The Red Badge of Courage
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Stephen Crane >> The Red Badge of Courage
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As the regiment lay heaving from its hot exer-
tions the officer who had named them as mule
drivers came galloping along the line. He had
lost his cap. His tousled hair streamed wildly,
and his face was dark with vexation and wrath.
His temper was displayed with more clearness
by the way in which he managed his horse. He
jerked and wrenched savagely at his bridle, stop-
ping the hard-breathing animal with a furious
pull near the colonel of the regiment. He im-
mediately exploded in reproaches which came
unbidden to the ears of the men. They were
suddenly alert, being always curious about black
words between officers.
"Oh, thunder, MacChesnay, what an awful
bull you made of this thing!" began the officer.
He attempted low tones, but his indignation
caused certain of the men to learn the sense of
his words. "What an awful mess you made!
Good Lord, man, you stopped about a hun-
dred feet this side of a very pretty success! If
your men had gone a hundred feet farther you
would have made a great charge, but as it is
--what a lot of mud diggers you've got any-
way!"
The men, listening with bated breath, now
turned their curious eyes upon the colonel.
They had a ragamuffin interest in this affair.
The colonel was seen to straighten his form
and put one hand forth in oratorical fashion.
He wore an injured air; it was as if a deacon
had been accused of stealing. The men were
wiggling in an ecstasy of excitement.
But of a sudden the colonel's manner changed
from that of a deacon to that of a Frenchman.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, well, general,
we went as far as we could," he said calmly.
"As far as you could? Did you, b'Gawd?"
snorted the other. "Well, that wasn't very far,
was it?" he added, with a glance of cold con-
tempt into the other's eyes. "Not very far, I
think. You were intended to make a diversion
in favor of Whiterside. How well you succeeded
your own ears can now tell you." He wheeled
his horse and rode stiffly away.
The colonel, bidden to hear the jarring noises
of an engagement in the woods to the left, broke
out in vague damnations.
The lieutenant, who had listened with an air
of impotent rage to the interview, spoke suddenly
in firm and undaunted tones. "I don't care what
a man is--whether he is a general or what--if
he says th' boys didn't put up a good fight out
there he's a damned fool."
"Lieutenant," began the colonel, severely,
"this is my own affair, and I'll trouble you--"
The lieutenant made an obedient gesture.
"All right, colonel, all right," he said. He sat
down with an air of being content with him-
self.
The news that the regiment had been re-
proached went along the line. For a time the
men were bewildered by it. "Good thunder!"
they ejaculated, staring at the vanishing form of
the general. They conceived it to be a huge
mistake.
Presently, however, they began to believe that
in truth their efforts had been called light. The
youth could see this conviction weigh upon the
entire regiment until the men were like cuffed
and cursed animals, but withal rebellious.
The friend, with a grievance in his eye,
went to the youth. "I wonder what he does
want," he said. "He must think we went out
there an' played marbles! I never see sech a
man!"
The youth developed a tranquil philosophy
for these moments of irritation. "Oh, well," he
rejoined, "he probably didn't see nothing of it at
all and got mad as blazes, and concluded we were
a lot of sheep, just because we didn't do what he
wanted done. It's a pity old Grandpa Hender-
son got killed yestirday--he'd have known that
we did our best and fought good. It's just our
awful luck, that's what."
"I should say so," replied the friend. He
seemed to be deeply wounded at an injustice.
"I should say we did have awful luck! There's
no fun in fightin' fer people when everything
yeh do--no matter what--ain't done right. I
have a notion t' stay behind next time an' let
'em take their ol' charge an' go t' th' devil
with it."
The youth spoke soothingly to his comrade.
"Well, we both did good. I'd like to see the
fool what'd say we both didn't do as good as we
could!"
"Of course we did," declared the friend
stoutly. "An' I'd break th' feller's neck if he was
as big as a church. But we're all right, anyhow,
for I heard one feller say that we two fit th' best
in th' reg'ment, an' they had a great argument
'bout it. Another feller, 'a course, he had t' up
an' say it was a lie--he seen all what was goin'
on an' he never seen us from th' beginnin' t' th'
end. An' a lot more struck in an' ses it wasn't
a lie--we did fight like thunder, an' they give
us quite a send-off. But this is what I can't
stand--these everlastin' ol' soldiers, titterin' an'
laughin', an' then that general, he's crazy."
