affairs were managed. He won-dered how long they were A moment later the regiment went swinging off into the dark-
to be kept waiting. ness. It was now like one of those moving monsters wending
As he looked all about him and pondered upon the mystic with many feet. The air was heavy, and cold with dew. A mass
gloom, he began to believe that at any moment the ominous of wet grass, marched upon, rustled like silk.
distance might be aflare, and the rolling crashes of an engage- There was an occasional flash and glimmer of steel from the

14
 Stephen Crane
backs of all these huge crawl-ing reptiles. From the road came themselves upon it. But there were others who said that the tall
creakings and grumblings as some surly guns were dragged away. one’s plan was not the true one at all. They per-sisted with
The men stumbled along still muttering specu-lations. There other theories. There was a vigorous discussion.
was a subdued debate. Once a man fell down, and as he The youth took no part in them. As he walked along in
reached for his rifle a comrade, unseeing, trod upon his hand. careless line he was engaged with his own eternal debate.
He of the injured fingers swore bitterly and aloud. A low, tit- He could not hin-der himself from dwelling upon it. He was
tering laugh went among his fellows. de-spondent and sullen, and threw shifting glances about him.
Presently they passed into a roadway and marched forward He looked ahead, often expecting to hear from the advance
with easy strides. A dark regiment moved before them, and the rattle of firing.
from behind also came the tinkle of equipments on the bodies But the long serpents crawled slowly from hill to hill without
of marching men. bluster of smoke. A dun-col-ored cloud of dust floated away
The rushing yellow of the developing day went on behind to the right. The sky overhead was of a fairy blue.
their backs. When the sunrays at last struck full and mellowingly The youth studied the faces of his compan-ions, ever on the
upon the earth, the youth saw that the landscape was streaked watch to detect kindred emo-tions. He suffered disappoint-
with two long, thin, black columns which disappeared on the ment. Some ardor of the air which was causing the veteran
brow of a hill in front and rearward vanished in a wood. They com-mands to move with glee—almost with song—had in-
were like two serpents crawling from the cavern of the night. fected the new regiment. The men began to speak of victory
The river was not in view. The tall soldier burst into praises as of a thing they knew. Also, the tall soldier received his vin-
of what he thought to be his powers of perception. dication. They were certainly going to come around in behind
Some of the tall one’s companions cried with emphasis that the enemy. They expressed commisera-tion for that part of the
they, too, had evolved the same thing, and they congratulated army which had been left upon the river bank, felicitating them-

15
 The Red Badge of Courage
selves upon being a part of a blasting host. fects in his personal ap-pearance; and they were wildly enthu-
The youth, considering himself as separated from the others, siastic in support of the young girl.
was saddened by the blithe and merry speeches that went To her, from some distance, came bold advice. “Hit him
from rank to rank. The company wags all made their best with a stick.”
endeav-ors. The regiment tramped to the tune of laughter. There were crows and catcalls showered upon him when
The blatant soldier often convulsed whole files by his biting he retreated without the horse. The regiment rejoiced at his
sarcasms aimed at the tall one. downfall. Loud and vociferous congratulations were show-
And it was not long before all the men seemed to forget ered upon the maiden, who stood panting and regard-ing the
their mission. Whole brigades grinned in unison, and regi- troops with defiance.
ments laughed. At nightfall the column broke into regimental pieces, and
A rather fat soldier attempted to pilfer a horse from a the fragments went into the fields to camp. Tents sprang up
dooryard. He planned to load his knap-sack upon it. He was like strange plants. Camp fires, like red, peculiar blossoms,
escaping with his prize when a young girl rushed from the house dotted the night.
and grabbed the animal’s mane. There followed a wrangle. The youth kept from intercourse with his companions as much
The young girl, with pink cheeks and shining eyes, stood like a as circumstances would allow him. In the evening he wan-
dauntless statue. dered a few paces into the gloom. From this little distance the
The observant regiment, standing at rest in the roadway, many fires, with the black forms of men pass-ing to and fro
whooped at once, and entered whole-souled upon the side of before the crimson rays, made weird and satanic effects.
the maiden. The men became so engrossed in this affair that He lay down in the grass. The blades pressed tenderly against
they entirely ceased to remember their own large war. They his cheek. The moon had been lighted and was hung in a tree-
jeered the piratical private, and called attention to various de- top. The liquid stillness of the night enveloping him made him

16
 Stephen Crane
feel vast pity for himself. There was a caress in the soft winds; getting blue, my boy. You’re looking thundering peeked. What
and the whole mood of the darkness, he thought, was one of the dickens is wrong with you?”
sympathy for himself in his distress. “Oh, nothing,” said the youth.
He wished, without reserve, that he was at home again mak- The loud soldier launched then into the sub-ject of the an-
ing the endless rounds from the house to the barn, from the barn ticipated fight. “Oh, we’ve got ‘em now!” As he spoke his
to the fields, from the fields to the barn, from the barn to the boyish face was wreathed in a gleeful smile, and his voice had
house. He remembered he had often cursed the brindle cow an exultant ring. “We’ve got ‘em now. At last, by the eternal
and her mates, and had sometimes flung milking stools. But, thunders, we’ll lick ‘em good!”
from his present point of view, there was a halo of happiness “If the truth was known,” he added, more soberly, “They’ve
about each of their heads, and he would have sacrificed all the licked us about every clip up to now; but this time—this time—
brass buttons on the continent to have been enabled to return to we’ll lick ‘em good!”
them. He told himself that he was not formed for a soldier. And “I thought you was objecting to this march a little while ago,”
he mused seriously upon the radical differences between himself said the youth coldly.
and those men who were dodging imp-like around the fires. “Oh, it wasn’t that,” explained the other. “I don’t mind march-
As he mused thus he heard the rustle of grass, and, upon ing, if there’s going to be fight-ing at the end of it. What I hate
turning his head, discovered the loud soldier. He called out, is this getting moved here and moved there, with no good com-
“Oh, Wilson!” ing of it, as far as I can see, excepting sore feet and damned
The latter approached and looked down. “Why, hello, Henry; short rations.”
is it you? What you do-ing here?” “Well, Jim Conklin says we’ll get a plenty of fighting this time.”
“Oh, thinking,” said the youth. “He’s right for once, I guess, though I can’t see how it come.
The other sat down and carefully lighted his pipe. “You’re This time we’re in for a big battle, and we’ve got the best end

17
 The Red Badge of Courage
of it, certain sure. Gee rod! how we will thump ‘em!” going to skedaddle. The man that bets on my running will lose
He arose and began to pace to and fro excit-edly. The thrill his money, that’s all.” He nodded confidently.
of his enthusiasm made him walk with an elastic step. He was “Oh, shucks!” said the youth. “You ain’t the bravest man in
sprightly, vigorous, fiery in his belief in success. He looked into the world, are you?”
the future with clear, proud eye, and he swore with the air of “No, I ain’t,” exclaimed the loud soldier in-dignantly; “and I
an old soldier. didn’t say I was the bravest man in the world, neither. I said I
The youth watched him for a moment in silence. When he was going to do my share of fighting—that’s what I said. And
finally spoke his voice was as bitter as dregs. “Oh, you’re I am, too. Who are you, anyhow. You talk as if you thought
going to do great things, I s’pose!” you was Napoleon Bonaparte.” He glared at the youth for a
The loud soldier blew a thoughtful cloud of smoke from his moment, and then strode away.
pipe. “Oh, I don’t know,” he remarked with dignity; “I don’t The youth called in a savage voice after his comrade: “Well,
know. I s’pose I’ll do as well as the rest. I’m going to try like you needn’t git mad about it!” But the other continued on his
thunder.” He evidently complimented himself upon the mod- way and made no reply.
esty of this statement. He felt alone in space when his injured com-rade had disap-
“How do you know you won’t run when the time comes?” peared. His failure to discover any mite of resemblance in their
asked the youth. view points made him more miserable than before. No one
“Run?” said the loud one; “run?—of course not!” He laughed. seemed to be wrestling with such a terrific per-sonal problem.
“Well,” continued the youth, “lots of good-a-’nough men He was a mental outcast.
have thought they was going to do great things before the fight, He went slowly to his tent and stretched him-self on a blan-
but when the time come they skedaddled.” ket by the side of the snoring tall soldier. In the darkness he
“Oh, that’s all true, I s’pose,” replied the other; “but I’m not saw visions of a thou-sand-tongued fear that would babble at

18
 Stephen Crane
his back and cause him to flee, while others were going coolly
about their country’s business. He admit-ted that he would
CHAPTER III
not be able to cope with this monster. He felt that every nerve
WHEN ANOTHER NIGHT came the columns, changed to purple
in his body would be an ear to hear the voices, while other
streaks, filed across two pon-toon bridges. A glaring fire wine-
men would remain stolid and deaf.
tinted the waters of the river. Its rays, shining upon the moving
And as he sweated with the pain of these thoughts, he could
masses of troops, brought forth here and there sudden gleams
hear low, serene sentences. “I’ll bid five.” “Make it six.”
of silver or gold. Upon the other shore a dark and mysterious
“Seven.” “Seven goes.”
range of hills was curved against the sky. The insect voices of
He stared at the red, shivering reflection of a fire on the
the night sang solemnly.
white wall of his tent until, ex-hausted and ill from the mo-
After this crossing the youth assured himself that at any mo-
notony of his suf-fering, he fell asleep.
ment they might be suddenly and fearfully assaulted from the
caves of the lowering woods. He kept his eyes watchfully upon
the darkness.
But his regiment went unmolested to a camp-ing place, and
its soldiers slept the brave sleep of wearied men. In the morn-
ing they were routed out with early energy, and hustled along a
narrow road that led deep into the forest.
It was during this rapid march that the regiment lost many of
the marks of a new com-mand.
The men had begun to count the miles upon their fingers,
and they grew tired. “Sore feet an’ damned short rations, that’s
19
 The Red Badge of Courage
all,” said the loud soldier. There was perspiration and grum-blings. Also, there was too great a similarity in the hats. The hats of
After a time they began to shed their knapsacks. Some tossed a regiment should properly represent the history of headgear
them unconcernedly down; others hid them carefully, asserting for a period of years. And, moreover, there were no letters of
their plans to return for them at some convenient time. Men extri- faded gold speaking from the colors. They were new and beau-
cated themselves from thick shirts. Presently few carried anything tiful, and the color bearer habitu-ally oiled the pole.
but their necessary clothing, blankets, haversacks, canteens, and Presently the army again sat down to think. The odor of the
arms and ammunition. “You can now eat and shoot,” said the tall peaceful pines was in the men’s nostrils. The sound of mo-
soldier to the youth. “That’s all you want to do.” notonous axe blows rang through the forest, and the insects,
There was sudden change from the ponderous infantry of nodding upon their perches, crooned like old women. The
theory to the light and speedy infantry of practice. The regi- youth returned to his theory of a blue dem-onstration.
ment, relieved of a burden, received a new impetus. But there One gray dawn, however, he was kicked in the leg by the
was much loss of valuable knapsacks, and, on the whole, very tall soldier, and then, before he was entirely awake, he found
good shirts. himself running down a wood road in the midst of men who
But the regiment was not yet veteranlike in appearance. Vet- were panting from the first effects of speed. His can-teen
eran regiments in the army were likely to be very small aggre- banged rhythmically upon his thigh, and his haversack bobbed
gations of men. Once, when the command had first come to softly. His musket bounced a trifle from his shoulder at each
the field, some perambulating veterans, noting the length of stride and made his cap feel uncertain upon his head.
their column, had accosted them thus: “Hey, fellers, what bri- He could hear the men whisper jerky sen-tences: “Say—
gade is that?” And when the men had replied that they formed what’s all this—about?” “What th’ thunder—we—skedaddlin’
a regiment and not a brigade, the older soldiers had laughed, this way fer?” “Billie—keep off m’ feet. Yeh run—like a cow.”
and said, “O Gawd!” And the loud soldier’s shrill voice could be heard: “What th’

20
 Stephen Crane
devil they in sich a hurry for?” He had been dragged by the merciless government. And now
The youth thought the damp fog of early morning moved they were taking him out to be slaughtered.
from the rush of a great body of troops. From the distance The regiment slid down a bank and wallowed across a
came a sudden spatter of firing. little stream. The mournful current moved slowly on, and from
He was bewildered. As he ran with his com-rades he strenu- the water, shaded black, some white bubble eyes looked at
ously tried to think, but all he knew was that if he fell down the men.
those coming behind would tread upon him. All his faculties As they climbed the hill on the farther side artillery began to
seemed to be needed to guide him over and past obstruc- boom. Here the youth forgot many things as he felt a sudden
tions. He felt carried along by a mob. impulse of curi-osity. He scrambled up the bank with a speed
The sun spread disclosing rays, and, one by one, regiments that could not be exceeded by a bloodthirsty man.
burst into view like armed men just born of the earth. The He expected a battle scene.
youth perceived that the time had come. He was about to be There were some little fields girted and squeezed by a for-
measured. For a moment he felt in the face of his great trial like est. Spread over the grass and in among the tree trunks, he
a babe, and the flesh over his heart seemed very thin. He seized could see knots and waving lines of skirmishers who were
time to look about him calculatingly. running hither and thither and firing at the landscape. A dark
But he instantly saw that it would be impossi-ble for him to battle line lay upon a sunstruck clearing that gleamed orange
escape from the regiment. It in-closed him. And there were color. A flag fluttered.
iron laws of tradi-tion and law on four sides. He was in a Other regiments floundered up the bank. The brigade was
moving box. formed in line of battle, and after a pause started slowly through
As he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never the woods in the rear of the receding skirmishers, who were
wished to come to the war. He had not enlisted of his free will. con-tinually melting into the scene to appear again farther on.

21
 The Red Badge of Courage
They were always busy as bees, deeply absorbed in their little keenly at the ashen face. The wind raised the tawny beard. It
combats. moved as if a hand were stroking it. He vaguely desired to walk
The youth tried to observe everything. He did not use care around and around the body and stare; the impulse of the living
to avoid trees and branches, and his forgotten feet were con- to try to read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.
stantly knocking against stones or getting entangled in briers. During the march the ardor which the youth had acquired when
He was aware that these battalions with their commotions were out of view of the field rapidly faded to nothing. His curiosity
woven red and startling into the gentle fabric of softened greens was quite easily satisfied. If an intense scene had caught him
and browns. It looked to be a wrong place for a battle field. with its wild swing as he came to the top of the bank, he might
The skirmishers in advance fascinated him. Their shots into have gone roaring on. This advance upon Nature was too calm.
thickets and at distant and prominent trees spoke to him of He had opportunity to reflect. He had time in which to wonder
tragedies—hid-den, mysterious, solemn. about himself and to attempt to probe his sensa-tions.
Once the line encountered the body of a dead soldier. He Absurd ideas took hold upon him. He thought that he did
lay upon his back staring at the sky. He was dressed in an not relish the landscape. It threatened him. A coldness swept
awkward suit of yellowish brown. The youth could see that over his back, and it is true that his trousers felt to him that they
the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinness of writing were no fit for his legs at all.
paper, and from a great rent in one the dead foot projected A house standing placidly in distant fields had to him an omi-
piteously. And it was as if fate had betrayed the soldier. In nous look. The shadows of the woods were formidable. He
death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he was certain that in this vista there lurked fierce-eyed hosts.
had perhaps concealed from his friends. The swift thought came to him that the generals did not know
The ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse. The invulner- what they were about. It was all a trap. Suddenly those close
able dead man forced a way for him-self. The youth looked forests would bristle with rifle barrels. Ironlike brigades would

22
 Stephen Crane
ap-pear in the rear. They were all going to be sacrificed. The As he looked the youth gripped his outcry at his throat. He
generals were stupids. The enemy would presently swallow saw that even if the men were tottering with fear they would
the whole com-mand. He glared about him, expecting to see laugh at his warn-ing. They would jeer him, and, if practicable,
the stealthy approach of his death. pelt him with missiles. Admitting that he might be wrong, a
He thought that he must break from the ranks and harangue frenzied declamation of the kind would turn him into a worm.
his comrades. They must not all be killed like pigs; and he was He assumed, then, the demeanor of one who knows that he
sure it would come to pass unless they were informed of these is doomed alone to unwritten re-sponsibilities. He lagged, with
dangers. The generals were idiots to send them marching into tragic glances at the sky.
a regular pen. There was but one pair of eyes in the corps. He He was surprised presently by the young lieu-tenant of his
would step forth and make a speech. Shrill and passionate company, who began heartily to beat him with a sword, calling
words came to his lips. out in a loud and insolent voice: “Come, young man, get up
The line, broken into moving fragments by the ground, went into ranks there. No skulking’ll do here.” He mend-ed his pace
calmly on through fields and woods. The youth looked at the with suitable haste. And he hated the lieutenant, who had no
men nearest him, and saw, for the most part, expressions of appreciation of fine minds. He was a mere brute.
deep inter-est, as if they were investigating something that had After a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a
fascinated them. One or two stepped with overvaliant airs as if forest. The busy skirmish-ers were still popping. Through the
they were already plunged into war. Others walked as upon aisles of the wood could be seen the floating smoke from their
thin ice. The greater part of the untested men appeared quiet rifles. Sometimes it went up in little balls, white and compact.
and absorbed. They were going to look at war, the red ani- During this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny
mal—war, the blood-swollen god. And they were deeply en- hills in front of them. They used stones, sticks, earth, and any-
grossed in this march. thing they thought might turn a bullet. Some built com-paratively

23
 The Red Badge of Courage
large ones, while others seemed con-tent with little ones. in a battle. He saw his sal-vation in such a change. Hence this
This procedure caused a discussion among the men. Some waiting was an ordeal to him. He was in a fever of im-pa-
wished to fight like duelists, believ-ing it to be correct to stand tience. He considered that there was denoted a lack of pur-
erect and be, from their feet to their foreheads, a mark. They pose on the part of the generals. He began to complain to the
said they scorned the devices of the cautious. But the others tall soldier. “I can’t stand this much longer,” he cried. “I don’t
scoffed in reply, and pointed to the veterans on the flanks who see what good it does to make us wear out our legs for nothin’.”
were digging at the ground like terriers. In a short time there He wished to return to camp, knowing that this affair was a
was quite a barricade along the regimental fronts. Directly, blue demonstration; or else to go into a battle and discover
however, they were ordered to with-draw from that place. that he had been a fool in his doubts, and was, in truth, a man
This astounded the youth. He forgot his stewing over the of traditional courage. The strain of present circumstances he
advance movement. “Well, then, what did they march us out felt to be intolerable.
here for?” he demanded of the tall soldier. The latter with calm The philosophical tall soldier measured a sand-wich of
faith began a heavy explanation, although he had been com- cracker and pork and swallowed it in a nonchalant manner.
pelled to leave a little protection of stones and dirt to which he “Oh, I suppose we must go reconnoitering around the country
had devoted much care and skill. jest to keep ‘em from getting too close, or to develop ‘em, or
When the regiment was aligned in another position each man’s something.”
regard for his safety caused another line of small intrenchments. “Huh!” said the loud soldier.
They ate their noon meal behind a third one. They were moved “Well,” cried the youth, still fidgeting, “I’d rather do anything
from this one also. They were marched from place to place ‘most than go tramping ‘round the country all day doing no
with apparent aimlessness. good to nobody and jest tiring ourselves out.”
The youth had been taught that a man be-came another thing “So would I,” said the loud soldier. “It ain’t right. I tell you if

24
 Stephen Crane
anybody with any sense was a-runnin’ this army it—” In the afternoon the regiment went out over the same ground
“Oh, shut up!” roared the tall private. “You little fool. You it had taken in the morn-ing. The landscape then ceased to
little damn’ cuss. You ain’t had that there coat and them pants threaten the youth. He had been close to it and become famil-
on for six months, and yet you talk as if—” iar with it.
“Well, I wanta do some fighting anyway,” interrupted the When, however, they began to pass into a new region, his
other. “I didn’t come here to walk. I could ‘ave walked to old fears of stupidity and in-competence reassailed him, but
home—’round an’ ‘round the barn, if I jest wanted to walk.” this time he dog-gedly let them babble. He was occupied with
The tall one, red-faced, swallowed another sandwich as if his problem, and in his desperation he concluded that the stu-
taking poison in despair. pidity did not greatly matter.
But gradually, as he chewed, his face became again quiet and Once he thought he had concluded that it would be better to
contented. He could not rage in fierce argument in the presence get killed directly and end his troubles. Regarding death thus out
of such sand-wiches. During his meals he always wore an air of of the corner of his eye, he conceived it to be noth-ing but rest,
blissful contemplation of the food he had swal-lowed. His spirit and he was filled with a momen-tary astonishment that he should
seemed then to be communing with the viands. have made an extraordinary commotion over the mere matter
He accepted new environment and circum-stance with great of getting killed. He would die; he would go to some place where
coolness, eating from his haver-sack at every opportunity. On he would be understood. It was useless to expect appreciation
the march he went along with the stride of a hunter, object-ing to of his pro-found and fine senses from such men as the lieu-
neither gait nor distance. And he had not raised his voice when tenant. He must look to the grave for compre-hension.
he had been ordered away from three little protective piles of The skirmish fire increased to a long chatter-ing sound. With
earth and stone, each of which had been an engineer-ing feat it was mingled far-away cheer-ing. A battery spoke.
worthy of being made sacred to the name of his grandmother. Directly the youth would see the skirmishers running. They

25
 The Red Badge of Courage
were pursued by the sound of musketry fire. After a time the “I’m a gone coon this first time and—and I w-want you to
hot, dangerous flashes of the rifles were visible. Smoke clouds take these here things—to—my—folks.” He ended in a qua-
went slowly and insolently across the fields like observant vering sob of pity for himself. He handed the youth a little
phantoms. The din became crescendo, like the roar of an packet done up in a yellow envelope.
oncoming train. “Why, what the devil—” began the youth again.
A brigade ahead of them and on the right went into action But the other gave him a glance as from the depths of a
with a rending roar. It was as if it had exploded. And thereafter tomb, and raised his limp hand in a prophetic manner and turned
it lay stretched in the distance behind a long gray wall, that one away.
was obliged to look twice at to make sure that it was smoke.
The youth, forgetting his neat plan of getting killed, gazed
spell bound. His eyes grew wide and busy with the action of
the scene. His mouth was a little ways open.
Of a sudden he felt a heavy and sad hand laid upon his shoul-
der. Awakening from his trance of observation he turned and
beheld the loud soldier.
“It’s my first and last battle, old boy,” said the latter, with in-
tense gloom. He was quite pale and his girlish lip was trembling.
“Eh?” murmured the youth in great aston-ishment.
“It’s my first and last battle, old boy,” continued the loud
soldier. “Something tells me—”
“What?”

26
 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER IV sech fightin’ as never another one reg’ment done.”

“They say we’re catchin’ it over on th’ left. They say th’
enemy driv’ our line inteh a devil of a swamp an’ took Hannises’
THE BRIGADE WAS halted in the fringe of a grove. The men
batt’ry.”
crouched among the trees and pointed their restless guns out
“No sech thing. Hannises’ batt’ry was ‘long here ‘bout a
at the fields. They tried to look beyond the smoke.
minute ago.”
Out of this haze they could see running men. Some shouted
“That young Hasbrouck, he makes a good off’cer. He ain’t
information and gestured as they hurried.
afraid ‘a nothin’.”
The men of the new regiment watched and listened eagerly,
“I met one of th’ 148th Maine boys an’ he ses his brigade fit
while their tongues ran on in gossip of the battle. They mouthed
th’ hull rebel army fer four hours over on th’ turnpike road an’
rumors that had flown like birds out of the unknown.
killed about five thousand of ‘em. He ses one more sech fight
“They say Perry has been driven in with big loss.”
as that an’ th’ war ‘ll be over.”
“Yes, Carrott went t’ th’ hospital. He said he was sick. That
“Bill wasn’t scared either. No, sir! It wasn’t that. Bill ain’t a-
smart lieutenant is commanding ‘G’ Company. Th’ boys say
gittin’ scared easy. He was jest mad, that’s what he was. When
they won’t be under Carrott no more if they all have t’ desert.
that feller trod on his hand, he up an’ sed that he was willin’ t’
They allus knew he was a—”
give his hand t’ his country, but he be dumbed if he was goin’
“Hannises’ batt’ry is took.”
t’ have every dumb bushwhacker in th’ kentry walkin’ ‘round
“It ain’t either. I saw Hannises’ batt’ry off on th’ left not
on it. Se he went t’ th’ hospital disregardless of th’ fight. Three
more’n fifteen minutes ago.”
fingers was crunched. Th’ dern doctor wanted t’ amputate
“Well—”
‘m, an’ Bill, he raised a heluva row, I hear. He’s a funny feller.”
“Th’ general, he ses he is goin’ t’ take th’ hull cammand of
The din in front swelled to a tremendous chorus. The youth
th’ 304th when we go inteh action, an’ then he ses we’ll do
27
 The Red Badge of Courage
and his fellows were frozen to silence. They could see a flag arm, produced a handkerchief and began to bind with it the
that tossed in the smoke angrily. Near it were the blurred and lieutenant’s wound. And they disputed as to how the binding
agitated forms of troops. There came a turbulent stream of should be done.
men across the fields. A battery chang-ing position at a frantic The battle flag in the distance jerked about madly. It seemed
gallop scattered the stragglers right and left. to be struggling to free itself from an agony. The billowing smoke
A shell screaming like a storm banshee went over the huddled was filled with horizontal flashes.
heads of the reserves. It landed in the grove, and exploding Men running swiftly emerged from it. They grew in numbers
redly flung the brown earth. There was a little shower of pine until it was seen that the whole command was fleeing. The flag
needles. suddenly sank down as if dying. Its motion as it fell was a
Bullets began to whistle among the branches and nip at the gesture of despair.
trees. Twigs and leaves came sailing down. It was as if a thou- Wild yells came from behind the walls of smoke. A sketch in
sand axes, wee and invisible, were being wielded. Many of gray and red dissolved into a moblike body of men who gal-
the men were constantly dodging and ducking their heads. loped like wild horses.
The lieutenant of the youth’s company was shot in the hand. The veteran regiments on the right and left of the 304th im-
He began to swear so won-drously that a nervous laugh went mediately began to jeer. With the passionate song of the bul-
along the regi-mental line. The officer’s profanity sounded con- lets and the banshee shrieks of shells were mingled loud cat-
ventional. It relieved the tightened senses of the new men. It calls and bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety.
was as if he had hit his fingers with a tack hammer at home. But the new regiment was breathless with hor-ror. “Gawd!
He held the wounded member carefully away from his side Saunders’s got crushed!” whis-pered the man at the youth’s
so that the blood would not drip upon his trousers. elbow. They shrank back and crouched as if compelled to
The captain of the company, tucking his sword under his await a flood.