The youth exclaimed with sudden exaspera-
tion: "He's a lunkhead! He makes me mad.
I wish he'd come along next time. We'd show
'im what--"
He ceased because several men had come
hurrying up. Their faces expressed a bringing
of great news.
"O Flem, yeh jest oughta heard!" cried one,
eagerly.
"Heard what?" said the youth.
"Yeh jest oughta heard!" repeated the other,
and he arranged himself to tell his tidings. The
others made an excited circle. "Well, sir, th'
colonel met your lieutenant right by us--it was
damnedest thing I ever heard--an' he ses: 'Ahem!
ahem!' he ses. 'Mr. Hasbrouck!' he ses, 'by
th' way, who was that lad what carried th' flag?'
he ses. There, Flemin', what d' yeh think 'a
that? 'Who was th' lad what carried th' flag?'
he ses, an' th' lieutenant, he speaks up right
away: 'That's Flemin', an' he's a jimhickey,' he
ses, right away. What? I say he did. 'A jim-
hickey,' he ses--those 'r his words. He did, too.
I say he did. If you kin tell this story better
than I kin, go ahead an' tell it. Well, then, keep
yer mouth shet. Th' lieutenant, he ses: 'He's a
jimhickey,' an' th' colonel, he ses: 'Ahem! ahem!
he is, indeed, a very good man t' have, ahem! He
kep' th' flag 'way t' th' front. I saw 'im. He's a
good un,' ses th' colonel. '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' colonel.
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', Thompson." "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 pleasure. They ex-
changed a secret glance of joy and congratula-
tion.
They speedily forgot many things. The past
held no pictures of error and disappointment.
They were very happy, and their hearts swelled
with grateful affection for the colonel and the
youthful lieutenant.
CHAPTER XXII.
WHEN the woods again began to pour forth
the dark-hued masses of the enemy the youth felt
serene self-confidence. He smiled briefly when
he saw men dodge and duck at the long screech-
ings of shells that were thrown in giant handfuls
over them. He stood, erect and tranquil, watch-
ing the attack begin against a part of the line
that made a blue curve along the side of an adja-
cent hill. His vision being unmolested by smoke
from the rifles of his companions, he had oppor-
tunities to see parts of the hard fight. It was a
relief to perceive at last from whence came some
of these noises which had been roared into his
ears.
Off a short way he saw two regiments fight-
ing a little separate battle with two other regi-
ments. It was in a cleared space, wearing a set-
apart look. They were blazing as if upon a
wager, giving and taking tremendous blows.
The firings were incredibly fierce and rapid.
209
These intent regiments apparently were oblivious
of all larger purposes of war, and were slugging
each other as if at a matched game.
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-
spiring racket in the wood. The noise was un-
speakable. Having stirred this prodigious up-
roar, and, apparently, finding it too prodigious,
the brigade, after a little time, came marching
airily out again with its fine formation in nowise
disturbed. There were no traces of speed in its
movements. The brigade was jaunty and seemed
to point a proud thumb at the yelling wood.
On a slope to the left there was a long row of
guns, gruff and maddened, denouncing the
enemy, who, down through the woods, were
forming for another attack in the pitiless mo-
notony of conflicts. The round red discharges
from the guns made a crimson flare and a high,
thick smoke. Occasional glimpses could be
caught of groups of the toiling artillerymen. In
the rear of this row of guns stood a house, calm
and white, amid bursting shells. A congregation
of horses, tied to a long railing, were tugging
frenziedly at their bridles. Men were running
hither and thither.
The detached battle between the four regi-
ments lasted for some time. There chanced to
be no interference, and they settled their dispute
by themselves. They struck savagely and pow-
erfully at each other for a period of minutes, and
then the lighter-hued regiments faltered and
drew back, leaving the dark-blue lines shouting.