28
 Stephen Crane
The youth shot a swift glance along the blue ranks of the not even con-scious of the presence of an audience.
regiment. The profiles were motion-less, carven; and after- The battle reflection that shone for an instant in the faces on
ward he remembered that the color sergeant was standing with the mad current made the youth feel that forceful hands from
his legs apart, as if he expected to be pushed to the ground. heaven would not have been able to have held him in place if
The following throng went whirling around the flank. Here he could have got intelligent control of his legs.
and there were officers carried along on the stream like exas- There was an appalling imprint upon these faces. The struggle
perated chips. They were striking about them with their swords in the smoke had pictured an exaggeration of itself on the
and with their left fists, punching every head they could reach. bleached cheeks and in the eyes wild with one desire.
They cursed like highway-men. The sight of this stampede exerted a floodlike force that
A mounted officer displayed the furious anger of a spoiled seemed able to drag sticks and stones and men from the ground.
child. He raged with his head, his arms, and his legs. They of the reserves had to hold on. They grew pale and firm,
Another, the commander of the brigade, was galloping about and red and quaking.
bawling. His hat was gone and his clothes were awry. He re- The youth achieved one little thought in the midst of this chaos.
sembled a man who has come from bed to go to a fire. The The composite monster which had caused the other troops to
hoofs of his horse often threatened the heads of the running flee had not then appeared. He resolved to get a view of it,
men, but they scampered with sin-gular fortune. In this rush and then, he thought he might very likely run better than the
they were apparently all deaf and blind. They heeded not the best of them.
largest and longest of the oaths that were thrown at them from
all directions.
Frequently over this tumult could be heard the grim jokes of
the critical veterans; but the retreating men apparently were

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 The Red Badge of Courage

CHAPTER V his throat with ex-quisite attention to its position, when the cry
was repeated up and down the line in a muffled roar of sound.
“Here they come! Here they come!” Gun locks clicked.
THERE WERE MOMENTS of waiting. The youth thought of the
Across the smoke-infested fields came a brown swarm of
village street at home before the arrival of the circus parade on
running men who were giving shrill yells. They came on, stoop-
a day in the spring. He remembered how he had stood, a
ing and swinging their rifles at all angles. A flag, tilted forward,
small, thrillful boy, prepared to follow the dingy lady upon the
sped near the front.
white horse, or the band in its faded chariot. He saw the yel-
As he caught sight of them the youth was momentarily startled
low road, the lines of expectant people, and the sober houses.
by a thought that perhaps his gun was not loaded. He stood
He particularly remembered an old fellow who used to sit upon
trying to rally his faltering intellect so that he might rec-ollect
a cracker box in front of the store and feign to despise such
the moment when he had loaded, but he could not.
exhibitions. A thousand details of color and form surged in his
A hatless general pulled his dripping horse to a stand near
mind. The old fellow upon the cracker box ap-peared in middle
the colonel of the 304th. He shook his fist in the other’s face.
prominence.
“You ‘ve got to hold ‘em back!” he shouted, savagely; “you
Some one cried, “Here they come!”
‘ve got to hold ‘em back!”
There was rustling and muttering among the men. They dis-
In his agitation the colonel began to stammer. “A-all r-right,
played a feverish desire to have every possible cartridge ready
General, all right, by Gawd! We-we’ll do our—we-we’ll d-d-
to their hands. The boxes were pulled around into various posi-
do—do our best, Gen-eral.” The general made a passionate
tions, and adjusted with great care. It was as if seven hundred
gesture and galloped away. The colonel, perchance to relieve
new bonnets were being tried on.
his feelings, began to scold like a wet parrot. The youth, turn-
The tall soldier, having prepared his rifle, pro-duced a red
ing swiftly to make sure that the rear was unmolested, saw the
handkerchief of some kind. He was engaged in knitting it about
30
 Stephen Crane
com-mander regarding his men in a highly regretful manner, as He suddenly lost concern for himself, and for-got to look at
if he regretted above everything his association with them. a menacing fate. He became not a man but a member. He felt
The man at the youth’s elbow was mumbling, as if to himself: that something of which he was a part—a regiment, an army, a
“Oh, we ‘re in for it now! oh, we ‘re in for it now!” cause, or a country—was in a crisis. He was welded into a
The captain of the company had been pacing excitedly to common personality which was dominated by a single desire.
and fro in the rear. He coaxed in schoolmistress fashion, as to For some mo-ments he could not flee no more than a little
a congregation of boys with primers. His talk was an endless finger can commit a revolution from a hand.
repetition. “Reserve your fire, boys—don’t shoot till I tell you— If he had thought the regiment was about to be annihi-
save your fire—wait till they get close up—don’t be damned lated perhaps he could have amputated himself from it. But
fools—” its noise gave him assur-ance. The regiment was like a fire-
Perspiration streamed down the youth’s face, which was work that, once ignited, proceeds superior to circumstances
soiled like that of a weeping urchin. He frequently, with a ner- until its blazing vitality fades. It wheezed and banged with a
vous movement, wiped his eyes with his coat sleeve. His mouth mighty power. He pictured the ground before it as strewn
was still a little ways open. with the discom-fited.
He got the one glance at the foe-swarming field in front of There was a consciousness always of the pres-ence of his
him, and instantly ceased to de-bate the question of his piece comrades about him. He felt the subtle battle brotherhood more
being loaded. Be-fore he was ready to begin—before he had potent even than the cause for which they were fighting. It was
an-nounced to himself that he was about to fight—he threw a mysterious fraternity born of the smoke and dan-ger of death.
the obedient, well-balanced rifle into position and fired a first He was at a task. He was like a carpenter who has made
wild shot. Directly he was working at his weapon like an auto- many boxes, making still another box, only there was furious
matic affair. haste in his move-ments. He, in his thought, was careering off

31
 The Red Badge of Courage
in other places, even as the carpenter who as he works whistles There was a blare of heated rage mingled with a certain
and thinks of his friend or his enemy, his home or a saloon. expression of intentness on all faces. Many of the men were
And these jolted dreams were never perfect to him afterward, making low-toned noises with their mouths, and these sub-
but remained a mass of blurred shapes. dued cheers, snarls, imprecations, prayers, made a wild, bar-
Presently he began to feel the effects of the war atmosphere— baric song that went as an undercurrent of sound, strange and
a blistering sweat, a sensation that his eyeballs were about to chantlike with the resounding chords of the war march. The
crack like hot stones. A burning roar filled his ears. man at the youth’s elbow was babbling. In it there was some-
Following this came a red rage. He devel-oped the acute thing soft and tender like the monologue of a babe. The tall
exasperation of a pestered animal, a well-meaning cow wor- soldier was swearing in a loud voice. From his lips came a
ried by dogs. He had a mad feeling against his rifle, which black procession of curious oaths. Of a sudden another broke
could only be used against one life at a time. He wished to rush out in a querulous way like a man who has mislaid his hat.
forward and strangle with his fingers. He craved a power that “Well, why don’t they support us? Why don’t they send sup-
would enable him to make a world-sweeping gesture and brush ports? Do they think—”
all back. His impotency appeared to him, and made his rage The youth in his battle sleep heard this as one who dozes
into that of a driven beast. hears.
Buried in the smoke of many rifles his anger was directed There was a singular absence of heroic poses. The men bend-
not so much against the men whom he knew were rushing ing and surging in their haste and rage were in every impos-
toward him as against the swirling battle phantoms which were sible attitude. The steel ramrods clanked and clanged with in-
choking him, stuffing their smoke robes down his parched cessant din as the men pounded them furiously into the hot rifle
throat. He fought frantically for respite for his senses, for air, barrels. The flaps of the cartridge boxes were all unfastened,
as a babe being smothered attacks the deadly blankets. and bobbed idiotically with each movement. The rifles, once

32
 Stephen Crane
loaded, were jerked to the shoulder and fired without appar- The men dropped here and there like bundles. The captain
ent aim into the smoke or at one of the blurred and shift-ing of the youth’s company had been killed in an early part of the
forms which upon the field before the regi-ment had been grow- action. His body lay stretched out in the position of a tired man
ing larger and larger like puppets under a magician’s hand. resting, but upon his face there was an astonished and sor-
The officers, at their intervals, rearward, neg-lected to stand rowful look, as if he thought some friend had done him an ill
in picturesque attitudes. They were bobbing to and fro roaring turn. The babbling man was grazed by a shot that made the
directions and encouragements. The dimensions of their howls blood stream widely down his face. He clapped both hands to
were extraordinary. They expended their lungs with prodigal his head. “Oh!” he said, and ran. Another grunted suddenly as
wills. And often they nearly stood upon their heads in their anxi- if he had been struck by a club in the stomach. He sat down
ety to observe the enemy on the other side of the tumbling smoke. and gazed ruefully. In his eyes there was mute, indefinite re-
The lieutenant of the youth’s company had en-countered a proach. Farther up the line a man, standing behind a tree, had
soldier who had fled screaming at the first volley of his com- had his knee joint splintered by a ball. Immediately he had
rades. Behind the lines these two were acting a little isolated dropped his rifle and gripped the tree with both arms. And
scene. The man was blubbering and staring with sheeplike eyes there he remained, clinging desperately and crying for assis-
at the lieutenant, who had seized him by the collar and was tance that he might withdraw his hold upon the tree.
pommeling him. He drove him back into the ranks with many At last an exultant yell went along the quiver-ing line. The
blows. The sol-dier went mechanically, dully, with his animal- firing dwindled from an uproar to a last vindictive popping. As
like eyes upon the officer. Perhaps there was to him a divinity the smoke slowly eddied away, the youth saw that the charge
expressed in the voice of the other —stern, hard, with no re- had been repulsed. The enemy were scattered into reluctant
flection of fear in it. He tried to reload his gun, but his shaking groups. He saw a man climb to the top of the fence, straddle
hands pre-vented. The lieutenant was obliged to assist him. the rail, and fire a part-ing shot. The waves had receded, leav-

33
 The Red Badge of Courage
ing bits of dark debris upon the ground. From a position in the rear of the grove a bat-tery was throw-
Some in the regiment began to whoop fren-ziedly. Many ing shells over it. The flash of the guns startled the youth at
were silent. Apparently they were trying to contemplate them- first. He thought they were aimed directly at him. Through the
selves. trees he watched the black figures of the gunners as they
After the fever had left his veins, the youth thought that at worked swiftly and intently. Their labor seemed a complicated
last he was going to suffocate. He became aware of the foul thing. He wondered how they could remember its formula in
atmosphere in which he had been struggling. He was grimy the midst of confusion.
and dripping like a laborer in a foundry. He grasped his can- The guns squatted in a row like savage chiefs. They argued
teen and took a long swallow of the warmed water. with abrupt violence. It was a grim pow-wow. Their busy ser-
A sentence with variations went up and down the line. “Well, vants ran hither and thither.
we ‘ve helt ‘em back. We ‘ve helt ‘em back; derned if we A small procession of wounded men were go-ing drearily
haven’t.” The men said it blissfully, leering at each other with toward the rear. It was a flow of blood from the torn body of
dirty smiles. the brigade.
The youth turned to look behind him and off to the right and To the right and to the left were the dark lines of other troops.
off to the left. He experienced the joy of a man who at last Far in front he thought he could see lighter masses protruding
finds leisure in which to look about him. in points from the forest. They were suggestive of un-num-
Under foot there were a few ghastly forms motionless. They lay bered thousands.
twisted in fantastic contor-tions. Arms were bent and heads were Once he saw a tiny battery go dashing along the line of the
turned in incredible ways. It seemed that the dead men must have horizon. The tiny riders were beating the tiny horses.
fallen from some great height to get into such positions. They looked From a sloping hill came the sound of cheer-ings and clashes.
to be dumped out upon the ground from the sky. Smoke welled slowly through the leaves.

34
 Stephen Crane
Batteries were speaking with thunderous ora-torical effort.
Here and there were flags, the red in the stripes dominating.
CHAPTER VI
They splashed bits of warm color upon the dark lines of troops.
THE YOUTH AWAKENED slowly. He came grad-ually back to a
The youth felt the old thrill at the sight of the emblem. They
position from which he could re-gard himself. For moments he
were like beautiful birds strangely undaunted in a storm.
had been scruti-nizing his person in a dazed way as if he had
As he listened to the din from the hillside, to a deep pulsating
never before seen himself. Then he picked up his cap from the
thunder that came from afar to the left, and to the lesser clam-
ground. He wriggled in his jacket to make a more comfortable
ors which came from many directions, it occurred to him that
fit, and kneel-ing relaced his shoe. He thoughtfully mopped his
they were fighting, too, over there, and over there, and over
reeking features.
there. Heretofore he had sup-posed that all the battle was
So it was all over at last! The supreme trial had been passed.
directly under his nose.
The red, formidable difficulties of war had been vanquished.
As he gazed around him the youth felt a flash of astonish-
He went into an ecstasy of self-satisfaction. He had the most
ment at the blue, pure sky and the sun gleamings on the trees
delightful sensations of his life. Standing as if apart from him-
and fields. It was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on
self, he viewed that last scene. He perceived that the man who
with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.
had fought thus was magnificent.
He felt that he was a fine fellow. He saw himself even with
those ideals which he had con-sidered as far beyond him. He
smiled in deep gratification.
Upon his fellows he beamed tenderness and good will. “Gee!
ain’t it hot, hey?” he said affably to a man who was polishing
his stream-ing face with his coat sleeves.
35
 The Red Badge of Courage
“You bet!” said the other, grinning sociably. “I never seen They moved their stiffened bodies slowly, and watched in sul-
sech dumb hotness.” He sprawled out luxuriously on the len mood the frantic approach of the enemy. The slaves toiling in
ground. “Gee, yes! An’ I hope we don’t have no more fightin’ the temple of this god began to feel rebellion at his harsh tasks.
till a week from Monday.” They fretted and complained each to each. “Oh, say, this
There were some handshakings and deep speeches with men is too much of a good thing! Why can’t somebody send us
whose features were familiar, but with whom the youth now supports?”
felt the bonds of tied hearts. He helped a cursing comrade to “We ain’t never goin’ to stand this second banging. I didn’t
bind up a wound of the shin. come here to fight the hull damn’ rebel army.”
But, of a sudden, cries of amazement broke out along the There was one who raised a doleful cry. “I wish Bill Smithers
ranks of the new regiment. “Here they come ag’in! Here they had trod on my hand, in-steader me treddin’ on his’n.” The
come ag’in!” The man who had sprawled upon the ground sore joints of the regiment creaked as it painfully floundered
started up and said, “Gosh!” into position to repulse.
The youth turned quick eyes upon the field. He discerned The youth stared. Surely, he thought, this impossible thing
forms begin to swell in masses out of a distant wood. He again was not about to happen. He waited as if he expected the
saw the tilted flag speeding forward. enemy to suddenly stop, apologize, and retire bowing. It was
The shells, which had ceased to trouble the regiment for a all a mistake.
time, came swirling again, and ex-ploded in the grass or among But the firing began somewhere on the regi-mental line and
the leaves of the trees. They looked to be strange war flowers ripped along in both directions. The level sheets of flame de-
bursting into fierce bloom. veloped great clouds of smoke that tumbled and tossed in the
The men groaned. The luster faded from their eyes. Their mild wind near the ground for a moment, and then rolled through
smudged countenances now expressed a profound dejection. the ranks as through a gate. The clouds were tinged an earthlike

36
 Stephen Crane
yellow in the sunrays and in the shadow were a sorry blue. He caught changing views of the ground covered with men
The flag was sometimes eaten and lost in this mass of vapor, who were all running like pursued imps, and yelling.
but more often it projected, sun-touched, resplendent. To the youth it was an onslaught of redoubt-able dragons. He
Into the youth’s eyes there came a look that one can see in became like the man who lost his legs at the approach of the red
the orbs of a jaded horse. His neck was quivering with ner- and green monster. He waited in a sort of a horrified, listening
vous weakness and the muscles of his arms felt numb and attitude. He seemed to shut his eyes and wait to be gobbled.
bloodless. His hands, too, seemed large and awkward as if he A man near him who up to this time had been working fe-
was wearing invisible mittens. And there was a great uncer- verishly at his rifle suddenly stopped and ran with howls. A lad
tainty about his knee joints. whose face had borne an expression of exalted courage, the
The words that comrades had uttered previous to the firing majesty of he who dares give his life, was, at an instant, smit-
began to recur to him. “Oh, say, this is too much of a good ten abject. He blanched like one who has come to the edge of
thing! What do they take us for—why don’t they send sup- a cliff at midnight and is sud-denly made aware. There was a
ports? I didn’t come here to fight the hull damned rebel army.” revelation. He, too, threw down his gun and fled. There was
He began to exaggerate the endurance, the skill, and the no shame in his face. He ran like a rabbit.
valor of those who were coming. Himself reeling from exhaus- Others began to scamper away through the smoke. The
tion, he was aston-ished beyond measure at such persistency. youth turned his head, shaken from his trance by this move-
They must be machines of steel. It was very gloomy struggling ment as if the regiment was leaving him behind. He saw the
against such affairs, wound up perhaps to fight until sundown. few fleeting forms.
He slowly lifted his rifle and catching a glimpse of the He yelled then with fright and swung about. For a moment, in
thickspread field he blazed at a cantering cluster. He stopped the great clamor, he was like a proverbial chicken. He lost the
then and began to peer as best he could through the smoke. direction of safety. Destruction threatened him from all points.

37
 The Red Badge of Courage
Directly he began to speed toward the rear in great leaps. right and on his left, and he heard footsteps behind him. He
His rifle and cap were gone. His unbuttoned coat bulged in the thought that all the regiment was fleeing, pursued by these
wind. The flap of his cartridge box bobbed wildly, and his ominous crashes.
canteen, by its slender cord, swung out behind. On his face In his flight the sound of these following foot-steps gave him
was all the horror of those things which he imagined. his one meager relief. He felt vaguely that death must make a
The lieutenant sprang forward bawling. The youth saw his first choice of the men who were nearest; the initial morsels for
features wrathfully red, and saw him make a dab with his the dragons would be then those who were fol-lowing him. So
sword. His one thought of the incident was that the lieutenant he displayed the zeal of an insane sprinter in his purpose to
was a pecul-iar creature to feel interested in such matters keep them in the rear. There was a race.
upon this occasion. As he, leading, went across a little field, he found himself in a
He ran like a blind man. Two or three times he fell down. region of shells. They hurtled over his head with long wild
Once he knocked his shoulder so heavily against a tree that he screams. As he listened he imagined them to have rows of
went headlong. cruel teeth that grinned at him. Once one lit before him and the
Since he had turned his back upon the fight his fears had livid lightning of the explosion effectually barred the way in his
been wondrously magnified. Death about to thrust him be- chosen direc-tion. He groveled on the ground and then springing
tween the shoulder blades was far more dreadful than death up went careering off through some bushes.
about to smite him between the eyes. When he thought of it He experienced a thrill of amazement when he came within
later, he conceived the impression that it is better to view the view of a battery in action. The men there seemed to be in
appalling than to be merely within hearing. The noises of the conventional moods, altogether unaware of the impending
battle were like stones; he believed himself liable to be crushed. annihila-tion. The battery was disputing with a distant antago-
As he ran he mingled with others. He dimly saw men on his nist and the gunners were wrapped in admiration of their shoot-

38
 Stephen Crane
ing. They were con-tinually bending in coaxing postures over ficers were shouting.
the guns. They seemed to be patting them on the back and This sight also filled him with wonder. The brigade was hur-
encouraging them with words. The guns, stolid and undaunted, rying briskly to be gulped into the infernal mouths of the war
spoke with dogged valor. god. What man-ner of men were they, anyhow? Ah, it was
The precise gunners were coolly enthusiastic. They lifted their some wondrous breed! Or else they didn’t compre-hend—
eyes every chance to the smoke-wreathed hillock from whence the fools.
the hostile battery addressed them. The youth pitied them as A furious order caused commotion in the artil-lery. An of-
he ran. Methodical idiots! Machine-like fools! The refined joy ficer on a bounding horse made mani-acal motions with his
of planting shells in the midst of the other battery’s formation arms. The teams went swinging up from the rear, the guns
would appear a little thing when the infantry came swooping were whirled about, and the battery scampered away. The
out of the woods. cannon with their noses poked slantingly at the ground grunted
The face of a youthful rider, who was jerking his frantic horse and grumbled like stout men, brave but with objections to hurry.
with an abandon of temper he might display in a placid barn- The youth went on, moderating his pace since he had left the
yard, was im-pressed deeply upon his mind. He knew that he place of noises.
looked upon a man who would presently be dead. Later he came upon a general of division seated upon a horse
Too, he felt a pity for the guns, standing, six good comrades, that pricked its ears in an interested way at the battle. There
in a bold row. was a great gleaming of yellow and patent leather about the
He saw a brigade going to the relief of its pes-tered fellows. saddle and bridle. The quiet man astride looked mouse-col-
He scrambled upon a wee hill and watched it sweeping finely, ored upon such a splen-did charger.
keeping formation in difficult places. The blue of the line was A jingling staff was galloping hither and thither. Sometimes
crusted with steel color, and the brilliant flags projected. Of- the general was surrounded by horsemen and at other times

39
 The Red Badge of Courage
he was quite alone. He looked to be much harassed. He had a gallop almost from a walk in his haste to go upon his mission.
the appearance of a business man whose market is swinging There was a cloud of dust.
up and down. A moment later the youth saw the general bounce excitedly
The youth went slinking around this spot. He went as near in his saddle.
as he dared trying to overhear words. Perhaps the general, “Yes, by heavens, they have!” The officer leaned forward.
unable to compre-hend chaos, might call upon him for infor- His face was aflame with excite-ment. “Yes, by heavens, they
mation. And he could tell him. He knew all concerning it. Of a ‘ve held ‘im! They ‘ve held ‘im!”
surety the force was in a fix, and any fool could see that if they He began to blithely roar at his staff: “We ‘ll wallop ‘im now.
did not retreat while they had opportunity—why— We ‘ll wallop ‘im now. We ‘ve got ‘em sure.” He turned sud-
He felt that he would like to thrash the gen-eral, or at least denly upon an aid: “Here—you—Jones—quick—ride after
approach and tell him in plain words exactly what he thought Tompkins —see Taylor—tell him t’ go in—everlastingly—like
him to be. It was criminal to stay calmly in one spot and make blazes—anything.”
no effort to stay destruction. He loitered in a fever of eager- As another officer sped his horse after the first messenger,
ness for the division commander to apply to him. the general beamed upon the earth like a sun. In his eyes was
As he warily moved about, he heard the gen-eral call out irri- a desire to chant a paean. He kept repeating, “They ‘ve held
tably: “Tompkins, go over an’ see Taylor, an’ tell him not t’ be in ‘em, by heavens!”
such an all-fired hurry; tell him t’ halt his brigade in th’ edge of His excitement made his horse plunge, and he merrily kicked
th’ woods; tell him t’ detach a reg’ment —say I think th’ center and swore at it. He held a little carnival of joy on horseback.
‘ll break if we don’t help it out some; tell him t’ hurry up.”
A slim youth on a fine chestnut horse caught these swift words
from the mouth of his superior. He made his horse bound into

40
 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER VII cious things. They had been full of strategy. They were the
work of a mas-ter’s legs.
Thoughts of his comrades came to him. The brittle blue line
THE YOUTH CRINGED as if discovered in a crime. By heavens,
had withstood the blows and won. He grew bitter over it. It
they had won after all! The im-becile line had remained and
seemed that the blind ignorance and stupidity of those little
become victors. He could hear cheering.
pieces had betrayed him. He had been overturned and crushed
He lifted himself upon his toes and looked in the direction of
by their lack of sense in holding the po-sition, when intelligent
the fight. A yellow fog lay wal-lowing on the treetops. From
deliberation would have convinced them that it was impos-
beneath it came the clatter of musketry. Hoarse cries told of
sible. He, the enlightened man who looks afar in the dark, had
an advance.
fled because of his superior perceptions and knowledge. He
He turned away amazed and angry. He felt that he had been
felt a great anger against his comrades. He knew it could be
wronged.
proved that they had been fools.
He had fled, he told himself, because annihila-tion ap-
He wondered what they would remark when later he appeared
proached. He had done a good part in saving himself, who
in camp. His mind heard howls of derision. Their density would
was a little piece of the army. He had considered the time, he
not en-able them to understand his sharper point of view.
said, to be one in which it was the duty of every little piece to
He began to pity himself acutely. He was ill used. He was
res-cue itself if possible. Later the officers could fit the little
trodden beneath the feet of an iron injustice. He had proceeded
pieces together again, and make a battle front. If none of the
with wisdom and from the most righteous motives under
little pieces were wise enough to save themselves from the
heaven’s blue only to be frustrated by hateful circumstances.
flurry of death at such a time, why, then, where would be the
A dull, animal-like rebellion against his fel-lows, war in the
army? It was all plain that he had proceeded according to very
abstract, and fate grew within him. He shambled along with
correct and commendable rules. His ac-tions had been saga-
41
 The Red Badge of Courage
bowed head, his brain in a tumult of agony and despair. When among the trees. The insects were making rhythmical noises.
he looked loweringly up, quivering at each sound, his eyes had They seemed to be grinding their teeth in unison. A wood-
the expression of those of a criminal who thinks his guilt and pecker stuck his impudent head around the side of a tree. A
his pun-ishment great, and knows that he can find no words. bird flew on lighthearted wing.
He went from the fields into a thick woods, as if resolved to Off was the rumble of death. It seemed now that Nature had
bury himself. He wished to get out of hearing of the crackling no ears.
shots which were to him like voices. This landscape gave him assurance. A fair field holding life.
The ground was cluttered with vines and bushes, and the It was the religion of peace. It would die if its timid eyes were
trees grew close and spread out like bouquets. He was obliged compelled to see blood. He conceived Nature to be a woman
to force his way with much noise. The creepers, catching against with a deep aversion to tragedy.
his legs, cried out harshly as their sprays were torn from the He threw a pine cone at a jovial squirrel, and he ran with
barks of trees. The swishing sap-lings tried to make known his chattering fear. High in a treetop he stopped, and, poking his
presence to the world. He could not conciliate the forest. As head cautiously from behind a branch, looked down with an
he made his way, it was always calling out prot-estations. When air of trepi-dation.
he separated embraces of trees and vines the disturbed foli- The youth felt triumphant at this exhibition. There was the
ages waved their arms and turned their face leaves toward law, he said. Nature had given him a sign. The squirrel, imme-
him. He dreaded lest these noisy motions and cries should diately upon rec-ognizing danger, had taken to his legs without
bring men to look at him. So he went far, seek-ing dark and ado. He did not stand stolidly baring his furry belly to the mis-
intricate places. sile, and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heav-
After a time the sound of musketry grew faint and the can- ens. On the con-trary, he had fled as fast as his legs could
non boomed in the distance. The sun, suddenly apparent, blazed carry him; and he was but an ordinary squirrel, too—doubt-

42
 Stephen Crane
less no philosopher of his race. The youth wended, feeling that mel-ancholy shade of green. The eyes, staring at the youth,
Nature was of his mind. She re-enforced his argument with had changed to the dull hue to be seen on the side of a dead
proofs that lived where the sun shone. fish. The mouth was open. Its red had changed to an appalling
Once he found himself almost into a swamp. He was obliged yellow. Over the gray skin of the face ran little ants. One was
to walk upon bog tufts and watch his feet to keep from the oily trundling some sort of a bundle along the upper lip.
mire. Paus-ing at one time to look about him he saw, out at The youth gave a shriek as he confronted the thing. He was
some black water, a small animal pounce in and emerge di- for moments turned to stone be-fore it. He remained staring
rectly with a gleaming fish. into the liquid-look-ing eyes. The dead man and the living man
The youth went again into the deep thickets. The brushed ex-changed a long look. Then the youth cautiously put one
branches made a noise that drowned the sounds of cannon. hand behind him and brought it against a tree. Leaning upon
He walked on, going from obscurity into promises of a greater this he retreated, step by step, with his face still toward the
obscurity. thing. He feared that if he turned his back the body might spring
At length he reached a place where the high, arching boughs up and stealthily pursue him.
made a chapel. He softly pushed the green doors aside and The branches, pushing against him, threat-ened to throw him
entered. Pine needles were a gentle brown carpet. There was over upon it. His unguided feet, too, caught aggravatingly in
a reli-gious half light. brambles; and with it all he received a subtle suggestion to
Near the threshold he stopped, horror-stricken at the sight touch the corpse. As he thought of his hand upon it he shud-
of a thing. dered profoundly.
He was being looked at by a dead man who was seated At last he burst the bonds which had fastened him to the
with his back against a columnlike tree. The corpse was dressed spot and fled, unheeding the under-brush. He was pursued by
in a uniform that once had been blue, but was now faded to a a sight of the black ants swarming greedily upon the gray face

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 The Red Badge of Courage
and venturing horribly near to the eyes.
After a time he paused, and, breathless and panting, listened.
CHAPTER VIII
He imagined some strange voice would come from the dead
THE TREES BEGAN softly to sing a hymn of twi-light. The sun
throat and squawk after him in horrible menaces.
sank until slanted bronze rays struck the forest. There was a
The trees about the portal of the chapel moved soughingly in
lull in the noises of insects as if they had bowed their beaks
a soft wind. A sad silence was upon the little guarding edifice.
and were making a devotional pause. There was silence save
for the chanted chorus of the trees.
Then, upon this stillness, there suddenly broke a tremendous
clangor of sounds. A crimson roar came from the distance.
The youth stopped. He was transfixed by this terrific med-
ley of all noises. It was as if worlds were being rended. There
was the rip-ping sound of musketry and the breaking crash
of the artillery.
His mind flew in all directions. He conceived the two armies
to be at each other panther fashion. He listened for a time.
Then he began to run in the direction of the battle. He saw that
it was an ironical thing for him to be run-ning thus toward that
which he had been at such pains to avoid. But he said, in sub-
stance, to him-self that if the earth and the moon were about to
clash, many persons would doubtless plan to get upon the
roofs to witness the collision.
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 Stephen Crane
As he ran, he became aware that the forest had stopped its He went rapidly on. He wished to come to the edge of the
music, as if at last becoming capable of hearing the foreign forest that he might peer out.
sounds. The trees hushed and stood motionless. Everything As he hastened, there passed through his mind pictures of
seemed to be listening to the crackle and clatter and ear-shak- stupendous conflicts. His accumulated thought upon such sub-
ing thunder. The chorus pealed over the still earth. jects was used to form scenes. The noise was as the voice of
It suddenly occurred to the youth that the fight in which he an eloquent being, describing.
had been was, after all, but perfunctory popping. In the hear- Sometimes the brambles formed chains and tried to hold
ing of this present din he was doubtful if he had seen real battle him back. Trees, confronting him, stretched out their arms and
scenes. This uproar explained a celes-tial battle; it was tum- forbade him to pass. After its previous hostility this new resis-
bling hordes a-struggle in the air. tance of the forest filled him with a fine bitterness. It seemed
Reflecting, he saw a sort of a humor in the point of view of that Nature could not be quite ready to kill him.
himself and his fellows during the late encounter. They had But he obstinately took roundabout ways, and presently he
taken themselves and the enemy very seriously and had imag- was where he could see long gray walls of vapor where lay
ined that they were deciding the war. Individuals must have battle lines. The voices of cannon shook him. The musketry
supposed that they were cutting the letters of their names sounded in long irregular surges that played havoc with his
deep into everlasting tablets of brass, or enshrining their repu- ears. He stood regardant for a moment. His eyes had an awe-
tations forever in the hearts of their countrymen, while, as to struck expression. He gawked in the direction of the fight.
fact, the affair would appear in printed reports under a meek Presently he proceeded again on his forward way. The battle
and immaterial title. But he saw that it was good, else, he was like the grinding of an immense and terrible machine to
said, in battle every one would surely run save forlorn hopes him. Its com-plexities and powers, its grim processes, fasci-
and their ilk. nated him. He must go close and see it produce corpses.

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 The Red Badge of Courage
He came to a fence and clambered over it. On the far side, One was swearing that he had been shot in the arm through
the ground was littered with clothes and guns. A newspaper, the commanding general’s misman-agement of the army. One
folded up, lay in the dirt. A dead soldier was stretched with his was marching with an air imitative of some sublime drum ma-
face hidden in his arm. Farther off there was a group of four or jor. Upon his features was an unholy mixture of merriment and
five corpses keeping mournful company. A hot sun had blazed agony. As he marched he sang a bit of doggerel in a high and
upon the spot. quavering voice:
In this place the youth felt that he was an invader. This for-
gotten part of the battle ground was owned by the dead men, “Sing a song ‘a vic’try,
and he hurried, in the vague apprehension that one of the swollen A pocketful ‘a bullets,
forms would rise and tell him to begone. Five an’ twenty dead men
He came finally to a road from which he could see in the Baked in a—pie.”
distance dark and agitated bodies of troops, smoke-fringed.
In the lane was a blood-stained crowd streaming to the rear. Parts of the procession limped and staggered to this tune.
The wounded men were cursing, groaning, and wailing. In the Another had the gray seal of death already upon his face.
air, always, was a mighty swell of sound that it seemed could His lips were curled in hard lines and his teeth were clinched.
sway the earth. With the courageous words of the artillery and His hands were bloody from where he had pressed them upon
the spiteful sentences of the musketry mingled red cheers. And his wound. He seemed to be awaiting the moment when he
from this region of noises came the steady current of the should pitch headlong. He stalked like the specter of a soldier,
maimed. his eyes burning with the power of a stare into the unknown.
One of the wounded men had a shoeful of blood. He hopped There were some who proceeded sullenly, full of anger at their
like a schoolboy in a game. He was laughing hysterically. wounds, and ready to turn upon anything as an obscure cause.

46
 Stephen Crane
An officer was carried along by two privates. He was pee- There was a tattered man, fouled with dust, blood and pow-
vish. “Don’t joggle so, Johnson, yeh fool,” he cried. “Think m’ der stain from hair to shoes, who trudged quietly at the youth’s
leg is made of iron? If yeh can’t carry me decent, put me down side. He was lis-tening with eagerness and much humility to
an’ let some one else do it.” the lurid descriptions of a bearded sergeant. His lean features
He bellowed at the tottering crowd who blocked the quick wore an expression of awe and ad-miration. He was like a
march of his bearers. “Say, make way there, can’t yeh? Make listener in a country store to wondrous tales told among the
way, dickens take it all.” sugar barrels. He eyed the story-teller with unspeak-able won-
They sulkily parted and went to the road-sides. As he was der. His mouth was agape in yokel fashion.
carried past they made pert remarks to him. When he raged in The sergeant, taking note of this, gave pause to his elaborate
reply and threatened them, they told him to be damned. history while he administered a sardonic comment. “Be keerful,
The shoulder of one of the tramping bearers knocked heavily honey, you ‘ll be a-ketchin’ flies,” he said.
against the spectral soldier who was staring into the unknown. The tattered man shrank back abashed.
The youth joined this crowd and marched along with it. The After a time he began to sidle near to the youth, and in a
torn bodies expressed the awful machinery in which the men different way try to make him a friend. His voice was gentle as
had been entangled. a girl’s voice and his eyes were pleading. The youth saw with
Orderlies and couriers occasionally broke through the throng surprise that the soldier had two wounds, one in the head,
in the roadway, scattering wounded men right and left, gallop- bound with a blood-soaked rag, and the other in the arm,
ing on fol-lowed by howls. The melancholy march was con- making that member dangle like a broken bough.
tinually disturbed by the messengers, and sometimes by bus- After they had walked together for some time the tattered
tling batteries that came swing-ing and thumping down upon man mustered sufficient courage to speak. “Was pretty good
them, the officers shouting orders to clear the way. fight, wa’n’t it?” he timidly said. The youth, deep in thought,

47
 The Red Badge of Courage
glanced up at the bloody and grim figure with its lamblike eyes. onct hearn a gun,’ he ses. ‘Mebbe they will,’ I ses, ‘but I don’t
“What?” b’lieve none of it,’ I ses; ‘an’ b’jiminey,’ I ses back t’ ‘um,
“Was pretty good fight, wa’n’t it? ‘mebbe your fellers ‘ll all run like hell when they onct hearn a
“Yes,” said the youth shortly. He quick-ened his pace. gun,’ I ses. He larfed. Well, they didn’t run t’ day, did they,
But the other hobbled industriously after him. There was an hey? No, sir! They fit, an’ fit, an’ fit.”
air of apology in his manner, but he evidently thought that he His homely face was suffused with a light of love for the
needed only to talk for a time, and the youth would perceive army which was to him all things beautiful and powerful.
that he was a good fellow. After a time he turned to the youth. “Where yeh hit, ol’ boy?”
“Was pretty good fight, wa’n’t it?” he began in a small voice, he asked in a brotherly tone.
and then he achieved the forti-tude to continue. “Dern me if I The youth felt instant panic at this question, although at first
ever see fellers fight so. Laws, how they did fight! I knowed its full import was not borne in upon him.
th’ boys ‘d like when they onct got square at it. Th’ boys ain’t “What?” he asked.
had no fair chanct up t’ now, but this time they showed what “Where yeh hit?” repeated the tattered man.
they was. I knowed it ‘d turn out this way. Yeh can’t lick them “Why,” began the youth, “I—I—that is—why—I—”
boys. No, sir! They’re fighters, they be.” He turned away suddenly and slid through the crowd. His
He breathed a deep breath of humble ad-miration. He had brow was heavily flushed, and his fingers were picking ner-
looked at the youth for en-couragement several times. He re- vously at one of his buttons. He bent his head and fastened his
ceived none, but gradually he seemed to get absorbed in his eyes studiously upon the button as if it were a little problem.
subject. The tattered man looked after him in aston-ishment.
“I was talkin’ ‘cross pickets with a boy from Georgie, onct,
an’ that boy, he ses, ‘Your fellers ‘ll all run like hell when they

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 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER IX and his tight lips seemed holding in check the moan of great
despair. There could be seen a certain stiffness in the move-
ments of his body, as if he were taking infinite care not to arouse
THE YOUTH FELL back in the procession until the tattered soldier
the passion of his wounds. As he went on, he seemed always
was not in sight. Then he started to walk on with the others.
look-ing for a place, like one who goes to choose a grave.
But he was amid wounds. The mob of men was bleeding.
Something in the gesture of the man as he waved the bloody
Because of the tattered soldier’s question he now felt that his
and pitying soldiers away made the youth start as if bitten. He
shame could be viewed. He was continually casting sidelong
yelled in horror. Tottering forward he laid a quivering hand
glances to see if the men were contemplating the letters of guilt
upon the man’s arm. As the latter slowly turned his waxlike
he felt burned into his brow.
features toward him, the youth screamed:
At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious
“Gawd! Jim Conklin!”
way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be pecu-
The tall soldier made a little commonplace smile. “Hello,
liarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red
Henry,” he said.
badge of courage.
The youth swayed on his legs and glared strangely. He stut-
The spectral soldier was at his side like a stalking reproach.
tered and stammered. “Oh, Jim—oh, Jim—oh, Jim—”
The man’s eyes were still fixed in a stare into the unknown.
The tall soldier held out his gory hand. There was a curious
His gray, appalling face had attracted attention in the crowd,
red and black combination of new blood and old blood upon
and men, slowing to his dreary pace, were walking with him.
it. “Where yeh been, Henry?” he asked. He continued in a
They were discussing his plight, questioning him and giving
monoto-nous voice, “I thought mebbe yeh got keeled over.
him advice.
There ‘s been thunder t’ pay t’-day. I was worryin’ about it a
In a dogged way he repelled them, signing to them to go on
good deal.”
and leave him alone. The shadows of his face were deepening
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 The Red Badge of Courage
The youth still lamented. “Oh, Jim—oh, Jim —oh, Jim—” yeh, Jim! I’ll take care of yeh! I swear t’ Gawd I will!”
“Yeh know,” said the tall soldier, “I was out there.” He made “Sure—will yeh, Henry?” the tall soldier beseeched.
a careful gesture. “An’, Lord, what a circus! An’, b’jiminey, I “Yes—yes—I tell yeh—I’ll take care of yeh, Jim!” protested
got shot—I got shot. Yes, b’jiminey, I got shot.” He reiterated the youth. He could not speak accurately because of the
this fact in a bewildered way, as if he did not know how it gulpings in his throat.
came about. But the tall soldier continued to beg in a lowly way. He now
The youth put forth anxious arms to assist him, but the tall hung babelike to the youth’s arm. His eyes rolled in the wild-
soldier went firmly on as if pro-pelled. Since the youth’s ar- ness of his terror. “I was allus a good friend t’ yeh, wa’n’t I,
rival as a guardian for his friend, the other wounded men had Henry? I ‘ve allus been a pretty good feller, ain’t I? An’ it ain’t
ceased to display much interest. They occupied them-selves much t’ ask, is it? Jest t’ pull me along outer th’ road? I ‘d do
again in dragging their own tragedies toward the rear. it fer you, Wouldn’t I, Henry?”
Suddenly, as the two friends marched on, the tall soldier He paused in piteous anxiety to await his friend’s reply.
seemed to be overcome by a terror. His face turned to a sem- The youth had reached an anguish where the sobs scorched
blance of gray paste. He clutched the youth’s arm and looked him. He strove to express his loyalty, but he could only make
all about him, as if dreading to be overheard. Then he began to fantastic gestures.
speak in a shaking whisper: However, the tall soldier seemed suddenly to forget all those
“I tell yeh what I’m ‘fraid of, Henry—I ‘ll tell yeh what I ‘m fears. He became again the grim, stalking specter of a soldier.
‘fraid of. I ‘m ‘fraid I ‘ll fall down —an’ then yeh know—them He went stonily forward. The youth wished his friend to lean
damned artillery wagons—they like as not ‘ll run over me. upon him, but the other always shook his head and strangely
That ‘s what I ‘m ‘fraid of—” protested. “No—no—no—leave me be—leave me be—”
The youth cried out to him hysterically: “I ‘ll take care of His look was fixed again upon the unknown. He moved with

50
 Stephen Crane
mysterious purpose, and all of the youth’s offers he brushed “Gawd! He’s runnin’!”
aside. “No—no—leave me be—leave me be—” Turning his head swiftly, the youth saw his friend running in a
The youth had to follow. staggering and stumbling way toward a little clump of bushes.
Presently the latter heard a voice talking softly near his shoul- His heart seemed to wrench itself almost free from his body at
ders. Turning he saw that it belonged to the tattered soldier. this sight. He made a noise of pain. He and the tattered man
“Ye ‘d better take ‘im outa th’ road, pardner. There ‘s a batt’ry began a pursuit. There was a singular race.
comin’ helitywhoop down th’ road an’ he ‘ll git runned over. When he overtook the tall soldier he began to plead with all
He ‘s a goner anyhow in about five minutes—yeh kin see that. the words he could find. “Jim —Jim—what are you doing—
Ye ‘d better take ‘im outa th’ road. Where th’ blazes does he what makes you do this way—you ‘ll hurt yerself.”
git his stren’th from?” The same purpose was in the tall soldier’s face. He pro-
“Lord knows!” cried the youth. He was shaking his hands tested in a dulled way, keeping his eyes fastened on the mystic
helplessly. place of his intentions. “No—no—don’t tech me—leave me
He ran forward presently and grasped the tall soldier by the be—leave me be—”
arm. “Jim! Jim!” he coaxed, “come with me.” The youth, aghast and filled with wonder at the tall soldier,
The tall soldier weakly tried to wrench himself free. “Huh,” he began quaveringly to question him. “Where yeh goin’, Jim?
said vacantly. He stared at the youth for a moment. At last he What you thinking about? Where you going? Tell me, won’t
spoke as if dimly comprehending. “Oh! Inteh th’ fields? Oh!” you, Jim?”
He started blindly through the grass. The tall soldier faced about as upon relentless pursuers. In
The youth turned once to look at the lashing riders and jounc- his eyes there was a great appeal. “Leave me be, can’t yeh?
ing guns of the battery. He was startled from this view by a Leave me be fer a minnit.”
shrill outcry from the tattered man. The youth recoiled. “Why, Jim,” he said, in a dazed way,

51
 The Red Badge of Courage
“what’s the matter with you?” furiously to be free.
The tall soldier turned and, lurching danger-ously, went on. This spectacle of gradual strangulation made the youth writhe,
The youth and the tattered soldier followed, sneaking as if and once as his friend rolled his eyes, he saw something in
whipped, feeling unable to face the stricken man if he should them that made him sink wailing to the ground. He raised his
again confront them. They began to have thoughts of a solemn voice in a last supreme call.
ceremony. There was something rite-like in these movements “Jim—Jim—Jim—”
of the doomed soldier. And there was a resemblance in him to The tall soldier opened his lips and spoke. He made a ges-
a devotee of a mad religion, blood-sucking, muscle-wrench- ture. “Leave me be—don’t tech me—leave me be—”
ing, bone-crushing. They were awed and afraid. They hung There was another silence while he waited.
back lest he have at command a dreadful weapon. Suddenly, his form stiffened and straightened. Then it was
At last, they saw him stop and stand motion-less. Hastening shaken by a prolonged ague. He stared into space. To the two
up, they perceived that his face wore an expression telling that watchers there was a curious and profound dignity in the firm
he had at last found the place for which he had struggled. His lines of his awful face.
spare figure was erect; his bloody hands were quietly at his He was invaded by a creeping strangeness that slowly en-
side. He was waiting with patience for something that he had veloped him. For a moment the tremor of his legs caused him
come to meet. He was at the rendezvous. They paused and to dance a sort of hideous hornpipe. His arms beat wildly about
stood, ex-pectant. his head in expression of implike enthusiasm.
There was a silence. His tall figure stretched itself to its full height. There was a
Finally, the chest of the doomed soldier began to heave slight rending sound. Then it began to swing forward, slow
with a strained motion. It increased in violence until it was and straight, in the man-ner of a falling tree. A swift muscular
as if an animal was within and was kicking and tumbling contortion made the left shoulder strike the ground first.