The youth could see the two flags shaking with
laughter amid the smoke remnants.
Presently there was a stillness, pregnant with
meaning. The blue lines shifted and changed a
trifle and stared expectantly at the silent woods
and fields before them. The hush was solemn
and churchlike, save for a distant battery that,
evidently unable to remain quiet, sent a faint
rolling thunder over the ground. It irritated,
like the noises of unimpressed boys. The men
imagined that it would prevent their perched
ears from hearing the first words of the new
battle.
Of a sudden the guns on the slope roared out
a message of warning. A spluttering sound had
begun in the woods. It swelled with amazing
speed to a profound clamor that involved the
earth in noises. The splitting crashes swept
along the lines until an interminable roar was
developed. To those in the midst of it it became
a din fitted to the universe. It was the whirring
and thumping of gigantic machinery, complica-
tions among the smaller stars. The youth's ears
were filled up. They were incapable of hearing
more.
On an incline over which a road wound he
saw wild and desperate rushes of men perpet-
ually backward and forward in riotous surges.
These parts of the opposing armies were two
long waves that pitched upon each other madly
at dictated points. To and fro they swelled.
Sometimes, one side by its yells and cheers would
proclaim decisive blows, but a moment later
the other side would be all yells and cheers.
Once the youth saw a spray of light forms go in
houndlike leaps toward the waving blue lines.
There was much howling, and presently it went
away with a vast mouthful of prisoners. Again,
he saw a blue wave dash with such thunderous
force against a gray obstruction that it seemed to
clear the earth of it and leave nothing but
trampled sod. And always in their swift and
deadly rushes to and fro the men screamed
and yelled like maniacs.
Particular pieces of fence or secure positions
behind collections of trees were wrangled over,
as gold thrones or pearl bedsteads. There were
desperate lunges at these chosen spots seemingly
every instant, and most of them were bandied like
light toys between the contending forces. The
youth could not tell from the battle flags flying
like crimson foam in many directions which color
of cloth was winning.
His emaciated regiment bustled forth with
undiminished fierceness when its time came.
When assaulted again by bullets, the men burst
out in a barbaric cry of rage and pain. They
bent their heads in aims of intent hatred
behind the projected hammers of their guns.
Their ramrods clanged loud with fury as their
eager arms pounded the cartridges into the rifle
barrels. The front of the regiment was a smoke-
wall penetrated by the flashing points of yellow
and red.
Wallowing in the fight, they were in an
astonishingly short time resmudged. They
surpassed in stain and dirt all their previous ap-
pearances. Moving to and fro with strained
exertion, jabbering the while, they were, with
their swaying bodies, black faces, and glowing
eyes, like strange and ugly friends jigging heavily
in the smoke.
The lieutenant, returning from a tour after a
bandage, produced from a hidden receptacle of
his mind new and portentous oaths suited to the
emergency. Strings of expletives he swung
lashlike over the backs of his men, and it was
evident that his previous efforts had in nowise
impaired his resources.
The youth, still the bearer of the colors, did
not feel his idleness. He was deeply absorbed as
a spectator. The crash and swing of the great
drama made him lean forward, intent-eyed, his
face working in small contortions. Sometimes he
prattled, words coming unconsciously from him
in grotesque exclamations. He did not know
that he breathed; that the flag hung silently over
him, so absorbed was he.
A formidable line of the enemy came within
dangerous range. They could be seen plainly--
tall, gaunt men with excited faces running with
long strides toward a wandering fence.
At sight of this danger the men suddenly
ceased their cursing monotone. There was an
instant of strained silence before they threw up
their rifles and fired a plumping volley at the
foes. There had been no order given; the men,
upon recognizing the menace, had immedi-
ately let drive their flock of bullets without wait-
ing for word of command.
But the enemy were quick to gain the protec-
tion of the wandering line of fence. They slid down
behind it with remarkable celerity, and from this
position they began briskly to slice up the blue men.
These latter braced their energies for a great
struggle. Often, white clinched teeth shone
from the dusky faces. Many heads surged to
and fro, floating upon a pale sea of smoke.