52
 Stephen Crane
The body seemed to bounce a little way from the earth.
“God!” said the tattered soldier.
CHAPTER X
The youth had watched, spellbound, this ceremony at the
THE TATTERED MAN stood musing.
place of meeting. His face had been twisted into an expression
“Well, he was reg’lar jim-dandy fer nerve, wa’n’t he,” said
of every agony he had imagined for his friend.
he finally in a little awestruck voice. “A reg’lar jim-dandy.” He
He now sprang to his feet and, going closer, gazed upon the
thoughtfully poked one of the docile hands with his foot. “I
pastelike face. The mouth was open and the teeth showed in a
wonner where he got ‘is stren’th from? I never seen a man do
laugh.
like that before. It was a funny thing. Well, he was a reg’lar
As the flap of the blue jacket fell away from the body, he
jim-dandy.”
could see that the side looked as if it had been chewed by
The youth desired to screech out his grief. He was stabbed,
wolves.
but his tongue lay dead in the tomb of his mouth. He threw
The youth turned, with sudden, livid rage, toward the battle-
himself again upon the ground and began to brood.
field. He shook his fist. He seemed about to deliver a philippic.
The tattered man stood musing.
“Hell—”
“Look-a-here, pardner,” he said, after a time. He regarded
The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.
the corpse as he spoke. “He ‘s up an’ gone, ain’t ‘e, an’ we
might as well begin t’ look out fer ol’ number one. This here
thing is all over. He ‘s up an’ gone, ain’t ‘e? An’ he ‘s all right
here. Nobody won’t bother ‘im. An’ I must say I ain’t enjoy-
ing any great health m’self these days.”
The youth, awakened by the tattered soldier’s tone, looked
quickly up. He saw that he was swinging uncertainly on his
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 The Red Badge of Courage
legs and that his face had turned to a shade of blue. suddenly breaking one of his little silences. “I’m commencin’
“Good Lord!” he cried, “you ain’t goin’ t’—not you, too.” t’ feel pretty damn’ bad.”
The tattered man waved his hand. “Nary die,” he said. “All The youth groaned. “O Lord!” He won-dered if he was to
I want is some pea soup an’ a good bed. Some pea soup,” he be the tortured witness of another grim encounter.
repeated dreamfully. But his companion waved his hand reassur-ingly. “Oh, I’m
The youth arose from the ground. “I wonder where he came not goin’ t’ die yit! There too much dependin’ on me fer me t’
from. I left him over there.” He pointed. “And now I find ‘im die yit. No, sir! Nary die! I can’t! Ye’d oughta see th’ swad a’
here. And he was coming from over there, too.” He in-dicated chil’ren I’ve got, an’ all like that.”
a new direction. They both turned toward the body as if to ask The youth glancing at his companion could see by the shadow
of it a question. of a smile that he was making some kind of fun.
“Well,” at length spoke the tattered man, “there ain’t no use As they plodded on the tattered soldier con-tinued to talk.
in our stayin’ here an’ tryin’ t’ ask him anything.” “Besides, if I died, I wouldn’t die th’ way that feller did. That
The youth nodded an assent wearily. They both turned to was th’ funniest thing. I’d jest flop down, I would. I never seen
gaze for a moment at the corpse. a feller die th’ way that feller did.
The youth murmured something. “Yeh know Tom Jamison, he lives next door t’ me up home.
“Well, he was a jim-dandy, wa’n’t ‘e?” said the tattered man He’s a nice feller, he is, an’ we was allus good friends. Smart,
as if in response. too. Smart as a steel trap. Well, when we was a-fightin’ this
They turned their backs upon it and started away. For a time atternoon, all-of-a-sudden he begin t’ rip up an’ cuss an’ beller
they stole softly, treading with their toes. It remained laughing at me. ‘Yer shot, yeh blamed infernal!’—he swear horrible—
there in the grass. he ses t’ me. I put up m’ hand t’ m’ head an’ when I looked at
“I’m commencin’ t’ feel pretty bad,” said the tattered man, m’ fingers, I seen, sure ‘nough, I was shot. I give a holler an’

54
 Stephen Crane
begin t’ run, but b’fore I could git away another one hit me in never tell. Where is your’n located?”
th’ arm an’ whirl’ me clean ‘round. I got skeared when they The youth had been wriggling since the intro-duction of this
was all a-shootin’ b’hind me an’ I run t’ beat all, but I cotch it topic. He now gave a cry of ex-asperation and made a furious
pretty bad. I’ve an idee I’d a’ been fightin’ yit, if t’was n’t fer motion with his hand. “Oh, don’t bother me!” he said. He was
Tom Jami-son.” enraged against the tattered man, and could have strangled him.
Then he made a calm announcement: “There’s two of ‘em— His companions seemed ever to play intolerable parts. They
little ones—but they ‘re beginnin’ t’ have fun with me now. I were ever uprais-ing the ghost of shame on the stick of their
don’t b’lieve I kin walk much furder.” curiosity. He turned toward the tattered man as one at bay. “Now,
They went slowly on in silence. “Yeh look pretty peek-ed don’t bother me,” he re-peated with desperate menace.
yerself,” said the tattered man at last. “I bet yeh ‘ve got a “Well, Lord knows I don’t wanta bother any-body,” said
worser one than yeh think. Ye’d better take keer of yer hurt. It the other. There was a little accent of despair in his voice as he
don’t do t’ let sech things go. It might be inside mostly, an’ replied, “Lord knows I ‘ve gota ‘nough m’ own t’ tend to.”
them plays thunder. Where is it located?” But he continued his The youth, who had been holding a bitter de-bate with him-
harangue with-out waiting for a reply. “I see ‘a feller git hit self and casting glances of hatred and contempt at the tattered
plum in th’ head when my reg’ment was a-standin’ at ease man, here spoke in a hard voice. “Good-by,” he said.
onct. An’ everybody yelled out to ‘im: Hurt, John? Are yeh The tattered man looked at him in gaping amazement.
hurt much? ‘No,” ses he. He looked kinder surprised, an’ he “Why—why, pardner, where yeh goin’?” he asked unsteadily.
went on tellin’ ‘em how he felt. He sed he didn’t feel nothin’. The youth looking at him, could see that he, too, like that other
But, by dad, th’ first thing that feller knowed he was dead. one, was beginning to act dumb and animal-like. His thoughts
Yes, he was dead—stone dead. So, yeh wanta watch out. seemed to be floundering about in his head. “Now—now—
Yeh might have some queer kind ‘a hurt yerself. Yeh can’t look—a—here, you Tom Jamison—now—I won’t have this—

55
 The Red Badge of Courage
this here won’t do. Where—where yeh goin’?” secrets until all is apparent. His late companion’s chance per-
The youth pointed vaguely. “Over there,” he replied. sist-ency made him feel that he could not keep his crime con-
“Well, now look—a—here—now,” said the tattered man, cealed in his bosom. It was sure to be brought plain by one of
rambling on in idiot fashion. His head was hanging forward those arrows which cloud the air and are constantly pricking,
and his words were slurred. “This thing won’t do, now, Tom dis-covering, proclaiming those things which are willed to be
Jami-son. It won’t do. I know yeh, yeh pig-headed devil. Yeh forever hidden. He admitted that he could not defend himself
wanta go trompin’ off with a bad hurt. It ain’t right—now— against this agency. It was not within the power of vigilance.
Tom Jamison—it ain’t. Yeh wanta leave me take keer of yeh,
Tom Jami-son. It ain’t—right—it ain’t—fer yeh t’go—trompin’
off—with a bad hurt—it ain’t—ain’t—ain’t right—it ain’t.”
In reply the youth climbed a fence and started away. He
could hear the tattered man bleating plaintively.
Once he faced about angrily. “What?”
“Look—a—here, now, Tom Jamison—now—it ain’t—”
The youth went on. Turning at a distance he saw the tattered
man wandering about helplessly in the field.
He now thought that he wished he was dead. He believed
that he envied those men whose bodies lay strewn over the
grass of the fields and on the fallen leaves of the forest.
The simple questions of the tattered man had been knife
thrusts to him. They asserted a society that probes pitilessly at

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 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER XI Presently the calm head of a forward-going column of infan-

try appeared in the road. It came swiftly on. Avoiding the ob-
structions gave it the sinuous movement of a serpent. The men
HE BECAME AWARE that the furnace roar of the battle was grow-
at the head butted mules with their musket stocks. They prod-
ing louder. Great brown clouds had floated to the still heights
ded teamsters indifferent to all howls. The men forced their
of air before him. The noise, too, was approaching. The woods
way through parts of the dense mass by strength. The blunt
filtered men and the fields became dotted.
head of the column pushed. The raving team-sters swore many
As he rounded a hillock, he perceived that the roadway was
strange oaths.
now a crying mass of wagons, teams, and men. From the heav-
The commands to make way had the ring of a great impor-
ing tangle issued exhortations, commands, imprecations. Fear
tance in them. The men were going forward to the heart of the
was sweeping it all along. The cracking whips bit and horses
din. They were to confront the eager rush of the enemy. They
plunged and tugged. The white-topped wagons strained and
felt the pride of their onward movement when the remainder
stumbled in their exertions like fat sheep.
of the army seemed trying to dribble down this road. They
The youth felt comforted in a measure by this sight. They
tumbled teams about with a fine feeling that it was no matter so
were all retreating. Perhaps, then, he was not so bad after all.
long as their column got to the front in time. This importance
He seated himself and watched the terror-stricken wagons.
made their faces grave and stern. And the backs of the offic-
They fled like soft, ungainly animals. All the roarers and lashers
ers were very rigid.
served to help him to magnify the dangers and horrors of the
As the youth looked at them the black weight of his woe
engagement that he might try to prove to himself that the thing
returned to him. He felt that he was regarding a procession of
with which men could charge him was in truth a symmetrical
chosen beings. The separation was as great to him as if they
act. There was an amount of pleas-ure to him in watching the
had marched with weapons of flame and banners of sunlight.
wild march of this vindication.
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 The Red Badge of Courage
He could never be like them. He could have wept in his longings. These thoughts uplifted him. He felt the quiver of war de-
He searched about in his mind for an ade-quate malediction sire. In his ears, he heard the ring of victory. He knew the
for the indefinite cause, the thing upon which men turn the words frenzy of a rapid successful charge. The music of the tram-
of final blame. It—whatever it was—was responsible for him, pling feet, the sharp voices, the clanking arms of the column
he said. There lay the fault. near him made him soar on the red wings of war. For a few
The haste of the column to reach the battle seemed to the moments he was sublime.
forlorn young man to be some-thing much finer than stout fight- He thought that he was about to start for the front. Indeed,
ing. Heroes, he thought, could find excuses in that long seeth- he saw a picture of himself, dust-stained, haggard, panting,
ing lane. They could retire with perfect self-respect and make flying to the front at the proper moment to seize and throttle
excuses to the stars. the dark, leering witch of calamity.
He wondered what those men had eaten that they could be Then the difficulties of the thing began to drag at him. He
in such haste to force their way to grim chances of death. As hesitated, balancing awkwardly on one foot.
he watched his envy grew until he thought that he wished to He had no rifle; he could not fight with his hands, said he
change lives with one of them. He would have liked to have resentfully to his plan. Well, rifles could be had for the picking.
used a tremendous force, he said, throw off himself and be- They were extraordinarily profuse.
come a better. Swift pictures of himself, apart, yet in himself, Also, he continued, it would be a miracle if he found his
came to him—a blue desperate figure leading lurid charges regiment. Well, he could fight with any regiment.
with one knee forward and a broken blade high—a blue, de- He started forward slowly. He stepped as if he expected
termined figure standing before a crimson and steel assault, to tread upon some explosive thing. Doubts and he were
getting calmly killed on a high place before the eyes of all. He struggling.
thought of the magnificent pathos of his dead body. He would truly be a worm if any of his com-rades should

58
 Stephen Crane
see him returning thus, the marks of his flight upon him. There ened to break with each movement. His feet were like two
was a reply that the intent fighters did not care for what hap- sores. Also, his body was calling for food. It was more pow-
pened rearward saving that no hostile bayonets ap-peared erful than a direct hunger. There was a dull, weight like feeling
there. In the battle-blur his face would, in a way be hidden, in his stomach, and, when he tried to walk, his head swayed
like the face of a cowled man. and he tottered. He could not see with distinct-ness. Small
But then he said that his tireless fate would bring forth, when patches of green mist floated before his vision.
the strife lulled for a moment, a man to ask of him an explana- While he had been tossed by many emotions, he had not
tion. In imagina-tion he felt the scrutiny of his companions as been aware of ailments. Now they beset him and made clamor.
he painfully labored through some lies. As he was at last compelled to pay attention to them, his ca-
Eventually, his courage expended itself upon these objec- pacity for self-hate was multiplied. In despair, he declared that
tions. The debates drained him of his fire. he was not like those others. He now conceded it to be im-
He was not cast down by this defeat of his plan, for, upon possible that he should ever become a hero. He was a craven
studying the affair carefully, he could not but admit that the loon. Those pictures of glory were piteous things. He groaned
objections were very formidable. from his heart and went staggering off.
Furthermore, various ailments had begun to cry out. In their A certain mothlike quality within him kept him in the vicinity
presence he could not persist in flying high with the wings of of the battle. He had a great desire to see, and to get news. He
war; they rendered it almost impossible for him to see him-self wished to know who was winning.
in a heroic light. He tumbled headlong. He told himself that, despite his unprecedented suffering, he
He discovered that he had a scorching thirst. His face was had never lost his greed for a victory, yet, he said, in a half-
so dry and grimy that he thought he could feel his skin crackle. apologetic manner to his conscience, he could not but know
Each bone of his body had an ache in it, and seemingly threat- that a defeat for the army this time might mean many favor-

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 The Red Badge of Courage
able things for him. The blows of the enemy would splinter who, after he had recovered from his amazement would per-
regiments into fragments. Thus, many men of courage, he con- haps spend the rest of his days in writ-ing replies to the songs
sidered, would be obliged to desert the colors and scurry like of his alleged failure. It would be very unfortunate, no doubt,
chickens. He would appear as one of them. They would be but in this case a general was of no consequence to the youth.
sullen brothers in distress, and he could then easily believe he In a defeat there would be a roundabout vindication of him-
had not run any farther or faster than they. And if he himself self. He thought it would prove, in a manner, that he had fled
could believe in his virtuous perfection, he con-ceived that there early because of his superior powers of perception. A serious
would be small trouble in con-vincing all others. prophet upon predicting a flood should be the first man to climb
He said, as if in excuse for this hope, that previously the a tree. This would demon-strate that he was indeed a seer.
army had encountered great defeats and in a few months had A moral vindication was regarded by the youth as a very
shaken off all blood and tradition of them, emerging as bright important thing. Without salve, he could not, he thought, wear
and valiant as a new one; thrusting out of sight the memory of the sore badge of his dishonor through life. With his heart con-
disaster, and appearing with the valor and confidence of un- tinually assuring him that he was despicable, he could not exist
conquered legions. The shrilling voices of the people at home without making it, through his actions, apparent to all men.
would pipe dismally for a time, but various generals were usu- If the army had gone gloriously on he would be lost. If the
ally compelled to listen to these ditties. He of course felt no din meant that now his army’s flags were tilted forward he was
compunctions for proposing a general as a sacrifice. He could a condemned wretch. He would be compelled to doom him-
not tell who the chosen for the barbs might be, so he could self to isolation. If the men were advancing, their indifferent
center no direct sympathy upon him. The people were afar feet were trampling upon his chances for a successful life.
and he did not conceive public opinion to be accurate at long As these thoughts went rapidly through his mind, he turned
range. It was quite probable they would hit the wrong man upon them and tried to thrust them away. He denounced him-

60
 Stephen Crane
self as a villain. He said that he was the most unutterably selfish When he perceived again that it was not possible for the
man in existence. His mind pictured the soldiers who would army to be defeated, he tried to bethink him of a fine tale
place their defiant bodies before the spear of the yelling battle which he could take back to his regiment, and with it turn the
fiend, and as he saw their dripping corpses on an imagined expected shafts of derision.
field, he said that he was their murderer. But, as he mortally feared these shafts, it became impossible
Again he thought that he wished he was dead. He believed for him to invent a tale he felt he could trust. He experimented
that he envied a corpse. Thinking of the slain, he achieved a with many schemes, but threw them aside one by one as flimsy.
great contempt for some of them, as if they were guilty for thus He was quick to see vulnerable places in them all.
becoming lifeless. They might have been killed by lucky chances, Furthermore, he was much afraid that some arrow of scorn
he said, before they had had opportunities to flee or before they might lay him mentally low before he could raise his protect-
had been really tested. Yet they would receive laurels from tra- ing tale.
dition. He cried out bitterly that their crowns were stolen and He imagined the whole regiment saying: “Where’s Henry
their robes of glori-ous memories were shams. However, he still Fleming? He run, didn’t ‘e? Oh, my!” He recalled various per-
said that it was a great pity he was not as they. sons who would be quite sure to leave him no peace about it.
A defeat of the army had suggested itself to him as a means of They would doubtless question him with sneers, and laugh at
escape from the consequences of his fall. He considered, now, his stammering hesi-tation. In the next engagement they would
however, that it was useless to think of such a possibility. His try to keep watch of him to discover when he would run.
education had been that success for that mighty blue machine Wherever he went in camp, he would en-counter insolent
was certain; that it would make victories as a contrivance turns and lingeringly cruel stares. As he imagined himself passing
out buttons. He presently discarded all his speculations in the near a crowd of comrades, he could hear some one say, “There
other direction. He returned to the creed of soldiers. he goes!”

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 The Red Badge of Courage
Then, as if the heads were moved by one muscle, all the
faces were turned toward him with wide, derisive grins. He
CHAPTER XII
seemed to hear some one make a humorous remark in a low
THE COLUMN THAT had butted stoutly at the obstacles in the
tone. At it the others all crowed and cackled. He was a slang
roadway was barely out of the youth’s sight before he saw
phrase.
dark waves of men come sweeping out of the woods and
down through the fields. He knew at once that the steel fibers
had been washed from their hearts. They were bursting from
their coats and their equipments as from entanglements. They
charged down upon him like terrified buffaloes.
Behind them blue smoke curled and clouded above the tree-
tops, and through the thickets he could sometimes see a dis-
tant pink glare. The voices of the cannon were clamoring in
intermi-nable chorus.
The youth was horrorstricken. He stared in agony and amaze-
ment. He forgot that he was engaged in combating the uni-
verse. He threw aside his mental pamphlets on the philoso-
phy of the retreated and rules for the guidance of the damned.
The fight was lost. The dragons were com-ing with invincible
strides. The army, helpless in the matted thickets and blinded by
the over-hanging night, was going to be swallowed. War, the
red animal, war, the blood-swollen god, would have bloated fill.
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 Stephen Crane
Within him something bade to cry out. He had the impulse to The youth, after rushing about and throwing interrogations
make a rallying speech, to sing a battle hymn, but he could at the heedless bands of retreating infantry, finally clutched a
only get his tongue to call into the air: “Why—why—what— man by the arm. They swung around face to face.
what ‘s th’ matter?” “Why—why—” stammered the youth strug-gling with his
Soon he was in the midst of them. They were leaping and balking tongue.
scampering all about him. Their blanched faces shone in the The man screamed: “Let go me! Let go me!” His face was
dusk. They seemed, for the most part, to be very burly men. livid and his eyes were roll-ing uncontrolled. He was heaving
The youth turned from one to another of them as they galloped and panting. He still grasped his rifle, perhaps having for-gotten
along. His incoherent questions were lost. They were heedless to release his hold upon it. He tugged frantically, and the youth
of his appeals. They did not seem to see him. being compelled to lean forward was dragged several paces.
They sometimes gabbled insanely. One huge man was ask- “Let go me! Let go me!”
ing of the sky: “Say, where de plank road? Where de plank “Why—why—” stuttered the youth.
road!” It was as if he had lost a child. He wept in his pain “Well, then!” bawled the man in a lurid rage. He adroitly and
and dismay. fiercely swung his rifle. It crushed upon the youth’s head. The
Presently, men were running hither and thither in all ways. man ran on.
The artillery booming, forward, rearward, and on the flanks The youth’s fingers had turned to paste upon the other’s
made jumble of ideas of direction. Landmarks had vanished arm. The energy was smitten from his muscles. He saw the
into the gathered gloom. The youth began to imagine that he flaming wings of light-ning flash before his vision. There was a
had got into the center of the tremendous quarrel, and he could deaf-ening rumble of thunder within his head.
perceive no way out of it. From the mouths of the fleeing men Suddenly his legs seemed to die. He sank writhing to the
came a thousand wild questions, but no one made answers. ground. He tried to arise. In his efforts against the numbing

63
 The Red Badge of Courage
pain he was like a man wrestling with a creature of the air. young officer on a besplashed charger nearly ran him down.
There was a sinister struggle. He turned and watched the mass of guns, men, and horses
Sometimes he would achieve a position half erect, battle sweeping in a wide curve toward a gap in a fence. The officer
with the air for a moment, and then fall again, grabbing at the was making excited motions with a gauntleted hand. The guns
grass. His face was of a clammy pallor. Deep groans were followed the teams with an air of unwillingness, of being dragged
wrenched from him. by the heels.
At last, with a twisting movement, he got upon his hands and Some officers of the scattered infantry were cursing and railing
knees, and from thence, like a babe trying to walk, to his feet. like fishwives. Their scold-ing voices could be heard above
Pressing his hands to his temples he went lurching over the grass. the din. Into the unspeakable jumble in the roadway rode a
He fought an intense battle with his body. His dulled senses squadron of cavalry. The faded yellow of their facings shone
wished him to swoon and he opposed them stubbornly, his bravely. There was a mighty altercation.
mind portraying unknown dangers and mutilations if he should The artillery were assembling as if for a con-ference.
fall upon the field. He went tall soldier fashion. He imagined The blue haze of evening was upon the field. The lines of
secluded spots where he could fall and be unmolested. To forest were long purple shadows. One cloud lay along the
search for one he strove against the tide of his pain. western sky partly smothering the red.
Once he put his hand to the top of his head and timidly As the youth left the scene behind him, he heard the guns
touched the wound. The scratching pain of the contact made suddenly roar out. He imagined them shaking in black rage.
him draw a long breath through his clinched teeth. His fingers They belched and howled like brass devils guarding a gate.
were dabbled with blood. He regarded them with a fixed stare. The soft air was filled with the tremendous remon-strance.
Around him he could hear the grumble of jolted cannon as With it came the shattering peal of opposing infantry. Turning
the scurrying horses were lashed toward the front. Once, a to look behind him, he could see sheets of orange light illumine

64
 Stephen Crane
the shadowy distance. There were subtle and sudden light- ing slowly down under his hair. His head seemed swollen to a
nings in the far air. At times he thought he could see heaving size that made him think his neck to be inadequate.
masses of men. The new silence of his wound made much worriment. The
He hurried on in the dusk. The day had faded until he could little blistering voices of pain that had called out from his scalp
barely distinguish place for his feet. The purple darkness was were, he thought, definite in their expression of danger. By
filled with men who lectured and jabbered. Sometimes he could them he believed that he could measure his plight. But when
see them gesticulating against the blue and somber sky. There they remained ominously silent he became frightened and imag-
seemed to be a great ruck of men and munitions spread about ined ter-rible fingers that clutched into his brain.
in the forest and in the fields. Amid it he began to reflect upon various incidents and con-
The little narrow roadway now lay lifeless. There were over- ditions of the past. He be-thought him of certain meals his
turned wagons like sun-dried bowlders. The bed of the former mother had cooked at home, in which those dishes of which
torrent was choked with the bodies of horses and splintered he was particularly fond had occupied prominent positions.
parts of war machines. He saw the spread table. The pine walls of the kitchen were
It had come to pass that his wound pained him but little. He glowing in the warm light from the stove. Too, he remembered
was afraid to move rapidly, how-ever, for a dread of disturb- how he and his companions used to go from the school-house
ing it. He held his head very still and took many precautions to the bank of a shaded pool. He saw his clothes in disorderly
against stumbling. He was filled with anxiety, and his face was array upon the grass of the bank. He felt the swash of the
pinched and drawn in anticipation of the pain of any sudden fragrant water upon his body. The leaves of the overhanging
mistake of his feet in the gloom. maple rustled with melody in the wind of youth-ful summer.
His thoughts, as he walked, fixed intently upon his hurt. There He was overcome presently by a dragging weariness. His
was a cool, liquid feeling about it and he imagined blood mov- head hung forward and his shoulders were stooped as if he

65
 The Red Badge of Courage
were bearing a great bundle. His feet shuffled along the ground. fightin’ t’-day. By dad, I give myself up fer dead any number
He held continuous arguments as to whether he should lie ‘a times. There was shootin’ here an’ shootin’ there, an’
down and sleep at some near spot, or force himself on until he hollerin’ here an’ hollerin’ there, in th’ damn’ darkness, until I
reached a certain haven. He often tried to dismiss the ques- couldn’t tell t’ save m’ soul which side I was on. Sometimes I
tion, but his body persisted in rebellion and his senses nagged thought I was sure ‘nough from Ohier, an’ other times I could
at him like pampered babies. ‘a swore I was from th’ bitter end of Florida. It was th’ most
At last he heard a cheery voice near his shoulder: “Yeh seem mixed up dern thing I ever see. An’ these here hull woods is a
t’ be in a pretty bad way, boy?” reg’lar mess. It’ll be a miracle if we find our reg’ments t’-night.
The youth did not look up, but he assented with thick tongue. Pretty soon, though, we ‘ll meet a-plenty of guards an’ pro-
“Uh!” vost-guards, an’ one thing an’ another. Ho! there they go with
The owner of the cheery voice took him firmly by the arm. an off’cer, I guess. Look at his hand a-draggin’. He ‘s got all
“Well,” he said, with a round laugh, “I’m goin’ your way. Th’ th’ war he wants, I bet. He won’t be talkin’ so big about his
hull gang is goin’ your way. An’ I guess I kin give yeh a lift.” reputation an’ all when they go t’ sawin’ off his leg. Poor feller!
They began to walk like a drunken man and his friend. My brother ‘s got whiskers jest like that. How did yeh git
As they went along, the man questioned the youth and as- ‘way over here, anyhow? Your reg’ment is a long way from
sisted him with the replies like one manipulating the mind of a here, ain’t it? Well, I guess we can find it. Yeh know there was
child. Sometimes he interjected anecdotes. “What reg’ment a boy killed in my comp’ny t’-day that I thought th’ world an’
do yeh b’long teh? Eh? What’s that? Th’ 304th N’ York? all of. Jack was a nice feller. By ginger, it hurt like thunder t’
Why, what corps is that in? Oh, it is? Why, I thought they see ol’ Jack jest git knocked flat. We was a-standin’ purty
wasn’t engaged t’-day—they ‘re ‘way over in th’ center. Oh, peaceable fer a spell, ‘though there was men runnin’ ev’ry
they was, eh? Well, pretty nearly everybody got their share ‘a way all ‘round us, an’ while we was a-standin’ like that, ‘long

66
 Stephen Crane
come a big fat feller. He began t’ peck at Jack’s elbow, an’ he tic circles, but the cheery man con-ducted the youth without
ses: ‘Say, where ‘s th’ road t’ th’ river?’ An’ Jack, he never mistakes, until at last he began to chuckle with glee and self-
paid no attention, an’ th’ feller kept on a-peckin’ at his elbow satisfaction. “Ah, there yeh are! See that fire?”
an’ sayin’: ‘Say, where ‘s th’ road t’ th’ river?’ Jack was a- The youth nodded stupidly.
lookin’ ahead all th’ time tryin’ t’ see th’ Johnnies comin’ “Well, there ‘s where your reg’ment is. An’ now, good-by,
through th’ woods, an’ he never paid no attention t’ this big fat ol’ boy, good luck t’ yeh.”
feller fer a long time, but at last he turned ‘round an’ he ses: A warm and strong hand clasped the youth’s languid fingers
‘Ah, go t’ hell an’ find th’ road t’ th’ river!’ An’ jest then a shot for an instant, and then he heard a cheerful and audacious
slapped him bang on th’ side th’ head. He was a sergeant, too. whistling as the man strode away. As he who had so befriended
Them was his last words. Thunder, I wish we was sure ‘a him was thus passing out of his life, it suddenly oc-curred to
findin’ our reg’ments t’-night. It ‘s goin’ t’ be long huntin’. But the youth that he had not once seen his face.
I guess we kin do it.”
In the search which followed, the man of the cheery voice
seemed to the youth to possess a wand of a magic kind. He
threaded the mazes of the tangled forest with a strange for-
tune. In encounters with guards and patrols he displayed the
keenness of a detective and the valor of a gamin. Obstacles
fell before him and became of assistance. The youth, with his
chin still on his breast, stood woodenly by while his compan-
ion beat ways and means out of sullen things.
The forest seemed a vast hive of men buzzing about in fran-

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 The Red Badge of Courage

CHAPTER XIII The rifle was lowered to a position of caution and the loud
soldier came slowly forward. He peered into the youth’s face.
“That you, Henry?”
THE YOUTH WENT slowly toward the fire in-dicated by his
“Yes, it’s—it’s me.”
departed friend. As he reeled, he bethought him of the wel-
“Well, well, ol’ boy,” said the other, “by ginger, I’m glad t’
come his comrades would give him. He had a conviction that
see yeh! I give yeh up fer a goner. I thought yeh was dead sure
he would soon feel in his sore heart the barbed missiles of
enough.” There was husky emotion in his voice.
ridicule. He had no strength to in-vent a tale; he would be a
The youth found that now he could barely stand upon his
soft target.
feet. There was a sudden sinking of his forces. He thought he
He made vague plans to go off into the deeper darkness and
must hasten to pro-duce his tale to protect him from the mis-
hide, but they were all destroyed by the voices of exhaustion
siles already at the lips of his redoubtable comrades. So, stag-
and pain from his body. His ailments, clamoring, forced him to
gering before the loud soldier, he began: “Yes, yes. I’ve—I’ve
seek the place of food and rest, at whatever cost.
had an awful time. I’ve been all over. Way over on th’ right.
He swung unsteadily toward the fire. He could see the forms
Ter’ble fightin’ over there. I had an awful time. I got separated
of men throwing black shadows in the red light, and as he
from th’ reg’ment. Over on th’ right, I got shot. In th’ head. I
went nearer it became known to him in some way that the
never see sech fightin’. Awful time. I don’t see how I could ‘a
ground was strewn with sleeping men.
got separated from th’ reg’ment. I got shot, too.” His friend
Of a sudden he confronted a black and monstrous figure. A
had stepped forward quickly. “What? Got shot? Why didn’t
rifle barrel caught some glinting beams. “Halt! halt!” He was
yeh say so first? Poor ol’ boy, we must—hol’ on a minnit;
dismayed for a moment, but he presently thought that he rec-
what am I doin’. I’ll call Simpson.”
ognized the nervous voice. As he stood tottering before the
Another figure at that moment loomed in the gloom. They
rifle barrel, he called out: “Why, hello, Wilson, you—you here?”
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 Stephen Crane
could see that it was the corporal. “Who yeh talkin’ to, Wil- a minnit—here’s my canteen. It’s full ‘a coffee. Look at his
son?” he demanded. His voice was anger-toned. “Who yeh head by th’ fire an’ see how it looks. Maybe it’s a pretty bad
talkin’ to? Yeh th’ derndest sentinel—why—hello, Henry, you un. When I git relieved in a couple ‘a minnits, I’ll be over an’
here? Why, I thought you was dead four hours ago! Great see t’ him.”
Jerusalem, they keep turnin’ up every ten minutes or so! We The youth’s senses were so deadened that his friend’s voice
thought we’d lost forty-two men by straight count, but if they sounded from afar and he could scarcely feel the pressure of
keep on a-comin’ this way, we’ll git th’ comp’ny all back by the corporal’s arm. He submitted passively to the latter’s di-
mornin’ yit. Where was yeh?” recting strength. His head was in the old manner hang-ing for-
“Over on th’ right. I got separated”—began the youth with ward upon his breast. His knees wobbled.
considerable glibness. The corporal led him into the glare of the fire. “Now, Henry,”
But his friend had interrupted hastily. “Yes, an’ he got shot in he said, “let’s have look at yer ol’ head.”
th’ head an’ he’s in a fix, an’ we must see t’ him right away.” The youth sat down obediently and the cor-poral, laying
He rested his rifle in the hollow of his left arm and his right aside his rifle, began to fumble in the bushy hair of his com-
around the youth’s shoulder. rade. He was obliged to turn the other’s head so that the full
“Gee, it must hurt like thunder!” he said. flush of the fire light would beam upon it. He puckered his
The youth leaned heavily upon his friend. “Yes, it hurts—hurts mouth with a critical air. He drew back his lips and whistled
a good deal,” he replied. There was a faltering in his voice. through his teeth when his fingers came in contact with the
“Oh,” said the corporal. He linked his arm in the youth’s and splashed blood and the rare wound.
drew him forward. “Come on, Henry. I’ll take keer ‘a yeh.” “Ah, here we are!” he said. He awkwardly made further
As they went on together the loud private called out after investigations. “Jest as I thought,” he added, presently. “Yeh’ve
them: “Put ‘im t’ sleep in my blanket, Simpson. An’—hol’ on been grazed by a ball. It’s raised a queer lump jest as if some

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 The Red Badge of Courage
feller had lammed yeh on th’ head with a club. It stopped a- On the other side of the fire the youth observed an officer
bleedin’ long time ago. Th’ most about it is that in th’ mornin’ asleep, seated bolt upright, with his back against a tree. There
yeh’ll feel that a number ten hat wouldn’t fit yeh. An’ your was some-thing perilous in his position. Badgered by dreams,
head’ll be all het up an’ feel as dry as burnt pork. An’ yeh may perhaps, he swayed with little bounces and starts, like an old
git a lot ‘a other sicknesses, too, by mornin’. Yeh can’t never toddy-stricken grandfather in a chimney corner. Dust and stains
tell. Still, I don’t much think so. It’s jest a damn’ good belt on were upon his face. His lower jaw hung down as if lacking
th’ head, an’ nothin’ more. Now, you jest sit here an’ don’t strength to assume its normal position. He was the picture of
move, while I go rout out th’ relief. Then I’ll send Wilson t’ an exhausted soldier after a feast of war.
take keer ‘a yeh.” He had evidently gone to sleep with his sword in his arms.
The corporal went away. The youth re-mained on the ground These two had slumbered in an embrace, but the weapon had
like a parcel. He stared with a vacant look into the fire. been allowed in time to fall unheeded to the ground. The brass-
After a time he aroused, for some part, and the things about mounted hilt lay in contact with some parts of the fire.
him began to take form. He saw that the ground in the deep Within the gleam of rose and orange light from the burning
shadows was cluttered with men, sprawling in every con- sticks were other soldiers, snoring and heaving, or lying death-
ceivable posture. Glancing narrowly into the more distant dark- like in slumber. A few pairs of legs were stuck forth, rigid and
ness, he caught occasional glimpses of visages that loomed straight. The shoes displayed the mud or dust of marches and
pallid and ghostly, lit with a phosphorescent glow. These faces bits of rounded trousers, protruding from the blankets, showed
expressed in their lines the deep stupor of the tired soldiers. rents and tears from hurried pitchings through the dense brambles.
They made them appear like men drunk with wine. This bit of The fire crackled musically. From it swelled light smoke.
forest might have appeared to an ethereal wanderer as a scene Overhead the foliage moved softly. The leaves, with their faces
of the result of some frightful debauch. turned toward the blaze, were colored shifting hues of silver,

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 Stephen Crane
often edged with red. Far off to the right, through a window in The loud young soldier watched his comrade with an air of
the forest could be seen a handful of stars lying, like glittering satisfaction. He later produced an extensive handkerchief from
pebbles, on the black level of the night. his pocket. He folded it into a manner of bandage and soused
Occasionally, in this low-arched hall, a soldier would arouse water from the other canteen upon the middle of it. This crude
and turn his body to a new posi-tion, the experience of his arrangement he bound over the youth’s head, tying the ends in
sleep having taught him of uneven and objectionable places a queer knot at the back of the neck.
upon the ground under him. Or, perhaps, he would lift himself “There,” he said, moving off and surveying his deed, “yeh
to a sitting posture, blink at the fire for an unintelligent moment, look like th’ devil, but I bet yeh feel better.”
throw a swift glance at his prostrate companion, and then cuddle The youth contemplated his friend with grate-ful eyes. Upon
down again with a grunt of sleepy content. his aching and swelling head the cold cloth was like a tender
The youth sat in a forlorn heap until his friend the loud young woman’s hand.
soldier came, swinging two canteens by their light strings. “Well, “Yeh don’t holler ner say nothin’,” remarked his friend ap-
now, Henry, ol’ boy,” said the latter, “we’ll have yeh fixed up provingly. “I know I’m a black-smith at takin’ keer ‘a sick
in jest about a minnit.” folks, an’ yeh never squeaked. Yer a good un, Henry. Most ‘a
He had the bustling ways of an amateur nurse. He fussed men would a’ been in th’ hospital long ago. A shot in th’ head
around the fire and stirred the sticks to brilliant exertions. He ain’t foolin’ business.”
made his patient drink largely from the canteen that contained The youth made no reply, but began to fumble with the but-
the coffee. It was to the youth a delicious draught. He tilted his tons of his jacket.
head afar back and held the canteen long to his lips. The cool “Well, come, now,” continued his friend, “come on. I must
mixture went caress-ingly down his blistered throat. Having put yeh t’ bed an’ see that yeh git a good night’s rest.”
finished, he sighed with comfortable delight. The other got carefully erect, and the loud young soldier led

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him among the sleeping forms lying in groups and rows. Pres- softly down over his eyes. Hearing a splatter of musketry from
ently he stooped and picked up his blankets. He spread the the distance, he wondered indifferently if those men some-
rubber one upon the ground and placed the woolen one about times slept. He gave a long sigh, snuggled down into his blan-
the youth’s shoulders. ket, and in a moment was like his com-rades.
“There now,” he said, “lie down an’ git some sleep.”
The youth, with his manner of doglike obe-dience, got care-
fully down like a crone stoop-ing. He stretched out with a
murmur of relief and comfort. The ground felt like the softest
couch.
But of a sudden he ejaculated: “Hol’ on a minnit! Where you
goin’ t’ sleep?”
His friend waved his hand impatiently. “Right down there by
yeh.”
“Well, but hol’ on a minnit,” continued the youth. “What yeh
goin’ t’ sleep in? I’ve got your—”
The loud young soldier snarled: “Shet up an’ go on t’ sleep.
Don’t be makin’ a damn’ fool ‘a yerself,” he said severely.
After the reproof the youth said no more. An exquisite
drowsiness had spread through him. The warm comfort of the
blanket enveloped him and made a gentle languor. His head
fell for-ward on his crooked arm and his weighted lids went

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CHAPTER XIV pallid, and in strange postures. His disordered mind interpreted
the hall of the forest as a charnel place. He believed for an
instant that he was in the house of the dead, and he did not
WHEN THE YOUTH awoke it seemed to him that he had been
dare to move lest these corpses start up, squalling and squawk-
asleep for a thousand years, and he felt sure that he opened his
ing. In a second, however, he achieved his proper mind. He
eyes upon an unex-pected world. Gray mists were slowly shift-
swore a complicated oath at himself. He saw that this somber
ing before the first efforts of the sun rays. An im-pending splen-
picture was not a fact of the present, but a mere prophecy.
dor could be seen in the eastern sky. An icy dew had chilled
He heard then the noise of a fire crackling briskly in the cold
his face, and im-mediately upon arousing he curled farther down
air, and, turning his head, he saw his friend pottering busily
into his blanket. He stared for a while at the leaves overhead,
about a small blaze. A few other figures moved in the fog, and
moving in a heraldic wind of the day.
he heard the hard cracking of axe blows.
The distance was splintering and blaring with the noise of
Suddenly there was a hollow rumble of drums. A distant
fighting. There was in the sound an expression of a deadly
bugle sang faintly. Similar sounds, varying in strength, came
persistency, as if it had not begun and was not to cease.
from near and far over the forest. The bugles called to each
About him were the rows and groups of men that he had
other like brazen gamecocks. The near thunder of the regi-
dimly seen the previous night. They were getting a last draught
mental drums rolled.
of sleep before the awakening. The gaunt, careworn features
The body of men in the woods rustled. There was a general
and dusty figures were made plain by this quaint light at the
uplifting of heads. A murmuring of voices broke upon the air.
dawning, but it dressed the skin of the men in corpselike hues
In it there was much bass of grumbling oaths. Strange gods
and made the tangled limbs appear pulseless and dead. The
were addressed in condemnation of the early hours necessary
youth started up with a little cry when his eyes first swept over
to correct war. An officer’s peremptory tenor rang out and
this motionless mass of men, thick-spread upon the ground,
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 The Red Badge of Courage
quickened the stiffened movement of the men. The tangled He glared with insolent command at his friend, but the latter
limbs unraveled. The corpse-hued faces were hidden behind answered soothingly. “Well, well, come now, an’git some grub,”
fists that twisted slowly in the eye sockets. he said. “Then, maybe, yeh’ll feel better.”
The youth sat up and gave vent to an enormous yawn. “Thun- At the fireside the loud young soldier watched over his
der!” he remarked petulantly. He rubbed his eyes, and then put- comrade’s wants with tender-ness and care. He was very busy
ting up his hand felt carefully of the bandage over his wound. His marshaling the little black vagabonds of tin cups and pour-ing
friend, perceiving him to be awake, came from the fire. “Well, into them the streaming, iron colored mixture from a small and
Henry, ol’ man, how do yeh feel this mornin’?” he demanded. sooty tin pail. He had some fresh meat, which he roasted hur-
The youth yawned again. Then he puckered his mouth to a riedly upon a stick. He sat down then and contemplated the
little pucker. His head, in truth, felt precisely like a melon, and youth’s appetite with glee.
there was an un-pleasant sensation at his stomach. The youth took note of a remarkable change in his comrade
“Oh, Lord, I feel pretty bad,” he said. since those days of camp life upon the river bank. He seemed
“Thunder!” exclaimed the other. “I hoped ye’d feel all right no more to be con-tinually regarding the proportions of his
this mornin’. Let’s see th’ bandage—I guess it’s slipped.” He personal prowess. He was not furious at small words that
began to tinker at the wound in rather a clumsy way until the pricked his conceits. He was no more a loud young soldier.
youth exploded. There was about him now a fine reliance. He showed a quiet
“Gosh-dern it!” he said in sharp irritation; “you’re the belief in his purposes and his abilities. And this in-ward confi-
hangdest man I ever saw! You wear muffs on your hands. dence evidently enabled him to be indifferent to little words of
Why in good thunderation can’t you be more easy? I’d rather other men aimed at him.
you’d stand off an’ throw guns at it. Now, go slow, an’ don’t The youth reflected. He had been used to regarding his com-
act as if you was nailing down carpet.” rade as a blatant child with an audacity grown from his inexpe-

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 Stephen Crane
rience, thought-less, headstrong, jealous, and filled with a tin- But the other made a deprecating gesture. “Oh, yeh needn’t
sel courage. A swaggering babe accustomed to strut in his mind, Henry,” he said. “I be-lieve I was a pretty big fool in
own dooryard. The youth wondered where had been born those days.” He spoke as after a lapse of years.
these new eyes; when his comrade had made the great dis- There was a little pause.
covery that there were many men who would refuse to be “All th’ officers say we’ve got th’ rebs in a pretty tight box,”
subjected by him. Apparently, the other had now climbed a said the friend, clearing his throat in a commonplace way. “They
peak of wisdom from which he could perceive himself as a all seem t’ think we’ve got ‘em jest where we want ‘em.”
very wee thing. And the youth saw that ever after it would be “I don’t know about that,” the youth replied. “What I seen
easier to live in his friend’s neighborhood. over on th’ right makes me think it was th’ other way about.
His comrade balanced his ebony coffee-cup on his knee. From where I was, it looked as if we was gettin’ a good
“Well, Henry,” he said, “what d’yeh think th’ chances are? poundin’ yestirday.”
D’yeh think we’ll wal-lop ‘em?” “D’yeh think so?” inquired the friend. “I thought we handled
The youth considered for a moment. “Day-b’fore-yester- ‘em pretty rough yestir-day.”
day,” he finally replied, with boldness, “you would ‘a’ bet you’d “Not a bit,” said the youth. “Why, lord, man, you didn’t see
lick the hull kit-an’-boodle all by yourself.” nothing of the fight. Why!” Then a sudden thought came to
His friend looked a trifle amazed. “Would I?” he asked. He him. “Oh! Jim Conklin’s dead.”
pondered. “Well, perhaps I would,” he decided at last. He His friend started. “What? Is he? Jim Conklin?”
stared humbly at the fire. The youth spoke slowly. “Yes. He’s dead. Shot in th’ side.”
The youth was quite disconcerted at this sur-prising recep- “Yeh don’t say so. Jim Conklin. . . . poor cuss!”
tion of his remarks. “Oh, no, you wouldn’t either,” he said, All about them were other small fires sur-rounded by men
hastily trying to re-trace. with their little black utensils. From one of these near came

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sudden sharp voices in a row. It appeared that two light-footed But during this argumentative time the de-sire to deal blows
soldiers had been teasing a huge, bearded man, causing him to seemed to pass, although they said much to each other. Finally
spill coffee upon his blue knees. The man had gone into a rage the friend re-turned to his old seat. In a short while the three
and had sworn comprehensively. Stung by his language, his tor- antagonists could be seen together in an amiable bunch.
mentors had immediately bristled at him with a great show of “Jimmie Rogers ses I’ll have t’ fight him after th’ battle t’-
resenting unjust oaths. Possibly there was going to be a fight. day,” announced the friend as he again seated himself. “He ses
The friend arose and went over to them, mak-ing pacific he don’t allow no interferin’ in his business. I hate t’ see th’
motions with his arms. “Oh, here, now, boys, what’s th’ use?” boys fightin’ ‘mong themselves.”
he said. “We’ll be at th’ rebs in less’n an hour. What’s th’ The youth laughed. “Yer changed a good bit. Yeh ain’t at all
good fightin’ ‘mong ourselves?” like yeh was. I remember when you an’ that Irish feller—” He
One of the light-footed soldiers turned upon him red-faced stopped and laughed again.
and violent. “Yeh needn’t come around here with yer preachin’. “No, I didn’t use t’ be that way,” said his friend thoughtfully.
I s’pose yeh don’t approve ‘a fightin’ since Charley Morgan “That’s true ‘nough.”
licked yeh; but I don’t see what business this here is ‘a yours “Well, I didn’t mean—” began the youth.
or anybody else.” The friend made another deprecatory gesture. “Oh, yeh
“Well, it ain’t,” said the friend mildly. “Still I hate t’ see—” needn’t mind, Henry.”
There was a tangled argument. There was another little pause.
“Well, he—,” said the two, indicating their opponent with “Th’ reg’ment lost over half th’ men yestir-day,” remarked
accusative forefingers. the friend eventually. “I thought a course they was all dead,
The huge soldier was quite purple with rage. He pointed at the but, laws, they kep’ a-comin’ back last night until it seems,
two soldiers with his great hand, extended clawlike. “Well, they—” after all, we didn’t lose but a few. They’d been scattered all

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 Stephen Crane
over, wanderin’ around in th’ woods, fightin’ with other
reg’ments, an’ everything. Jest like you done.”
CHAPTER XV
“So?” said the youth.
THE REGIMENT WAS standing at order arms at the side of a lane,
waiting for the command to march, when suddenly the youth
remembered the little packet enwrapped in a faded yellow
envelope which the loud young soldier with lugu-brious words
had intrusted to him. It made him start. He uttered an excla-
mation and turned toward his comrade.
“Wilson!”
“What?”
His friend, at his side in the ranks, was thought-fully staring
down the road. From some cause his expression was at that
moment very meek. The youth, regarding him with sidelong
glances, felt impelled to change his purpose. “Oh, noth-ing,”
he said.
His friend turned his head in some surprise, “Why, what was
yeh goin’ t’ say?”
“Oh, nothing,” repeated the youth.
He resolved not to deal the little blow. It was sufficient that
the fact made him glad. It was not necessary to knock his
friend on the head with the misguided packet.
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 The Red Badge of Courage
He had been possessed of much fear of his friend, for he not shrink from an encounter with the eyes of judges, and
saw how easily questionings could make holes in his feelings. allowed no thoughts of his own to keep him from an attitude
Lately, he had as-sured himself that the altered comrade would of manfulness. He had performed his mistakes in the dark,
not tantalize him with a persistent curiosity, but he felt certain so he was still a man.
that during the first period of leisure his friend would ask him Indeed, when he remembered his fortunes of yesterday, and
to relate his adventures of the previous day. looked at them from a distance he began to see something fine
He now rejoiced in the possession of a small weapon with there. He had license to be pompous and veteranlike.
which he could prostrate his com-rade at the first signs of a His panting agonies of the past he put out of his sight.
cross-examination. He was master. It would now be he who In the present, he declared to himself that it was only the
could laugh and shoot the shafts of derision. doomed and the damned who roared with sincerity at circum-
The friend had, in a weak hour, spoken with sobs of his own stance. Few but they ever did it. A man with a full stomach
death. He had delivered a mel-ancholy oration previous to his and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about
funeral, and had doubtless in the packet of letters, presented anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the
vari-ous keepsakes to relatives. But he had not died, and thus universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortu-
he had delivered himself into the hands of the youth. nates rail; the others may play marbles.
The latter felt immensely superior to his friend, but he in- He did not give a great deal of thought to these battles that
clined to condescension. He adopted toward him an air of lay directly before him. It was not essential that he should plan
patronizing good humor. his ways in regard to them. He had been taught that many
His self-pride was now entirely restored. In the shade of obligations of a life were easily avoided. The lessons of yes-
its flourishing growth he stood with braced and self-confi- terday had been that retribution was a laggard and blind. With
dent legs, and since nothing could now be discovered he did these facts before him he did not deem it necessary that he

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 Stephen Crane
should become feverish over the possibilities of the ensuing He fidgeted in his jacket.
twenty-four hours. He could leave much to chance. Besides, a “Well,” he gulped, at last, “I guess yeh might as well give me
faith in himself had secretly blossomed. There was a little flower back them letters.” Dark, prick-ling blood had flushed into his
of confidence growing within him. He was now a man of ex- cheeks and brow.
perience. He had been out among the dragons, he said, and he “All right, Wilson,” said the youth. He loosened two buttons of
assured himself that they were not so hideous as he had imag- his coat, thrust in his hand, and brought forth the packet. As he
ined them. Also, they were inaccurate; they did not sting with ex-tended it to his friend the latter’s face was turned from him.
precision. A stout heart often defied, and defying, escaped. He had been slow in the act of producing the packet be-
And, furthermore, how could they kill him who was the cho- cause during it he had been trying to invent a remarkable com-
sen of gods and doomed to greatness? ment upon the affair. He could conjure nothing of sufficient
He remembered how some of the men had run from the point. He was compelled to allow his friend to escape unmo-
battle. As he recalled their terror-struck faces he felt a scorn lested with his packet. And for this he took unto himself con-
for them. They had surely been more fleet and more wild than siderable credit. It was a generous thing.
was absolutely necessary. They were weak mortals. As for His friend at his side seemed suffering great shame. As he
himself, he had fled with discretion and dignity. contemplated him, the youth felt his heart grow more strong
He was aroused from this reverie by his friend, who, having and stout. He had never been compelled to blush in such man-
hitched about nervously and blinked at the trees for a time, ner for his acts; he was an individual of extraordi-nary virtues.
suddenly coughed in an introductory way, and spoke. He reflected, with condescending pity: “Too bad! Too bad!
“Fleming!” The poor devil, it makes him feel tough!”
“What?” After this incident, and as he reviewed the battle pictures he
The friend put his hand up to his mouth and coughed again. had seen, he felt quite com-petent to return home and make