Those behind the fence frequently shouted and
yelped in taunts and gibelike cries, but the regi-
ment maintained a stressed silence. Perhaps, at
this new assault the men recalled the fact that
they had been named mud diggers, and it made
their situation thrice bitter. They were breath-
lessly intent upon keeping the ground and thrust-
ing away the rejoicing body of the enemy. They
fought swiftly and with a despairing savageness
denoted in their expressions.
The youth had resolved not to budge what-
ever should happen. Some arrows of scorn that
had buried themselves in his heart had generated
strange and unspeakable hatred. It was clear
to him that his final and absolute revenge was to
be achieved by his dead body lying, torn and
gluttering, upon the field. This was to be a
poignant retaliation upon the officer who had
said "mule drivers," and later "mud diggers,"
for in all the wild graspings of his mind for a
unit responsible for his sufferings and commo-
tions he always seized upon the man who had
dubbed him wrongly. And it was his idea,
vaguely formulated, that his corpse would be for
those eyes a great and salt reproach.
The regiment bled extravagantly. Grunting
bundles of blue began to drop. The orderly
sergeant of the youth's company was shot through
the cheeks. Its supports being injured, his jaw
hung afar down, disclosing in the wide cavern of
his mouth a pulsing mass of blood and teeth.
And with it all he made attempts to cry out.
In his endeavor there was a dreadful earnestness,
as if he conceived that one great shriek would
make him well.
The youth saw him presently go rearward.
His strength seemed in nowise impaired. He
ran swiftly, casting wild glances for succor.
Others fell down about the feet of their com-
panions. Some of the wounded crawled out and
away, but many lay still, their bodies twisted into
impossible shapes.
The youth looked once for his friend. He
saw a vehement young man, powder-smeared and
frowzled, whom he knew to be him. The lieu-
tenant, also, was unscathed in his position at the
rear. He had continued to curse, but it was now
with the air of a man who was using his last box
of oaths.
For the fire of the regiment had begun to
wane and drip. The 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 distance between him and the enemy.
He made vague calculations. 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
217
when the shafts of the bayonets rattled upon the
rifle barrels. At the yelled words of command
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 ap-
pear like a paroxysm, a display of the strength
that comes before a final feebleness. The men
scampered in insane fever of haste, racing as if to
achieve a sudden success before an exhilarating
fluid should leave them. It was a blind and de-
spairing rush by the collection of men in dusty
and tattered blue, over a green sward and under
a sapphire sky, toward a fence, dimly outlined in
smoke, from behind which spluttered the fierce
rifles of enemies.
The youth kept the bright colors to the front.
He was waving his free arm in furious circles,
the while shrieking mad calls and appeals, urging
on those that did not need to be urged, for it
seemed that the mob of blue men hurling them-
selves on the dangerous group of rifles were
again grown suddenly wild with an enthusiasm of
unselfishness. From the many firings starting
toward them, it looked as if they would merely
succeed in making a great sprinkling of corpses
on the grass between their former position and
the fence. But they were in a state of frenzy,
perhaps because of forgotten vanities, and it made
an exhibition of sublime recklessness. There was
no obvious questioning, nor figurings, nor dia-
grams. There was, apparently, no considered
loopholes. It appeared that the swift wings of
their desires would have shattered against the
iron gates of the impossible.
He himself felt the daring spirit of a savage
religion mad. He was capable of profound sacri-
fices, a tremendous death. He had no time for
dissections, but he knew that he thought of the
bullets only as things that could prevent him
from reaching the place of his endeavor. There
were subtle flashings of joy within him that thus
should be his mind.
He strained all his strength. His eyesight
was shaken and dazzled by the tension of thought
and muscle. He did not see anything excepting
the mist of smoke gashed by the little knives of
fire, but he knew that in it lay the aged fence of a
vanished farmer protecting the snuggled bodies
of the gray men.