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 The Red Badge of Courage
the hearts of the people glow with stories of war. He could see
himself in a room of warm tints telling tales to listeners. He
CHAPTER XVI
could exhibit laurels. They were insignificant; still, in a district
A SPUTTERING OF MUSKETRY was always to be heard. Later,
where laurels were infrequent, they might shine.
the cannon had entered the dis-pute. In the fog-filled air their
He saw his gaping audience picturing him as the central fig-
voices made a thudding sound. The reverberations were con-
ure in blazing scenes. And he imagined the consternation and
tinued. This part of the world led a strange, battleful existence.
the ejaculations of his mother and the young lady at the semi-
The youth’s regiment was marched to relieve a command
nary as they drank his recitals. Their vague feminine formula
that had lain long in some damp trenches. The men took posi-
for beloved ones doing brave deeds on the field of battle with-
tions behind a curv-ing line of rifle pits that had been turned
out risk of life would be destroyed.
up, like a large furrow, along the line of woods. Before them
was a level stretch, peopled with short, deformed stumps. From
the woods beyond came the dull popping of the skirmishers
and pickets, firing in the fog. From the right came the noise of
a terrific fracas.
The men cuddled behind the small embank-ment and sat in
easy attitudes awaiting their turn. Many had their backs to the
firing. The youth’s friend lay down, buried his face in his arms,
and almost instantly, it seemed, he was in a deep sleep.
The youth leaned his breast against the brown dirt and peered
over at the woods and up and down the line. Curtains of trees
interfered with his ways of vision. He could see the low line of
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 Stephen Crane
trenches but for a short distance. A few idle flags were perched on the right, grow-ing like a released genie of sound, expressed
on the dirt hills. Behind them were rows of dark bodies with a and emphasized the army’s plight.
few heads sticking curiously over the top. The men were disheartened and began to mutter. They made
Always the noise of skirmishers came from the woods on gestures expressive of the sentence: “Ah, what more can we
the front and left, and the din on the right had grown to frightful do?” And it could always be seen that they were bewildered
proportions. The guns were roaring without an instant’s pause by the alleged news and could not fully compre-hend a defeat.
for breath. It seemed that the cannon had come from all parts Before the gray mists had been totally ob-literated by the sun
and were engaged in a stupendous wrangle. It became impos- rays, the regiment was march-ing in a spread column that was
sible to make a sen-tence heard. retiring carefully through the woods. The disordered, hurrying
The youth wished to launch a joke—a quota-tion from news- lines of the enemy could sometimes be seen down through the
papers. He desired to say, “All quiet on the Rappahannock,” groves and little fields. They were yelling, shrill and exultant.
but the guns refused to permit even a comment upon their At this sight the youth forgot many personal matters and be-
uproar. He never successfully concluded the sentence. But at came greatly enraged. He ex-ploded in loud sentences.
last the guns stopped, and among the men in the rifle pits ru- “B’jiminey, we’re generaled by a lot ‘a lunkheads.”
mors again flew, like birds, but they were now for the most “More than one feller has said that t’-day,” observed a man.
part black creatures who flapped their wings drearily near to His friend, recently aroused, was still very drowsy. He looked
the ground and refused to rise on any wings of hope. The behind him until his mind took in the meaning of the movement.
men’s faces grew doleful from the interpreting of omens. Tales Then he sighed. “Oh, well, I s’pose we got licked,” he re-
of hesitation and uncertainty on the part of those high in place marked sadly.
and responsibility came to their ears. Stories of disaster were The youth had a thought that it would not be handsome for
borne into their minds with many proofs. This din of musketry him to freely condemn other men. He made an attempt to re-

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 The Red Badge of Courage
strain himself, but the words upon his tongue were too bitter. will ever dare say it. Th’ boys fight like hell-roosters. But still—
He presently began a long and intricate denunciation of the still, we don’t have no luck.”
commander of the forces. “Well, then, if we fight like the devil an’ don’t ever whip, it
“Mebbe, it wa’n’t all his fault—not all to-gether. He did th’ must be the general’s fault,” said the youth grandly and deci-
best he knowed. It’s our luck t’ git licked often,” said his friend sively. “And I don’t see any sense in fighting and fighting and
in a weary tone. He was trudging along with stooped shoul- fighting, yet always losing through some derned old lunkhead
ders and shifting eyes like a man who has been caned and of a general.”
kicked. A sarcastic man who was tramping at the youth’s side, then
“Well, don’t we fight like the devil? Don’t we do all that men spoke lazily. “Mebbe yeh think yeh fit th’ hull battle yestirday,
can?” demanded the youth loudly. Fleming,” he remarked.
He was secretly dumfounded at this sentiment when it came The speech pierced the youth. Inwardly he was reduced to
from his lips. For a moment his face lost its valor and he looked an abject pulp by these chance words. His legs quaked pri-
guiltily about him. But no one questioned his right to deal in vately. He cast a frightened glance at the sarcastic man.
such words, and presently he recovered his air of courage. He “Why, no,” he hastened to say in a concili-ating voice, “I
went on to repeat a statement he had heard going from group don’t think I fought the whole battle yesterday.”
to group at the camp that morning. “The brigadier said he never But the other seemed innocent of any deeper meaning. Ap-
saw a new reg’ment fight the way we fought yestirday, didn’t parently, he had no information. It was merely his habit. “Oh!”
he? And we didn’t do better than many another reg’ment, did he replied in the same tone of calm derision.
we? Well, then, you can’t say it’s th’ army’s fault, can you?” The youth, nevertheless, felt a threat. His mind shrank from
In his reply, the friend’s voice was stern. “‘A course not,” he going near to the danger, and thereafter he was silent. The
said. “No man dare say we don’t fight like th’ devil. No man significance of the sarcastic man’s words took from him all

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 Stephen Crane
loud moods that would make him appear prominent. He be- “Whoop-a-dadee,” said a man, “here we are! Everybody
came suddenly a modest person. fightin’. Blood an’ destruction.”
There was low-toned talk among the troops. The officers “I was willin’ t’ bet they’d attack as soon as th’ sun got fairly
were impatient and snappy, their countenances clouded with up,” savagely asserted the lieutenant who commanded the
the tales of misfor-tune. The troops, sifting through the forest, youth’s company. He jerked without mercy at his little mus-
were sullen. In the youth’s company once a man’s laugh rang tache. He strode to and fro with dark dignity in the rear of his
out. A dozen soldiers turned their faces quickly toward him men, who were lying down behind whatever protection they
and frowned with vague displeasure. had collected.
The noise of firing dogged their footsteps. Sometimes, it A battery had trundled into position in the rear and was
seemed to be driven a little way, but it always returned again thoughtfully shelling the distance. The regiment, unmolested as
with increased insolence. The men muttered and cursed, throw- yet, awaited the moment when the gray shadows of the woods
ing black looks in its direction. before them should be slashed by the lines of flame. There
In a clear space the troops were at last halted. Regiments was much growling and swearing.
and brigades, broken and detached through their encounters “Good Gawd,” the youth grumbled, “we’re always being
with thickets, grew together again and lines were faced to- chased around like rats! It makes me sick. Nobody seems to
ward the pursuing bark of the enemy’s infantry. know where we go or why we go. We just get fired around
This noise, following like the yellings of eager, metallic hounds, from pillar to post and get licked here and get licked there,
increased to a loud and joyous burst, and then, as the sun and nobody knows what it’s done for. It makes a man feel like
went serenely up the sky, throwing illuminating rays into the a damn’ kitten in a bag. Now, I’d like to know what the eter-
gloomy thickets, it broke forth into prolonged pealings. The nal thunders we was marched into these woods for anyhow,
woods began to crackle as if afire. unless it was to give the rebs a regular pot shot at us. We came

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in here and got our legs all tangled up in these cussed briers, and The day had grown more white, until the sun shed his full
then we begin to fight and the rebs had an easy time of it. Don’t radiance upon the thronged forest. A sort of a gust of battle
tell me it’s just luck! I know better. It’s this derned old—” came sweeping toward that part of the line where lay the youth’s
The friend seemed jaded, but he interrupted his comrade regi-ment. The front shifted a trifle to meet it square-ly. There
with a voice of calm confidence. “It’ll turn out all right in th’ was a wait. In this part of the field there passed slowly the
end,” he said. intense moments that pre-cede the tempest.
“Oh, the devil it will! You always talk like a dog-hanged A single rifle flashed in a thicket before the regiment. In an
parson. Don’t tell me! I know—” instant it was joined by many others. There was a mighty song
At this time there was an interposition by the savage-minded of clashes and crashes that went sweeping through the woods.
lieutenant, who was obliged to vent some of his inward dissatis- The guns in the rear, aroused and enraged by shells that had
faction upon his men. “You boys shut right up! There no need ‘a been thrown burlike at them, suddenly involved themselves in a
your wastin’ your breath in long-winded arguments about this hideous alter-cation with another band of guns. The battle roar
an’ that an’ th’ other. You’ve been jawin’ like a lot ‘a old hens. settled to a rolling thunder, which was a single, long explosion.
All you’ve got t’ do is to fight, an’ you’ll get plenty ‘a that t’ do In the regiment there was a peculiar kind of hesitation de-
in about ten minutes. Less talkin’ an’ more fightin’ is what’s best noted in the attitudes of the men. They were worn, exhausted,
for you boys. I never saw sech gabbling jackasses.” having slept but lit-tle and labored much. They rolled their eyes
He paused, ready to pounce upon any man who might have toward the advancing battle as they stood await-ing the shock.
the temerity to reply. No words being said, he resumed his Some shrank and flinched. They stood as men tied to stakes.
dignified pacing.
“There’s too much chin music an’ too little fightin’ in this war,
anyhow,” he said to them, turning his head for a final remark.

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CHAPTER XVII it, little gods and big gods; to-day he hated the army of the foe
with the same great hatred. He was not going to be badgered
of his life, like a kitten chased by boys, he said. It was not well
THIS ADVANCE OF THE ENEMY had seemed to the youth like a
to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all
ruthless hunting. He began to fume with rage and exaspera-
develop teeth and claws.
tion. He beat his foot upon the ground, and scowled with hate
He leaned and spoke into his friend’s ear. He menaced the
at the swirling smoke that was approaching like a phan-tom
woods with a gesture. “If they keep on chasing us, by Gawd,
flood. There was a maddening quality in this seeming resolu-
they’d better watch out. Can’t stand TOO much.”
tion of the foe to give him no rest, to give him no time to sit
The friend twisted his head and made a calm reply. “If they
down and think. Yesterday he had fought and had fled rapidly.
keep on a-chasin’ us they’ll drive us all inteh th’ river.”
There had been many adventures. For to-day he felt that he
The youth cried out savagely at this state-ment. He crouched
had earned opportunities for contem-plative repose. He could
behind a little tree, with his eyes burning hatefully and his teeth
have enjoyed portraying to uninitiated listeners various scenes
set in a cur-like snarl. The awkward bandage was still about
at which he had been a witness or ably discussing the pro-
his head, and upon it, over his wound, there was a spot of dry
cesses of war with other proved men. Too it was important
blood. His hair was wondrously tousled, and some straggling,
that he should have time for physical recuperation. He was
moving locks hung over the cloth of the bandage down to-
sore and stiff from his ex-periences. He had received his fill of
ward his forehead. His jacket and shirt were open at the throat,
all exer-tions, and he wished to rest.
and exposed his young bronzed neck. There could be seen
But those other men seemed never to grow weary; they were
spasmodic gulpings at his throat.
fighting with their old speed.
His fingers twined nervously about his rifle. He wished that it
He had a wild hate for the relentless foe. Yester-day, when
was an engine of annihilating power. He felt that he and his
he had imagined the universe to be against him, he had hated
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 The Red Badge of Courage
companions were being taunted and derided from sincere desire to smash into pulp the glittering smile of victory which
convic-tions that they were poor and puny. His knowl-edge of he could feel upon the faces of his enemies.
his inability to take vengeance for it made his rage into a dark The blue smoke-swallowed line curled and writhed like a
and stormy specter, that pos-sessed him and made him dream snake stepped upon. It swung its ends to and fro in an agony
of abominable cruelties. The tormentors were flies sucking in- of fear and rage.
solently at his blood, and he thought that he would have given The youth was not conscious that he was erect upon his
his life for a revenge of seeing their faces in pitiful plights. feet. He did not know the direction of the ground. Indeed,
The winds of battle had swept all about the regiment, until once he even lost the habit of balance and fell heavily. He was
the one rifle, instantly followed by others, flashed in its front. A up again immediately. One thought went through the chaos of
moment later the regiment roared forth its sudden and valiant his brain at the time. He wondered if he had fallen because he
retort. A dense wall of smoke settled slowly down. It was had been shot. But the suspicion flew away at once. He did
furiously slit and slashed by the knifelike fire from the rifles. not think more of it.
To the youth the fighters resembled animals tossed for a death He had taken up a first position behind the lit-tle tree, with a
struggle into a dark pit. There was a sensation that he and his direct determination to hold it against the world. He had not
fellows, at bay, were pushing back, always pushing fierce on- deemed it possi-ble that his army could that day succeed, and
slaughts of creatures who were slippery. Their beams of crim- from this he felt the ability to fight harder. But the throng had
son seemed to get no purchase upon the bodies of their foes; surged in all ways, until he lost directions and locations, save
the latter seemed to evade them with ease, and come through, that he knew where lay the enemy.
between, around, and about with unopposed skill. The flames bit him, and the hot smoke broiled his skin. His
When, in a dream, it occurred to the youth that his rifle was rifle barrel grew so hot that ordi-narily he could not have borne
an impotent stick, he lost sense of everything but his hate, his it upon his palms; but he kept on stuffing cartridges into it, and

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 Stephen Crane
pounding them with his clanking, bending ram-rod. If he aimed He looked bewildered for a moment. Then there appeared
at some changing form through the smoke, he pulled his trigger upon the glazed vacancy of his eyes a diamond point of intel-
with a fierce grunt, as if he were dealing a blow of the fist with ligence. “Oh,” he said, comprehending.
all his strength. He returned to his comrades and threw him-self upon the
When the enemy seemed falling back before him and his ground. He sprawled like a man who had been thrashed. His
fellows, he went instantly forward, like a dog who, seeing his flesh seemed strange-ly on fire, and the sounds of the battle
foes lagging, turns and insists upon being pursued. And when continued in his ears. He groped blindly for his canteen.
he was compelled to retire again, he did it slowly, sul-lenly, The lieutenant was crowing. He seemed drunk with fighting.
taking steps of wrathful despair. He called out to the youth: “By heavens, if I had ten thousand
Once he, in his intent hate, was almost alone, and was firing, wild cats like you I could tear th’ stomach outa this war in less’n
when all those near him had ceased. He was so engrossed in a week!” He puffed out his chest with large dignity as he said it.
his occupation that he was not aware of a lull. Some of the men muttered and looked at the youth in awe-
He was recalled by a hoarse laugh and a sen-tence that came struck ways. It was plain that as he had gone on loading and
to his ears in a voice of contempt and amazement. “Yeh infer- firing and cursing without the proper intermission, they had
nal fool, don’t yeh know enough t’ quit when there ain’t any- found time to regard him. And they now looked upon him as a
thing t’ shoot at? Good Gawd!” war devil.
He turned then and, pausing with his rifle thrown half into po- The friend came staggering to him. There was some fright and
sition, looked at the blue line of his comrades. During this mo- dismay in his voice. “Are yeh all right, Fleming? Do yeh feel all
ment of leisure they seemed all to be engaged in staring with right? There ain’t nothin’ th’ matter with yeh, Henry, is there?”
astonishment at him. They had become specta-tors. Turning to “No,” said the youth with difficulty. His throat seemed full of
the front again he saw, under the lifted smoke, a deserted ground. knobs and burs.

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These incidents made the youth ponder. It was revealed to “A dog, a woman, an’ a walnut tree, Th’ more yeh beat
him that he had been a barbarian, a beast. He had fought like ‘em, th’ better they be!
a pagan who de-fends his religion. Regarding it, he saw that it That’s like us.”
was fine, wild, and, in some ways, easy. He had been a tre- “Lost a piler men, they did. If an’ ol’ woman swep’ up th’
mendous figure, no doubt. By this struggle he had overcome woods she’d git a dustpanful.”
obstacles which he had admitted to be mountains. They had “Yes, an’ if she’ll come around ag’in in ‘bout an’ hour she’ll
fallen like paper peaks, and he was now what he called a git a pile more.”
hero. And he had not been aware of the pro-cess. He had The forest still bore its burden of clamor. From off under the
slept and, awakening, found him-self a knight. trees came the rolling clatter of the musketry. Each distant
He lay and basked in the occasional stares of his comrades. thicket seemed a strange porcupine with quills of flame. A
Their faces were varied in de-grees of blackness from the cloud of dark smoke, as from smoldering ruins, went up to-
burned powder. Some were utterly smudged. They were reek- ward the sun now bright and gay in the blue, enameled sky.
ing with perspiration, and their breaths came hard and wheez-
ing. And from these soiled ex-panses they peered at him.
“Hot work! Hot work!” cried the lieu-tenant deliriously. He
walked up and down, restless and eager. Sometimes his voice
could be heard in a wild, incomprehensible laugh.
When he had a particularly profound thought upon the science
of war he always unconsciously addressed himself to the youth.
There was some grim rejoicing by the men. “By thunder, I bet
this army’ll never see another new reg’ment like us!” “You bet!”

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 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER XVIII he damned them in shrieked sentences.

The youth’s friend had a geographical illusion concerning a
stream, and he obtained permission to go for some water.
THE RAGGED LINE had respite for some min-utes, but during its
Immediately canteens were showered upon him. “Fill mine,
pause the struggle in the forest became magnified until the trees
will yeh?” “Bring me some, too.” “And me, too.” He departed,
seemed to quiver from the firing and the ground to shake from
ladened. The youth went with his friend, feeling a desire to
the rushing of the men. The voices of the cannon were mingled
throw his heated body onto the stream and, soaking there,
in a long and interminable row. It seemed difficult to live in
drink quarts.
such an atmos-phere. The chests of the men strained for a bit
They made a hurried search for the supposed stream, but
of freshness, and their throats craved water.
did not find it. “No water here,” said the youth. They turned
There was one shot through the body, who raised a cry of
without delay and began to retrace their steps.
bitter lamentation when came this lull. Perhaps he had been
From their position as they again faced to-ward the place of
calling out during the fighting also, but at that time no one had
the fighting, they could of course comprehend a greater amount
heard him. But now the men turned at the woe-ful complaints
of the bat-tle than when their visions had been blurred by the
of him upon the ground.
hurling smoke of the line. They could see dark stretches wind-
“Who is it? Who is it?”
ing along the land, and on one cleared space there was a row
“It’s Jimmie Rogers. Jimmie Rogers.”
of guns mak-ing gray clouds, which were filled with large flashes
When their eyes first encountered him there was a sudden
of orange-colored flame. Over some foli-age they could see
halt, as if they feared to go near. He was thrashing about in the
the roof of a house. One win-dow, glowing a deep murder
grass, twisting his shuddering body into many strange pos-
red, shone squarely through the leaves. From the edifice a tall
tures. He was screaming loudly. This instant’s hesita-tion
lean-ing tower of smoke went far into the sky.
seemed to fill him with a tremendous, fantas-tic contempt, and
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 The Red Badge of Courage
Looking over their own troops, they saw mixed masses in front of the two soldiers. An-other officer, riding with the
slowly getting into regular form. The sunlight made twinkling skillful abandon of a cowboy, galloped his horse to a position
points of the bright steel. To the rear there was a glimpse of a directly before the general. The two unnoticed foot sol-diers
dis-tant roadway as it curved over a slope. It was crowded made a little show of going on, but they lingered near in the
with retreating infantry. From all the interwoven forest arose desire to overhear the con-versation. Perhaps, they thought,
the smoke and bluster of the battle. The air was always occu- some great inner historical things would be said.
pied by a blaring. The general, whom the boys knew as the com-mander of
Near where they stood shells were flip-flap-ping and hoot- their division, looked at the other officer and spoke coolly, as
ing. Occasional bullets buzzed in the air and spanged into tree if he were criticising his clothes. “Th’ enemy’s formin’ over
trunks. Wounded men and other stragglers were slinking there for another charge,” he said. “It’ll be directed against
through the woods. Whiterside, an’ I fear they’ll break through there unless we
Looking down an aisle of the grove, the youth and his com- work like thunder t’ stop them.”
panion saw a jangling general and his staff almost ride upon a The other swore at his restive horse, and then cleared his
wounded man, who was crawling on his hands and knees. throat. He made a gesture toward his cap. “It’ll be hell t’ pay
The general reined strongly at his charger’s opened and foamy stoppin’ them,” he said shortly.
mouth and guided it with dexterous horsemanship past the man. “I presume so,” remarked the general. Then he began to
The latter scram-bled in wild and torturing haste. His strength talk rapidly and in a lower tone. He frequently illustrated his
evidently failed him as he reached a place of safety. One of his words with a pointing finger. The two infantrymen could hear
arms suddenly weakened, and he fell, sliding over upon his nothing until finally he asked: “What troops can you spare?”
back. He lay stretched out, breathing gently. The officer who rode like a cowboy reflected for an instant.
A moment later the small, creaking cavalcade was directly “Well,” he said, “I had to order in th’ 12th to help th’ 76th, an’

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 Stephen Crane
I haven’t really got any. But there’s th’ 304th. They fight like a As the two boys approached the line, the lieu-tenant perceived
lot ‘a mule drivers. I can spare them best of any.” them and swelled with wrath. “Fleming—Wilson—how long does
The youth and his friend exchanged glances of astonishment. it take yeh to git water, anyhow—where yeh been to.”
The general spoke sharply. “Get ‘em ready, then. I’ll watch But his oration ceased as he saw their eyes, which were
developments from here, an’ send you word when t’ start them. large with great tales. “We’re goin’ t’ charge—we’re goin’ t’
It’ll happen in five minutes.” charge!” cried the youth’s friend, hastening with his news.
As the other officer tossed his fingers toward his cap and “Charge?” said the lieutenant. “Charge? Well, b’Gawd! Now,
wheeling his horse, started away, the general called out to him this is real fightin’.” Over his soiled countenance there went a
in a sober voice: “I don’t believe many of your mule drivers boastful smile. “Charge? Well, b’Gawd!”
will get back.” A little group of soldiers surrounded the two youths. “Are
The other shouted something in reply. He smiled. we, sure ‘nough? Well, I’ll be derned! Charge? What fer?
With scared faces, the youth and his compan-ion hurried What at? Wilson, you’re lyin’.”
back to the line. “I hope to die,” said the youth, pitching his tones to the key
These happenings had occupied an incredibly short time, of angry remonstrance. “Sure as shooting, I tell you.”
yet the youth felt that in them he had been made aged. New And his friend spoke in re-enforcement. “Not by a blame
eyes were given to him. And the most startling thing was to sight, he ain’t lyin’. We heard ‘em talkin’.”
learn sud-denly that he was very insignificant. The officer spoke They caught sight of two mounted figures a short distance
of the regiment as if he referred to a broom. Some part of the from them. One was the colonel of the regiment and the other
woods needed sweep-ing, perhaps, and he merely indicated a was the officer who had received orders from the commander
broom in a tone properly indifferent to its fate. It was war, no of the division. They were gesticulating at each other. The sol-
doubt, but it appeared strange. dier, pointing at them, interpreted the scene.

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One man had a final objection: “How could yeh hear ‘em in other matters. Apparently, the regiment had its small affair
talkin’?” But the men, for a large part, nodded, admitting that to itself.
previously the two friends had spoken truth. The youth, turning, shot a quick, inquiring glance at his friend.
They settled back into reposeful attitudes with airs of having The latter returned to him the same manner of look. They were
accepted the matter. And they mused upon it, with a hundred the only ones who possessed an inner knowledge. “Mule driv-
varieties of expression. It was an engrossing thing to think about. ers—hell t’ pay—don’t believe many will get back.” It was an
Many tightened their belts carefully and hitched at their trousers. ironical secret. Still, they saw no hesitation in each other’s faces,
A moment later the officers began to bustle among the men, and they nod-ded a mute and unprotesting assent when a shag-
pushing them into a more com-pact mass and into a better gy man near them said in a meek voice: “We’ll git swallowed.”
alignment. They chased those that straggled and fumed at a
few men who seemed to show by their attitudes that they had
decided to remain at that spot. They were like critical shep-
herds struggling with sheep.
Presently, the regiment seemed to draw itself up and heave a
deep breath. None of the men’s faces were mirrors of large
thoughts. The sol-diers were bended and stooped like sprinters
be-fore a signal. Many pairs of glinting eyes peered from the grimy
faces toward the curtains of the deeper woods. They seemed to
be engaged in deep calculations of time and distance.
They were surrounded by the noises of the monstrous alter-
cation between the two armies. The world was fully interested

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CHAPTER XIX features surmounted by the dingy rag with its spot of blood,
his wildly swinging rifle and banging accouterments, he looked
to be an insane soldier.
THE YOUTH STARED at the land in front of him. Its foliages now
As the regiment swung from its position out into a cleared
seemed to veil powers and hor-rors. He was unaware of the
space the woods and thickets be-fore it awakened. Yellow
machinery of orders that started the charge, although from the
flames leaped toward it from many directions. The forest made
cor-ners of his eyes he saw an officer, who looked like a boy
a tre-mendous objection.
a-horseback, come galloping, waving his hat. Suddenly he felt
The line lurched straight for a moment. Then the right wing
a straining and heaving among the men. The line fell slowly
swung forward; it in turn was surpassed by the left. Afterward
forward like a toppling wall, and, with a convulsive gasp that
the center careered to the front until the regiment was a wedge-
was intended for a cheer, the regiment began its journey. The
shaped mass, but an instant later the opposition of the bushes,
youth was pushed and jostled for a moment before he under-
trees, and uneven places on the ground split the command and
stood the move-ment at all, but directly he lunged ahead and
scattered it into detached clusters.
began to run.
The youth, light-footed, was unconsciously in advance. His
He fixed his eye upon a distant and promi-nent clump of
eyes still kept note of the clump of trees. From all places near
trees where he had concluded the enemy were to be met, and
it the clannish yell of the enemy could be heard. The little flames
he ran toward it as toward a goal. He had believed throughout
of rifles leaped from it. The song of the bullets was in the air
that it was a mere question of getting over an unpleas-ant mat-
and shells snarled among the tree-tops. One tumbled directly
ter as quickly as possible, and he ran desperately, as if pur-
into the middle of a hurrying group and exploded in crimson
sued for a murder. His face was drawn hard and tight with the
fury. There was an instant’s spectacle of a man, almost over it,
stress of his endeavor. His eyes were fixed in a lurid glare.
throwing up his hands to shield his eyes.
And with his soiled and disordered dress, his red and inflamed
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 The Red Badge of Courage
Other men, punched by bullets, fell in gro-tesque agonies. would be incapable of checking itself before granite and brass.
The regiment left a coherent trail of bodies. There was the deli-rium that encounters despair and death,
They had passed into a clearer atmosphere. There was an and is heedless and blind to the odds. It is a temporary but
effect like a revelation in the new appearance of the landscape. sublime absence of selfishness. And because it was of this
Some men work-ing madly at a battery were plain to them, order was the reason, perhaps, why the youth wondered, af-
and the opposing infantry’s lines were defined by the gray walls terward, what reasons he could have had for being there.
and fringes of smoke. Presently the straining pace ate up the ener-gies of the men.
It seemed to the youth that he saw every-thing. Each blade As if by agreement, the leaders began to slacken their speed.
of the green grass was bold and clear. He thought that he was The volleys di-rected against them had had a seeming windlike
aware of every change in the thin, transparent vapor that floated effect. The regiment snorted and blew. Among some stolid
idly in sheets. The brown or gray trunks of the trees showed trees it began to falter and hesitate. The men, staring intently,
each roughness of their sur-faces. And the men of the regi- began to wait for some of the distant walls of smoke to move
ment, with their starting eyes and sweating faces, running madly, and dis-close to them the scene. Since much of their strength
or falling, as if thrown headlong, to queer, heaped-up corpses— and their breath had vanished, they re-turned to caution. They
all were comprehended. His mind took a mechanical but firm were become men again.
impression, so that afterward everything was pictured and ex- The youth had a vague belief that he had run miles, and he
plained to him, save why he himself was there. thought, in a way, that he was now in some new and unknown
But there was a frenzy made from this furious rush. The men, land.
pitching forward insanely, had burst into cheerings, moblike The moment the regiment ceased its advance the protesting
and barbaric, but tuned in strange keys that can arouse the splutter of musketry became a steadied roar. Long and accu-
dullard and the stoic. It made a mad enthusiasm that, it seemed, rate fringes of smoke spread out. From the top of a small hill

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 Stephen Crane
came level belchings of yellow flame that caused an inhuman from the weight and force of his imprecations. And he could
whistling in the air. string oaths with the facility of a maiden who strings beads.
The men, halted, had opportunity to see some of their com- The friend of the youth aroused. Lurching suddenly forward
rades dropping with moans and shrieks. A few lay under foot, and dropping to his knees, he fired an angry shot at the persis-
still or wailing. And now for an instant the men stood, their rifles tent woods. This action awakened the men. They huddled no
slack in their hands, and watched the regiment dwindle. They more like sheep. They seemed suddenly to be-think them of
appeared dazed and stupid. This spectacle seemed to paralyze their weapons, and at once com-menced firing. Belabored by
them, overcome them with a fatal fascination. They stared wood- their officers, they began to move forward. The regiment, in-
enly at the sights, and, lowering their eyes, looked from face to volved like a cart involved in mud and muddle, started un-
face. It was a strange pause, and a strange silence. evenly with many jolts and jerks. The men stopped now every
Then, above the sounds of the outside commo-tion, arose few paces to fire and load, and in this manner moved slowly
the roar of the lieutenant. He strode suddenly forth, his infan- on from trees to trees.
tile features black with rage. The flaming opposition in their front grew with their advance
“Come on, yeh fools!” he bellowed. “Come on! Yeh can’t until it seemed that all for-ward ways were barred by the thin
stay here. Yeh must come on.” He said more, but much of it leaping tongues, and off to the right an ominous demon-stration
could not be under-stood. could sometimes be dimly discerned. The smoke lately gener-
He started rapidly forward, with his head turned toward the ated was in confusing clouds that made it difficult for the regi-
men. “Come on,” he was shouting. The men stared with blank ment to proceed with intelligence. As he passed through each
and yokel-like eyes at him. He was obliged to halt and retrace curling mass the youth wondered what would confront him on
his steps. He stood then with his back to the enemy and deliv- the farther side.
ered gigantic curses into the faces of the men. His body vibrated The command went painfully forward until an open space

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 The Red Badge of Courage
interposed between them and the lurid lines. Here, crouching “Certainly. Jest ‘cross th’ lot! We can’t stay here,” screamed
and cowering be-hind some trees, the men clung with des- the lieutenant. He poked his face close to the youth and waved
peration, as if threatened by a wave. They looked wild-eyed, his ban-daged hand. “Come on!” Presently he grap-pled with
and as if amazed at this furious disturbance they had stirred. In him as if for a wrestling bout. It was as if he planned to drag
the storm there was an ironical expression of their importance. the youth by the ear on to the assault.
The faces of the men, too, showed a lack of a certain feeling of The private felt a sudden unspeakable indig-nation against
responsibility for being there. It was as if they had been driven. his officer. He wrenched fiercely and shook him off.
It was the dominant animal failing to remember in the supreme “Come on herself, then,” he yelled. There was a bitter chal-
mo-ments the forceful causes of various superficial qualities. lenge in his voice.
The whole affair seemed incompre-hensible to many of them. They galloped together down the regimental front. The friend
As they halted thus the lieutenant again be-gan to bellow scrambled after them. In front of the colors the three men be-
profanely. Regardless of the vin-dictive threats of the bullets, gan to bawl: “Come on! come on!” They danced and gy-rated
he went about coaxing, berating, and bedamning. His lips, that like tortured savages.
were habitually in a soft and childlike curve, were now writhed The flag, obedient to these appeals, bended its glittering form
into unholy contortions. He swore by all possible deities. and swept toward them. The men wavered in indecision for a
Once he grabbed the youth by the arm. “Come on, yeh moment, and then with a long, wailful cry the dilapidated regi-
lunkhead!” he roared. “Come on! We’ll all git killed if we stay ment surged forward and began its new journey.
here. We’ve on’y got t’ go across that lot. An’ then”—the Over the field went the scurrying mass. It was a handful of
remainder of his idea disappeared in a blue haze of curses. men splattered into the faces of the enemy. Toward it instantly
The youth stretched forth his arm. “Cross there?” His mouth sprang the yel-low tongues. A vast quantity of blue smoke
was puckered in doubt and awe. hung before them. A mighty banging made ears valueless.

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 Stephen Crane
The youth ran like a madman to reach the woods before a seemed to be obsti-nately tugging, in ludicrous and awful ways,
bullet could discover him. He ducked his head low, like a foot- for the possession of the flag.
ball player. In his haste his eyes almost closed, and the scene It was past in an instant of time. They wrenched the flag
was a wild blur. Pulsating saliva stood at the corners of his furiously from the dead man, and, as they turned again, the
mouth. corpse swayed for-ward with bowed head. One arm swung
Within him, as he hurled himself forward, was born a love, a high, and the curved hand fell with heavy protest on the friend’s
despairing fondness for this flag which was near him. It was a unheeding shoulder.
creation of beauty and invulnerability. It was a goddess, radi-
ant, that bended its form with an imperious gesture to him. It
was a woman, red and white, hating and loving, that called him
with the voice of his hopes. Because no harm could come to it
he en-dowed it with power. He kept near, as if it could be a
saver of lives, and an imploring cry went from his mind.
In the mad scramble he was aware that the color sergeant
flinched suddenly, as if struck by a bludgeon. He faltered, and
then became motion-less, save for his quivering knees.
He made a spring and a clutch at the pole. At the same
instant his friend grabbed it from the other side. They jerked at
it, stout and furious, but the color sergeant was dead, and the
corpse would not relinquish its trust. For a moment there was
a grim encounter. The dead man, swinging with bended back,

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CHAPTER XX a moment to blaze at some dark forms that had begun to steal
upon its track. Presently it resumed its march again, curving
among the tree trunks. By the time the depleted regiment had
WHEN THE TWO YOUTHS turned with the flag they saw that
again reached the first open space they were receiving a fast
much of the regiment had crum-bled away, and the dejected
and merciless fire. There seemed to be mobs all about them.
remnant was coming slowly back. The men, having hurled them-
The greater part of the men, discouraged, their spirits worn
selves in projectile fashion, had presently expended their forces.
by the turmoil, acted as if stunned. They accepted the pelting
They slowly retreated, with their faces still toward the splut-
of the bul-lets with bowed and weary heads. It was of no
tering woods, and their hot rifles still replying to the din. Sev-
purpose to strive against walls. It was of no use to batter them-
eral officers were giving orders, their voices keyed to screams.
selves against granite. And from this consciousness that they
“Where in hell yeh goin’?” the lieutenant was asking in a
had attempted to conquer an unconquerable thing there seemed
sarcastic howl. And a red-bearded officer, whose voice of
to arise a feeling that they had been betrayed. They glowered
triple brass could plainly be heard, was commanding: “Shoot
with bent brows, but danger-ously, upon some of the officers,
into ‘em! Shoot into ‘em, Gawd damn their souls!” There was
more particu-larly upon the red-bearded one with the voice of
a melee of screeches, in which the men were ordered to do
triple brass.
conflicting and impossible things.
However, the rear of the regiment was fringed with men,
The youth and his friend had a small scuffle over the flag.
who continued to shoot irritably at the advancing foes. They
“Give it t’ me!” “No, let me keep it!” Each felt satisfied with
seemed resolved to make every trouble. The youthful lieuten-
the other’s pos-session of it, but each felt bound to declare,
ant was per-haps the last man in the disordered mass. His
by an offer to carry the emblem, his willingness to further risk
forgotten back was toward the enemy. He had been shot in
himself. The youth roughly pushed his friend away.
the arm. It hung straight and rigid. Occasionally he would cease
The regiment fell back to the stolid trees. There it halted for
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 Stephen Crane
to remember it, and be about to emphasize an oath with a finer as a dead man, he thought. So grievous did he think it that
sweeping gesture. The multiplied pain caused him to swear he could never possess the secret right to taunt truly in answer.
with incredible power. He had pictured red letters of curious revenge. “We ARE
The youth went along with slipping, uncertain feet. He kept mule drivers, are we?” And now he was compelled to throw
watchful eyes rearward. A scowl of mortification and rage them away.
was upon his face. He had thought of a fine revenge upon the He presently wrapped his heart in the cloak of his pride and
officer who had referred to him and his fellows as mule driv- kept the flag erect. He ha-rangued his fellows, pushing against
ers. But he saw that it could not come to pass. His dreams had their chests with his free hand. To those he knew well he made
collapsed when the mule drivers, dwindling rapidly, had wa- frantic appeals, beseeching them by name. Between him and
vered and hes-itated on the little clearing, and then had re- the lieutenant, scolding and near to losing his mind with rage,
coiled. And now the retreat of the mule drivers was a march of there was felt a subtle fellowship and equality. They supported
shame to him. each other in all manner of hoarse, howling pro-tests.
A dagger-pointed gaze from without his black-ened face But the regiment was a machine run down. The two men
was held toward the enemy, but his greater hatred was riveted babbled at a forceless thing. The soldiers who had heart to go
upon the man, who, not knowing him, had called him a mule slowly were con-tinually shaken in their resolves by a knowl-
driver. edge that comrades were slipping with speed back to the lines.
When he knew that he and his comrades had failed to do It was difficult to think of reputation when others were thinking
anything in successful ways that might bring the little pangs of a of skins. Wounded men were left crying on this black journey.
kind of remorse upon the officer, the youth allowed the rage of The smoke fringes and flames blustered al-ways. The youth,
the baf-fled to possess him. This cold officer upon a monu- peering once through a sud-den rift in a cloud, saw a brown
ment, who dropped epithets unconcernedly down, would be mass of troops, interwoven and magnified until they appeared

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to be thousands. A fierce-hued flag flashed before his vision. seeking with their eyes roads of escape. With serene regular-
Immediately, as if the uplifting of the smoke had been pre- ity, as if controlled by a schedule, bullets buffed into men.
arranged, the discovered troops burst into a rasping yell, and The youth walked stolidly into the midst of the mob, and
a hundred flames jetted toward the retreating band. A rolling with his flag in his hands took a stand as if he expected an
gray cloud again interposed as the regiment dog-gedly re- attempt to push him to the ground. He unconsciously assumed
plied. The youth had to depend again upon his misused ears, the atti-tude of the color bearer in the fight of the pre-ceding
which were trembling and buzzing from the melee of mus- day. He passed over his brow a hand that trembled. His breath
ketry and yells. did not come freely. He was choking during this small wait for
The way seemed eternal. In the clouded haze men became the crisis.
panicstricken with the thought that the regiment had lost its His friend came to him. “Well, Henry, I guess this is good-
path, and was proceed-ing in a perilous direction. Once the by—John.”
men who headed the wild procession turned and came push- “Oh, shut up, you damned fool!” replied the youth, and he
ing back against their comrades, screaming that they were being would not look at the other.
fired upon from points which they had considered to be to- The officers labored like politicians to beat the mass into a
ward their own lines. At this cry a hysterical fear and dismay proper circle to face the men-aces. The ground was uneven
beset the troops. A soldier, who heretofore had been am- and torn. The men curled into depressions and fitted them-
bitious to make the regiment into a wise little band that would selves snugly behind whatever would frustrate a bullet.
proceed calmly amid the huge-appearing difficulties, suddenly The youth noted with vague surprise that the lieutenant was
sank down and buried his face in his arms with an air of bow- standing mutely with his legs far apart and his sword held in the
ing to a doom. From another a shrill lamentation rang out filled manner of a cane. The youth wondered what had happened to
with profane allusions to a general. Men ran hither and thither, his vocal organs that he no more cursed.

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 Stephen Crane
There was something curious in this little in-tent pause of the tion, their rifles held in readiness, when the youthful lieutenant
lieutenant. He was like a babe which, having wept its fill, raises had discovered them and their movement had been interrupted
its eyes and fixes upon a distant toy. He was engrossed in this by the volley from the blue regiment. From the moment’s
contemplation, and the soft under lip quivered from self-whis- glimpse, it was derived that they had been unaware of the
pered words. proximity of their dark-suited foes or had mistaken the direc-
Some lazy and ignorant smoke curled slowly. The men, hid- tion. Al-most instantly they were shut utterly from the youth’s
ing from the bullets, waited anx-iously for it to lift and disclose sight by the smoke from the energetic rifles of his companions.
the plight of the regiment. He strained his vision to learn the accomplishment of the vol-
The silent ranks were suddenly thrilled by the eager voice of ley, but the smoke hung before him.
the youthful lieutenant bawling out: “Here they come! Right The two bodies of troops exchanged blows in the manner of
onto us, b’Gawd!” His further words were lost in a roar of a pair of boxers. The fast angry firings went back and forth.
wicked thunder from the men’s rifles. The men in blue were intent with the despair of their circum-
The youth’s eyes had instantly turned in the direction indi- stances and they seized upon the revenge to be had at close
cated by the awakened and agitated lieutenant, and he had range. Their thunder swelled loud and valiant. Their curving
seen the haze of treachery disclosing a body of soldiers of the front bristled with flashes and the place resounded with the
enemy. They were so near that he could see their features. clangor of their ramrods. The youth ducked and dodged for a
There was a recognition as he looked at the types of faces. time and achieved a few unsatisfactory views of the enemy.
Also he perceived with dim amazement that their uniforms were There appeared to be many of them and they were replying
rather gay in effect, being light gray, accented with a brilliant- swiftly. They seemed moving toward the blue regiment, step
hued facing. Too, the clothes seemed new. by step. He seated himself gloomily on the ground with his flag
These troops had apparently been going for-ward with cau- between his knees.

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 The Red Badge of Courage
As he noted the vicious, wolflike temper of his comrades he not impossible, and by it they had revenged themselves upon
had a sweet thought that if the enemy was about to swallow their misgivings and upon the foe.
the regimental broom as a large prisoner, it could at least have The impetus of enthusiasm was theirs again. They gazed about
the consolation of going down with bristles for-ward. them with looks of uplifted pride, feeling new trust in the grim,
But the blows of the antagonist began to grow more weak. always confident weapons in their hands. And they were men.
Fewer bullets ripped the air, and finally, when the men slack-
ened to learn of the fight, they could see only dark, floating
smoke. The regiment lay still and gazed. Pres-ently some
chance whim came to the pestering blur, and it began to coil
heavily away. The men saw a ground vacant of fighters. It would
have been an empty stage if it were not for a few corpses that
lay thrown and twisted into fantastic shapes upon the sward.
At sight of this tableau, many of the men in blue sprang from
behind their covers and made an ungainly dance of joy. Their
eyes burned and a hoarse cheer of elation broke from their
dry lips.
It had begun to seem to them that events were trying to
prove that they were impotent. These little battles had evi-
dently endeavored to demon-strate that the men could not
fight well. When on the verge of submission to these opinions,
the small duel had showed them that the propor-tions were

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 Stephen Crane

CHAPTER XXI “Where th’ hell yeh been?”

“What yeh comin’ back fer?”
“Why didn’t yeh stay there?”
PPRESENTLY THEY KNEW that no firing threat-ened them. All
“Was it warm out there, sonny?”
ways seemed once more opened to them. The dusty blue lines
“Goin’ home now, boys?”
of their friends were disclosed a short distance away. In the
One shouted in taunting mimicry: “Oh, mother, come quick
distance there were many colossal noises, but in all this part of
an’ look at th’ sojers!”
the field there was a sudden stillness.
There was no reply from the bruised and bat-tered regi-
They perceived that they were free. The depleted band drew
ment, save that one man made broad-cast challenges to fist
a long breath of relief and gathered itself into a bunch to com-
fights and the red-bearded officer walked rather near and glared
plete its trip.
in great swashbuckler style at a tall captain in the other regi-
In this last length of journey the men began to show strange
ment. But the lieutenant suppressed the man who wished to
emotions. They hurried with nervous fear. Some who had been
fist fight, and the tall cap-tain, flushing at the little fanfare of the
dark and un-faltering in the grimmest moments now could not
red-bearded one, was obliged to look intently at some trees.
conceal an anxiety that made them frantic. It was perhaps that
The youth’s tender flesh was deeply stung by these remarks.
they dreaded to be killed in insignificant ways after the times
From under his creased brows he glowered with hate at the
for proper military deaths had passed. Or, perhaps, they thought
mockers. He meditated upon a few revenges. Still, many in
it would be too ironical to get killed at the portals of safety.
the regiment hung their heads in criminal fashion, so that it came
With backward looks of perturbation, they hastened.
to pass that the men trudged with sudden heaviness, as if they
As they approached their own lines there was some sarcasm
bore upon their bended shoulders the coffin of their honor.
exhibited on the part of a gaunt and bronzed regiment that lay
And the youthful lieutenant, recollecting himself, be-gan to
resting in the shade of trees. Questions were wafted to them.
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 The Red Badge of Courage
mutter softly in black curses. there was now much satisfaction in quietly think-ing of his ac-
They turned when they arrived at their old position to regard tions. He recalled bits of color that in the flurry had stamped
the ground over which they had charged. themselves unawares upon his engaged senses.
The youth in this contemplation was smitten with a large as- As the regiment lay heaving from its hot exer-tions the of-
tonishment. He discovered that the distances, as compared with ficer who had named them as mule drivers came galloping
the brilliant measurings of his mind, were trivial and ridicu-lous. along the line. He had lost his cap. His tousled hair streamed
The stolid trees, where much had taken place, seemed incred- wildly, and his face was dark with vexation and wrath. His
ibly near. The time, too, now that he reflected, he saw to have temper was displayed with more clearness by the way in which
been short. He wondered at the number of emotions and events he managed his horse. He jerked and wrenched savagely at
that had been crowded into such little spaces. Elfin thoughts his bridle, stop-ping the hard-breathing animal with a furious
must have exaggerated and enlarged everything, he said. pull near the colonel of the regiment. He im-mediately exploded
It seemed, then, that there was bitter justice in the speeches in reproaches which came unbidden to the ears of the men.
of the gaunt and bronzed vet-erans. He veiled a glance of dis- They were suddenly alert, being always curious about black
dain at his fel-lows who strewed the ground, choking with words between officers.
dust, red from perspiration, misty-eyed, disheveled. “Oh, thunder, MacChesnay, what an awful bull you made of
They were gulping at their canteens, fierce to wring every this thing!” began the officer. He attempted low tones, but his
mite of water from them, and they polished at their swollen indignation caused certain of the men to learn the sense of his
and watery features with coat sleeves and bunches of grass. words. “What an awful mess you made! Good Lord, man,
However, to the youth there was a consider-able joy in mus- you stopped about a hun-dred feet this side of a very pretty
ing upon his performances during the charge. He had had very success! If your men had gone a hundred feet farther you would
little time pre-viously in which to appreciate himself, so that have made a great charge, but as it is —what a lot of mud

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 Stephen Crane
diggers you’ve got any-way!” “I don’t care what a man is—whether he is a general or what—
The men, listening with bated breath, now turned their curi- if he says th’ boys didn’t put up a good fight out there he’s a
ous eyes upon the colonel. They had a ragamuffin interest in damned fool.”
this affair. “Lieutenant,” began the colonel, severely, “this is my own
The colonel was seen to straighten his form and put one affair, and I’ll trouble you—”
hand forth in oratorical fashion. He wore an injured air; it was The lieutenant made an obedient gesture. “All right, colonel,
as if a deacon had been accused of stealing. The men were all right,” he said. He sat down with an air of being content
wiggling in an ecstasy of excitement. with himself.
But of a sudden the colonel’s manner changed from that of a The news that the regiment had been re-proached went along
deacon to that of a Frenchman. He shrugged his shoulders. the line. For a time the men were bewildered by it. “Good
“Oh, well, general, we went as far as we could,” he said calmly. thunder!” they ejaculated, staring at the vanishing form of the
“As far as you could? Did you, b’Gawd?” snorted the other. general. They conceived it to be a huge mistake.
“Well, that wasn’t very far, was it?” he added, with a glance of Presently, however, they began to believe that in truth their
cold con-tempt into the other’s eyes. “Not very far, I think. efforts had been called light. The youth could see this convic-
You were intended to make a diversion in favor of Whiterside. tion weigh upon the entire regiment until the men were like
How well you succeeded your own ears can now tell you.” cuffed and cursed animals, but withal rebellious.
He wheeled his horse and rode stiffly away. The friend, with a grievance in his eye, went to the youth. “I
The colonel, bidden to hear the jarring noises of an engage- wonder what he does want,” he said. “He must think we went
ment in the woods to the left, broke out in vague damnations. out there an’ played marbles! I never see sech a man!”
The lieutenant, who had listened with an air of impotent rage The youth developed a tranquil philosophy for these mo-
to the interview, spoke suddenly in firm and undaunted tones. ments of irritation. “Oh, well,” he rejoined, “he probably didn’t

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see nothing of it at all and got mad as blazes, and concluded a lie—we did fight like thunder, an’ they give us quite a send-
we were a lot of sheep, just because we didn’t do what he off. But this is what I can’t stand—these everlastin’ ol’ sol-
wanted done. It’s a pity old Grandpa Hender-son got killed diers, titterin’ an’ laughin’, an’ then that general, he’s crazy.”
yestirday—he’d have known that we did our best and fought The youth exclaimed with sudden exaspera-tion: “He’s a
good. It’s just our awful luck, that’s what.” lunkhead! He makes me mad. I wish he’d come along next
“I should say so,” replied the friend. He seemed to be deeply time. We’d show ‘im what—”
wounded at an injustice. “I should say we did have awful luck! He ceased because several men had come hurrying up. Their
There’s no fun in fightin’ fer people when everything yeh do— faces expressed a bringing of great news.
no matter what—ain’t done right. I have a notion t’ stay be- “O Flem, yeh jest oughta heard!” cried one, eagerly.
hind next time an’ let ‘em take their ol’ charge an’ go t’ th’ “Heard what?” said the youth.
devil with it.” “Yeh jest oughta heard!” repeated the other, and he arranged
The youth spoke soothingly to his comrade. “Well, we both himself to tell his tidings. The others made an excited circle.
did good. I’d like to see the fool what’d say we both didn’t do “Well, sir, th’ colonel met your lieutenant right by us—it was
as good as we could!” damnedest thing I ever heard—an’ he ses: ‘Ahem! ahem!’ he
“Of course we did,” declared the friend stoutly. “An’ I’d ses. ‘Mr. Hasbrouck!’ he ses, ‘by th’ way, who was that lad
break th’ feller’s neck if he was as big as a church. But we’re what carried th’ flag?’ he ses. There, Flemin’, what d’ yeh
all right, anyhow, for I heard one feller say that we two fit th’ think ‘a that? ‘Who was th’ lad what carried th’ flag?’ he ses,
best in th’ reg’ment, an’ they had a great argument ‘bout it. an’ th’ lieutenant, he speaks up right away: ‘That’s Flemin’,
Another feller, ‘a course, he had t’ up an’ say it was a lie—he an’ he’s a jimhickey,’ he ses, right away. What? I say he did.
seen all what was goin’ on an’ he never seen us from th’ ‘A jim-hickey,’ he ses—those ‘r his words. He did, too. I say
beginnin’ t’ th’ end. An’ a lot more struck in an’ ses it wasn’t he did. If you kin tell this story better than I kin, go ahead an’

106
 Stephen Crane
tell it. Well, then, keep yer mouth shet. Th’ lieutenant, he ses: They speedily forgot many things. The past held no pictures
‘He’s a jimhickey,’ an’ th’ colonel, he ses: ‘Ahem! ahem! he of error and disappointment. They were very happy, and their
is, indeed, a very good man t’ have, ahem! He kep’ th’ flag hearts swelled with grateful affection for the colonel and the
‘way t’ th’ front. I saw ‘im. He’s a good un,’ ses th’ colonel. youthful lieutenant.
‘You bet,’ ses th’ lieu-tenant, ‘he an’ a feller named Wilson
was at th’ head ‘a th’ charge, an’ howlin’ like Indians all th’
time,’ he ses. ‘Head ‘a th’ charge all th’ time,’ he ses. ‘A feller
named Wilson,’ he ses. There, Wilson, m’boy, put that in a
letter an’ send it hum t’ yer mother, hay? ‘A feller named Wil-
son,’ he ses. An’ th’ colonel, he ses: ‘Were they, indeed? Ahem!
ahem! My sakes!’ he ses. ‘At th’ head ‘a th’ reg’ment?’ he
ses. ‘They were,’ ses th’ lieutenant. ‘My sakes!’ ses th’ colo-
nel. He ses: ‘Well, well, well,’ he ses, ‘those two babies?’
‘They were,’ ses th’ lieutenant. ‘Well, well,’ ses th’ colonel,
‘they deserve t’ be major generals,’ he ses. ‘They deserve t’
be major-generals.’
The youth and his friend had said: “Huh!” “Yer lyin’, Thomp-
son.” “Oh, go t’ blazes!” “He never sed it.” “Oh, what a lie!”
“Huh!” But despite these youthful scoffings and embar-rassments,
they knew that their faces were deeply flushing from thrills of plea-
sure. They ex-changed a secret glance of joy and congratulation.