As he ran a thought of the shock of contact
gleamed in his mind. He expected a great con-
cussion when the two bodies of troops crashed
together. This became a part of his wild battle
madness. He could feel the onward swing of the
regiment about him and he conceived of a thun-
derous, crushing blow that would prostrate the
resistance and spread consternation and amaze-
ment for miles. The flying regiment was going
to have a catapultian effect. This dream made
him run faster among his comrades, who were
giving vent to hoarse and frantic cheers.
But presently he could see that many of the
men in gray did not intend to abide the blow.
The smoke, rolling, disclosed men who ran, their
faces still turned. These grew to a crowd, who
retired stubbornly. Individuals wheeled fre-
quently to send a bullet at the blue wave.
But at one part of the line there was a grim
and obdurate group that made no movement.
They were settled firmly down behind posts and
rails. A flag, ruffled and fierce, waved over them
and their rifles dinned fiercely.
The blue whirl of men got very near, until
it seemed that in truth there would be a close
and frightful scuffle. There was an expressed
disdain in the opposition of the little group,
that changed the meaning of the cheers of the
men in blue. They became yells of wrath,
directed, personal. The cries of the two parties
were now in sound an interchange of scathing
insults.
They in blue showed their teeth; their eyes
shone all white. They launched themselves as at
the throats of those who stood resisting. The
space between dwindled to an insignificant dis-
tance.
The youth had centered the gaze of his soul
upon that other flag. Its possession would be
high pride. It would express bloody minglings,
near blows. He had a gigantic hatred for those
who made great difficulties and complications.
They caused it to be as a craved treasure of my-
thology, hung amid tasks and contrivances of
danger.
He plunged like a mad horse at it. He was
resolved it should not escape if wild blows and
darings of blows could seize it. His own em-
blem, quivering and aflare, was winging toward
the other. It seemed there would shortly be
an encounter of strange beaks and claws, as of
eagles.
The swirling body of blue men came to a
sudden halt at close and disastrous range and
roared a swift volley. The group in gray was
split and broken by this fire, but its riddled body
still fought. The men in blue yelled again and
rushed in upon it.
The youth, in his leapings, saw, as through a
mist, a picture of four or five men stretched upon
the ground or writhing upon their knees with
bowed heads as if they had been stricken by bolts
from the sky. Tottering among them was the
rival color bearer, whom the youth saw had been
bitten vitally by the bullets of the last formidable
volley. He perceived this man fighting a last
struggle, the struggle of one whose legs are
grasped by demons. It was a ghastly battle.
Over his face was the bleach of death, but set
upon it was the dark and hard lines of desperate
purpose. With this terrible grin of resolution he
hugged his precious flag to him and was stum-
bling and staggering in his design to go the way
that led to safety for it.
But his wounds always made it seem that his
feet were retarded, held, and he fought a grim
fight, as with invisible ghouls fastened greedily
upon his limbs. Those in advance of the scam-
pering blue men, howling cheers, leaped at the
fence. The despair of the lost was in his eyes as
he glanced back at them.
The youth's friend went over the obstruction
in a tumbling heap and sprang at the flag as a
panther at prey. He pulled at it and, wrench-
ing it free, swung up its red brilliancy with a
mad cry of exultation even as the color bearer,
gasping, lurched over in a final throe and, stiff-
ening convulsively, turned his dead face to the
ground. There was much blood upon the grass
blades.
At the place of success there began more wild
clamorings of cheers. The men gesticulated and
bellowed in an ecstasy. When they spoke it was
as if they considered their listener to be a mile
away. What hats and caps were left to them
they often slung high in the air.
At one part of the line four men had been
swooped upon, and they now sat as prisoners.
Some blue men were about them in an eager and
curious circle. The soldiers had trapped strange
birds, and there was an examination. A flurry of
fast questions was in the air.
One of the prisoners was nursing a superficial
wound in the foot. He cuddled it, baby-wise,
but he looked up from it often to curse with an
astonishing utter abandon straight at the noses of
his captors. He consigned them to red regions;
he called upon the pestilential wrath of strange
gods. And with it all he was singularly free
from recognition of the finer points of the con-
duct of prisoners of war. It was as if a clumsy
clod had trod upon his toe and he conceived it to
be his privilege, his duty, to use deep, resentful
oaths.
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