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 The Red Badge of Courage

CHAPTER XXII In another direction he saw a magnificent brigade going with

the evident intention of driv-ing the enemy from a wood. They
passed in out of sight and presently there was a most awe-in-
WHEN THE WOODS again began to pour forth the dark-hued
spiring racket in the wood. The noise was un-speakable. Having
masses of the enemy the youth felt serene self-confidence. He
stirred this prodigious up-roar, and, apparently, finding it too
smiled briefly when he saw men dodge and duck at the long
prodigious, the brigade, after a little time, came marching airily
screech-ings of shells that were thrown in giant handfuls over
out again with its fine formation in nowise disturbed. There
them. He stood, erect and tranquil, watch-ing the attack begin
were no traces of speed in its movements. The brigade was
against a part of the line that made a blue curve along the side
jaunty and seemed to point a proud thumb at the yelling wood.
of an adja-cent hill. His vision being unmolested by smoke
On a slope to the left there was a long row of guns, gruff and
from the rifles of his companions, he had oppor-tunities to see
maddened, denouncing the enemy, who, down through the
parts of the hard fight. It was a relief to perceive at last from
woods, were forming for another attack in the pitiless mo-
whence came some of these noises which had been roared
notony of conflicts. The round red discharges from the guns
into his ears.
made a crimson flare and a high, thick smoke. Occasional
Off a short way he saw two regiments fight-ing a little sepa-
glimpses could be caught of groups of the toiling artillerymen.
rate battle with two other regi-ments. It was in a cleared space,
In the rear of this row of guns stood a house, calm and white,
wearing a set-apart look. They were blazing as if upon a wa-
amid bursting shells. A congregation of horses, tied to a long
ger, giving and taking tremendous blows. The firings were in-
railing, were tugging frenziedly at their bridles. Men were run-
credibly fierce and rapid.
ning hither and thither.
These intent regiments apparently were oblivious of all larger
The detached battle between the four regi-ments lasted for
purposes of war, and were slugging each other as if at a matched
some time. There chanced to be no interference, and they
game.
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 Stephen Crane
settled their dispute by themselves. They struck savagely and pable of hearing more.
pow-erfully at each other for a period of minutes, and then the On an incline over which a road wound he saw wild and
lighter-hued regiments faltered and drew back, leaving the desperate rushes of men perpet-ually backward and forward
dark-blue lines shouting. The youth could see the two flags in riotous surges. These parts of the opposing armies were
shaking with laughter amid the smoke remnants. two long waves that pitched upon each other madly at dic-
Presently there was a stillness, pregnant with meaning. The tated points. To and fro they swelled. Sometimes, one side
blue lines shifted and changed a trifle and stared expectantly at by its yells and cheers would proclaim decisive blows, but a
the silent woods and fields before them. The hush was solemn moment later the other side would be all yells and cheers.
and churchlike, save for a distant battery that, evidently unable Once the youth saw a spray of light forms go in houndlike
to remain quiet, sent a faint rolling thunder over the ground. It leaps toward the waving blue lines. There was much howl-
irritated, like the noises of unimpressed boys. The men imag- ing, and presently it went away with a vast mouthful of pris-
ined that it would prevent their perched ears from hearing the oners. Again, he saw a blue wave dash with such thunderous
first words of the new battle. force against a gray obstruction that it seemed to clear the
Of a sudden the guns on the slope roared out a message of earth of it and leave nothing but trampled sod. And always in
warning. A spluttering sound had begun in the woods. It swelled their swift and deadly rushes to and fro the men screamed
with amazing speed to a profound clamor that involved the and yelled like maniacs.
earth in noises. The splitting crashes swept along the lines until Particular pieces of fence or secure positions behind collec-
an interminable roar was developed. To those in the midst of it tions of trees were wrangled over, as gold thrones or pearl
it became a din fitted to the universe. It was the whirring and bedsteads. There were desperate lunges at these chosen spots
thumping of gigantic machinery, complica-tions among the seemingly every instant, and most of them were bandied like
smaller stars. The youth’s ears were filled up. They were inca- light toys between the contending forces. The youth could not

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 The Red Badge of Courage
tell from the battle flags flying like crimson foam in many direc- The youth, still the bearer of the colors, did not feel his idle-
tions which color of cloth was winning. ness. He was deeply absorbed as a spectator. The crash and
His emaciated regiment bustled forth with undiminished swing of the great drama made him lean forward, intent-eyed,
fierceness when its time came. When assaulted again by bul- his face working in small contortions. Sometimes he prattled,
lets, the men burst out in a barbaric cry of rage and pain. They words coming unconsciously from him in grotesque exclama-
bent their heads in aims of intent hatred behind the projected tions. He did not know that he breathed; that the flag hung
hammers of their guns. Their ramrods clanged loud with fury silently over him, so absorbed was he.
as their eager arms pounded the cartridges into the rifle bar- A formidable line of the enemy came within dangerous range.
rels. The front of the regiment was a smoke-wall penetrated They could be seen plainly—tall, gaunt men with excited faces
by the flashing points of yellow and red. running with long strides toward a wandering fence.
Wallowing in the fight, they were in an astonishingly short At sight of this danger the men suddenly ceased their cursing
time resmudged. They surpassed in stain and dirt all their pre- monotone. There was an instant of strained silence before they
vious ap-pearances. Moving to and fro with strained exertion, threw up their rifles and fired a plumping volley at the foes.
jabbering the while, they were, with their swaying bodies, black There had been no order given; the men, upon recognizing the
faces, and glowing eyes, like strange and ugly friends jigging menace, had immedi-ately let drive their flock of bullets with-
heavily in the smoke. out wait-ing for word of command.
The lieutenant, returning from a tour after a bandage, pro- But the enemy were quick to gain the protec-tion of the
duced from a hidden receptacle of his mind new and porten- wandering line of fence. They slid down behind it with re-
tous oaths suited to the emergency. Strings of expletives he markable celerity, and from this position they began briskly to
swung lashlike over the backs of his men, and it was evident slice up the blue men.
that his previous efforts had in nowise impaired his resources. These latter braced their energies for a great struggle. Often,

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white clinched teeth shone from the dusky faces. Many heads and salt reproach.
surged to and fro, floating upon a pale sea of smoke. Those The regiment bled extravagantly. Grunting bundles of blue
behind the fence frequently shouted and yelped in taunts and began to drop. The orderly sergeant of the youth’s company
gibelike cries, but the regi-ment maintained a stressed silence. was shot through the cheeks. Its supports being injured, his
Perhaps, at this new assault the men recalled the fact that they jaw hung afar down, disclosing in the wide cavern of his mouth
had been named mud diggers, and it made their situation thrice a pulsing mass of blood and teeth. And with it all he made
bitter. They were breath-lessly intent upon keeping the ground attempts to cry out. In his endeavor there was a dreadful ear-
and thrust-ing away the rejoicing body of the enemy. They nestness, as if he conceived that one great shriek would make
fought swiftly and with a despairing savageness denoted in him well.
their expressions. The youth saw him presently go rearward. His strength
The youth had resolved not to budge what-ever should hap- seemed in nowise impaired. He ran swiftly, casting wild glances
pen. Some arrows of scorn that had buried themselves in his for succor.
heart had generated strange and unspeakable hatred. It was Others fell down about the feet of their com-panions. Some
clear to him that his final and absolute revenge was to be of the wounded crawled out and away, but many lay still, their
achieved by his dead body lying, torn and gluttering, upon the bodies twisted into impossible shapes.
field. This was to be a poignant retaliation upon the officer The youth looked once for his friend. He saw a vehement
who had said “mule drivers,” and later “mud diggers,” for in all young man, powder-smeared and frowzled, whom he knew
the wild graspings of his mind for a unit responsible for his to be him. The lieu-tenant, also, was unscathed in his position
sufferings and commo-tions he always seized upon the man at the rear. He had continued to curse, but it was now with the
who had dubbed him wrongly. And it was his idea, vaguely air of a man who was using his last box of oaths.
formulated, that his corpse would be for those eyes a great For the fire of the regiment had begun to wane and drip. The

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robust voice, that had come strangely from the thin ranks, was
growing rapidly weak.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE COLONEL CAME running along back of the line. There were
other officers following him. “We must charge’m!” they shouted.
“We must charge’m!” they cried with resentful voices, as if
anticipating a rebellion against this plan by the men.
The youth, upon hearing the shouts, began to study the dis-
tance between him and the enemy. He made vague calcula-
tions. He saw that to be firm soldiers they must go forward. It
would be death to stay in the present place, and with all the
circumstances to go backward would exalt too many others.
Their hope was to push the galling foes away from the fence.
He expected that his companions, weary and stiffened, would
have to be driven to this assault, but as he turned toward them
he perceived with a certain surprise that they were giving quick
and unqualified expressions of assent. There was an ominous,
clanging overture to the charge when the shafts of the bayo-
nets rattled upon the rifle barrels. At the yelled words of com-
mand the soldiers sprang forward in eager leaps. There was
new and unexpected force in the movement of the regiment. A
knowledge of its faded and jaded condition made the charge
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 Stephen Crane
ap-pear like a paroxysm, a display of the strength that comes their desires would have shattered against the iron gates of the
before a final feebleness. The men scampered in insane fever impossible.
of haste, racing as if to achieve a sudden success before an He himself felt the daring spirit of a savage religion mad. He
exhilarating fluid should leave them. It was a blind and de- was capable of profound sacri-fices, a tremendous death. He
spairing rush by the collection of men in dusty and tattered had no time for dissections, but he knew that he thought of the
blue, over a green sward and under a sapphire sky, toward a bullets only as things that could prevent him from reaching the
fence, dimly outlined in smoke, from behind which spluttered place of his endeavor. There were subtle flashings of joy within
the fierce rifles of enemies. him that thus should be his mind.
The youth kept the bright colors to the front. He was waving He strained all his strength. His eyesight was shaken and
his free arm in furious circles, the while shrieking mad calls and dazzled by the tension of thought and muscle. He did not see
appeals, urging on those that did not need to be urged, for it anything excepting the mist of smoke gashed by the little knives
seemed that the mob of blue men hurling them-selves on the of fire, but he knew that in it lay the aged fence of a vanished
dangerous group of rifles were again grown suddenly wild with farmer protecting the snuggled bodies of the gray men.
an enthusiasm of unselfishness. From the many firings starting As he ran a thought of the shock of contact gleamed in his
toward them, it looked as if they would merely succeed in mind. He expected a great con-cussion when the two bodies
making a great sprinkling of corpses on the grass between of troops crashed together. This became a part of his wild
their former position and the fence. But they were in a state of battle madness. He could feel the onward swing of the regi-
frenzy, perhaps because of forgotten vanities, and it made an ment about him and he conceived of a thun-derous, crushing
exhibition of sublime recklessness. There was no obvious ques- blow that would prostrate the resistance and spread conster-
tioning, nor figurings, nor dia-grams. There was, apparently, nation and amaze-ment for miles. The flying regiment was go-
no considered loopholes. It appeared that the swift wings of ing to have a catapultian effect. This dream made him run faster

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among his comrades, who were giving vent to hoarse and frantic The youth had centered the gaze of his soul upon that other
cheers. flag. Its possession would be high pride. It would express
But presently he could see that many of the men in gray did bloody minglings, near blows. He had a gigantic hatred for
not intend to abide the blow. The smoke, rolling, disclosed those who made great difficulties and complications. They
men who ran, their faces still turned. These grew to a crowd, caused it to be as a craved treasure of my-thology, hung amid
who retired stubbornly. Individuals wheeled fre-quently to send tasks and contrivances of danger.
a bullet at the blue wave. He plunged like a mad horse at it. He was resolved it should
But at one part of the line there was a grim and obdurate not escape if wild blows and darings of blows could seize it.
group that made no movement. They were settled firmly down His own em-blem, quivering and aflare, was winging toward
behind posts and rails. A flag, ruffled and fierce, waved over the other. It seemed there would shortly be an encounter of
them and their rifles dinned fiercely. strange beaks and claws, as of eagles.
The blue whirl of men got very near, until it seemed that in The swirling body of blue men came to a sudden halt at
truth there would be a close and frightful scuffle. There was an close and disastrous range and roared a swift volley. The group
expressed disdain in the opposition of the little group, that in gray was split and broken by this fire, but its riddled body
changed the meaning of the cheers of the men in blue. They still fought. The men in blue yelled again and rushed in upon it.
became yells of wrath, directed, personal. The cries of the two The youth, in his leapings, saw, as through a mist, a picture
parties were now in sound an interchange of scathing insults. of four or five men stretched upon the ground or writhing upon
They in blue showed their teeth; their eyes shone all white. their knees with bowed heads as if they had been stricken by
They launched themselves as at the throats of those who bolts from the sky. Tottering among them was the rival color
stood resisting. The space between dwindled to an insig- bearer, whom the youth saw had been bitten vitally by the
nificant dis-tance. bullets of the last formidable volley. He perceived this man

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fighting a last struggle, the struggle of one whose legs are mile away. What hats and caps were left to them they often
grasped by demons. It was a ghastly battle. Over his face was slung high in the air.
the bleach of death, but set upon it was the dark and hard lines At one part of the line four men had been swooped upon,
of desperate purpose. With this terrible grin of resolution he and they now sat as prisoners. Some blue men were about
hugged his precious flag to him and was stum-bling and stag- them in an eager and curious circle. The soldiers had trapped
gering in his design to go the way that led to safety for it. strange birds, and there was an examination. A flurry of fast
But his wounds always made it seem that his feet were re- questions was in the air.
tarded, held, and he fought a grim fight, as with invisible ghouls One of the prisoners was nursing a superficial wound in the
fastened greedily upon his limbs. Those in advance of the scam- foot. He cuddled it, baby-wise, but he looked up from it often
pering blue men, howling cheers, leaped at the fence. The de- to curse with an astonishing utter abandon straight at the noses
spair of the lost was in his eyes as he glanced back at them. of his captors. He consigned them to red regions; he called
The youth’s friend went over the obstruction in a tumbling upon the pestilential wrath of strange gods. And with it all he
heap and sprang at the flag as a panther at prey. He pulled at it was singularly free from recognition of the finer points of the
and, wrench-ing it free, swung up its red brilliancy with a mad con-duct of prisoners of war. It was as if a clumsy clod had
cry of exultation even as the color bearer, gasping, lurched trod upon his toe and he conceived it to be his privilege, his
over in a final throe and, stiff-ening convulsively, turned his duty, to use deep, resentful oaths.
dead face to the ground. There was much blood upon the Another, who was a boy in years, took his plight with great
grass blades. calmness and apparent good nature. He conversed with the
At the place of success there began more wild clamorings of men in blue, studying their faces with his bright and keen eyes.
cheers. The men gesticulated and bellowed in an ecstasy. When They spoke of battles and conditions. There was an acute
they spoke it was as if they considered their listener to be a interest in all their faces dur-ing this exchange of view points. It

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seemed a great satisfaction to hear voices from where all had and glori-fied, holding his treasure with vanity, came to him
been darkness and speculation. there. They sat side by side and congratu-lated each other.
The third captive sat with a morose counte-nance. He pre-
served a stoical and cold attitude. To all advances he made
one reply without varia-tion, “Ah, go t’ hell!”
The last of the four was always silent and, for the most part,
kept his face turned in un-molested directions. From the views
the youth received he seemed to be in a state of absolute dejec-
tion. Shame was upon him, and with it profound regret that he
was, perhaps, no more to be counted in the ranks of his fellows.
The youth could detect no expression that would allow him to
believe that the other was giving a thought to his narrowed fu-
ture, the pictured dungeons, perhaps, and starvations and brutali-
ties, liable to the imagination. All to be seen was shame for cap-
tivity and regret for the right to antagonize.
After the men had celebrated sufficiently they settled down
behind the old rail fence, on the opposite side to the one from
which their foes had been driven. A few shot perfunctorily at
distant marks.
There was some long grass. The youth nestled in it and rested,
making a convenient rail support the flag. His friend, jubilant

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CHAPTER XXIV ceived orders to retrace its way. The men got up grunting from
the grass, regret-ting the soft repose. They jerked their stiff-
ened legs, and stretched their arms over their heads. One man
THE ROARINGS THAT HAD stretched in a long line of sound across
swore as he rubbed his eyes. They all groaned “O Lord!”
the face of the forest began to grow intermittent and weaker.
They had as many objec-tions to this change as they would
The stentorian speeches of the artillery continued in some dis-
have had to a proposal for a new battle.
tant encounter, but the crashes of the musketry had almost
They trampled slowly back over the field across which they
ceased. The youth and his friend of a sudden looked up, feel-
had run in a mad scamper.
ing a deadened form of distress at the waning of these noises,
The regiment marched until it had joined its fellows. The
which had become a part of life. They could see changes go-
reformed brigade, in column, aimed through a wood at the
ing on among the troops. There were march-ings this way and
road. Directly they were in a mass of dust-covered troops,
that way. A battery wheeled leisurely. On the crest of a small
and were trudging along in a way parallel to the enemy’s lines
hill was the thick gleam of many departing muskets.
as these had been defined by the previous turmoil.
The youth arose. “Well, what now, I won-der?” he said. By
They passed within view of a stolid white house, and saw in
his tone he seemed to be preparing to resent some new mon-
front of it groups of their com-rades lying in wait behind a neat
strosity in the way of dins and smashes. He shaded his eyes
breastwork. A row of guns were booming at a distant enemy.
with his grimy hand and gazed over the field.
Shells thrown in reply were raising clouds of dust and splin-
His friend also arose and stared. “I bet
ters. Horsemen dashed along the line of intrenchments.
226 we’re goin’ t’ git along out of this an’ back over th’
At this point of its march the division curved away from the
river,” said he.
field and went winding off in the direction of the river. When
“Well, I swan!” said the youth.
the significance of this movement had impressed itself upon
They waited, watching. Within a little while the regiment re-
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the youth he turned his head and looked over his shoulder At last they marched before him clearly. From this present
toward the trampled and debris-strewed ground. He breathed view point he was enabled to look upon them in spectator
a breath of new satisfac-tion. He finally nudged his friend. “Well, fashion and to criticise them with some correctness, for his
it’s all over,” he said to him. new condition had already defeated certain sym-pathies.
His friend gazed backward. “B’Gawd, it is,” he assented. Regarding his procession of memory he felt gleeful and
They mused. unregretting, for in it his public deeds were paraded in great
For a time the youth was obliged to reflect in a puzzled and and shining prominence. Those performances which had been
uncertain way. His mind was undergoing a subtle change. It witnessed by his fellows marched now in wide purple and gold,
took moments for it to cast off its battleful ways and resume its having various deflections. They went gayly with music. It was
accustomed course of thought. Gradually his brain emerged pleasure to watch these things. He spent delightful minutes view-
from the clogged clouds, and at last he was enabled to more ing the gilded images of memory.
closely compre-hend himself and circumstance. He saw that he was good. He recalled with a thrill of joy the
He understood then that the existence of shot and counter- respectful comments of his fel-lows upon his conduct.
shot was in the past. He had dwelt in a land of strange, squall- Nevertheless, the ghost of his flight from the first engage-
ing upheavals and had come forth. He had been where there ment appeared to him and danced. There were small shoutings
was red of blood and black of passion, and he was es-caped. in his brain about these matters. For a moment he blushed,
His first thoughts were given to rejoic-ings at this fact. and the light of his soul flickered with shame.
Later he began to study his deeds, his fail-ures, and his A specter of reproach came to him. There loomed the dog-
achievements. Thus, fresh from scenes where many of his usual ging memory of the tattered soldier—he who, gored by bullets
machines of re-flection had been idle, from where he had pro- and faint for blood, had fretted concerning an imagined wound
ceeded sheeplike, he struggled to marshal all his acts. in another; he who had loaned his last of strength and intellect

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for the tall soldier; he who, blind with weariness and pain, had “Oh, hush, with your comin’ in behint ‘em. I’ve seen all ‘a
been deserted in the field. that I wanta. Don’t tell me about comin’ in behint—”
For an instant a wretched chill of sweat was upon him at the “Bill Smithers, he ses he’d rather been in ten hundred battles
thought that he might be detected in the thing. As he stood than been in that heluva hospital. He ses they got shootin’ in
persistently before his vision, he gave vent to a cry of sharp th’ night-time, an’ shells dropped plum among ‘em in th’ hos-
irritation and agony. pital. He ses sech hollerin’ he never see.”
His friend turned. “What’s the matter, Henry?” he demanded. “Hasbrouck? He’s th’ best off’cer in this here reg’ment. He’s
The youth’s reply was an outburst of crimson oaths. a whale.”
As he marched along the little branch-hung roadway among “Didn’t I tell yeh we’d come aroun’ in behint ‘em? Didn’t I
his prattling companions this vision of cruelty brooded over tell yeh so? We—”
him. It clung near him always and darkened his view of these “Oh, shet yeh mouth!”
deeds in purple and gold. Whichever way his thoughts turned For a time this pursuing recollection of the tattered man took
they were followed by the somber phantom of the desertion in all elation from the youth’s veins. He saw his vivid error, and
the fields. He looked stealthily at his companions, feeling sure he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life. He
that they must discern in his face evidences of this pursuit. But took no share in the chatter of his comrades, nor did he look
they were plodding in ragged array, discussing with quick at them or know them, save when he felt sudden suspicion that
tongues the accomplishments of the late battle. they were seeing his thoughts and scrutinizing each detail of
“Oh, if a man should come up an’ ask me, I’d say we got a the scene with the tattered soldier.
dum good lickin’.” Yet gradually he mustered force to put the sin at a distance.
“Lickin’—in yer eye! We ain’t licked, sonny. We’re goin’ And at last his eyes seemed to open to some new ways. He
down here aways, swing aroun’, an’ come in behint ‘em.” found that he could look back upon the brass and bombast of

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his earlier gospels and see them truly. He was gleeful when he fresh meadows, cool brooks—an existence of soft and eter-
discovered that he now despised them. nal peace.
With this conviction came a store of assur-ance. He felt a Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of
quiet manhood, nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood. leaden rain clouds.
He knew that he would no more quail before his guides
wher-ever they should point. He had been to touch the great
death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death.
He was a man.
So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place of
blood and wrath his soul changed. He came from hot plow-
shares to prospects of clover tranquilly, and it was as if hot
plowshares were not. Scars faded as flowers.
It rained. The procession of weary soldiers became a be-
draggled train, despondent and muttering, marching with churn-
ing effort in a trough of liquid brown mud under a low, wretched
sky. Yet the youth smiled, for he saw that the world was a
world for him, though many discovered it to be made of oaths
and walking sticks. He had rid himself of the red sickness of
battle. The sultry nightmare was in the past. He had been an
animal blistered and sweating in the heat and pain of war. He
turned now with a lover’s thirst to images of tranquil skies,

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