The Red Badge of Courage
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Stephen Crane >> The Red Badge of Courage
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"So would I," said the loud soldier. "It ain't
right. I tell you if anybody with any sense was
a-runnin' this army it--"
"Oh, shut up!" roared the tall private. "You
little fool. You little damn' cuss. You ain't had
that there coat and them pants on for six months,
and yet you talk as if--"
"Well, I wanta do some fighting anyway,"
interrupted the other. "I didn't come here to
walk. I could 'ave walked to home--'round an'
'round the barn, if I jest wanted to walk."
The tall one, red-faced, swallowed another
sandwich as if taking poison in despair.
But gradually, as he chewed, his face became
again quiet and contented. He could not rage
in fierce argument in the presence of such sand-
wiches. During his meals he always wore an air
of blissful contemplation of the food he had swal-
lowed. His spirit seemed then to be communing
with the viands.
He accepted new environment and circum-
stance with great coolness, eating from his haver-
sack at every opportunity. On the march he
went along with the stride of a hunter, object-
ing to neither gait nor distance. And he had
not raised his voice when he had been ordered
away from three little protective piles of earth
and stone, each of which had been an engineer-
ing feat worthy of being made sacred to the name
of his grandmother.
In the afternoon the regiment went out over
the same ground it had taken in the morn-
ing. The landscape then ceased to threaten the
youth. He had been close to it and become
familiar with it.
When, however, they began to pass into a
new region, his old fears of stupidity and in-
competence reassailed him, but this time he dog-
gedly let them babble. He was occupied with
his problem, and in his desperation he concluded
that the stupidity did not greatly matter.
Once he thought he had concluded that it
would be better to get killed directly and end
his troubles. Regarding death thus out of the
corner of his eye, he conceived it to be noth-
ing but rest, and he was filled with a momen-
tary astonishment that he should have made an
extraordinary commotion over the mere matter
of getting killed. He would die; he would go
to some place where he would be understood.
It was useless to expect appreciation of his pro-
found and fine senses from such men as the lieu-
tenant. He must look to the grave for compre-
hension.
The skirmish fire increased to a long chatter-
ing sound. With it was mingled far-away cheer-
ing. A battery spoke.
Directly the youth would see the skirmishers
running. They were pursued by the sound of
musketry fire. After a time the hot, dangerous
flashes of the rifles were visible. Smoke clouds
went slowly and insolently across the fields like
observant phantoms. The din became crescendo,
like the roar of an oncoming train.
A brigade ahead of them and on the right
went into action with a rending roar. It was
as if it had exploded. And thereafter it lay
stretched in the distance behind a long gray wall,
that one 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 shoulder. 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 intense 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?"
"I'm a gone coon this first time and--and I
w-want you to take these here things--to--my--
folks." He ended in a quavering sob of pity for
himself. He handed the youth a little packet
done up in a yellow envelope.
"Why, what the devil--" began the youth
again.
But the other gave him a glance as from the
depths of a tomb, and raised his limp hand in a
prophetic manner and turned away.
CHAPTER IV.
THE brigade was halted in the fringe of a
grove. The men crouched among the trees and
pointed their restless guns out at the fields.
They tried to look beyond the smoke.
Out of this haze they could see running men.
Some shouted information and gestured as they
hurried.
The men of the new regiment watched and
listened eagerly, while their tongues ran on in
gossip of the battle. They mouthed rumors that
had flown like birds out of the unknown.
"They say Perry has been driven in with big
loss."
"Yes, Carrott went t' th' hospital. He said he
was sick. That smart lieutenant is commanding
'G' Company. Th' boys say they won't be
under Carrott no more if they all have t' desert.
They allus knew he was a--"
"Hannises' batt'ry is took."
"It ain't either. I saw Hannises' batt'ry off on
th' left not more'n fifteen minutes ago."
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"Well--"
"Th' general, he ses he is goin' t' take th' hull
cammand of th' 304th when we go inteh action,
an' then he ses we'll do 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' batt'ry."
"No sech thing. Hannises' batt'ry was 'long
here 'bout a minute ago."
"That young Hasbrouck, he makes a good
off'cer. He ain't afraid 'a nothin'."
"I met one of th' 148th Maine boys an' he ses
his brigade fit th' hull rebel army fer four hours
over on th' turnpike road an' killed about five
thousand of 'em. He ses one more sech fight as
that an' th' war 'll be over."
"Bill wasn't scared either. No, sir! It wasn't
that. Bill ain't a-gittin' scared easy. He was
jest mad, that's what he was. When that feller
trod on his hand, he up an' sed that he was willin'
t' give his hand t' his country, but he be dumbed
if he was goin' t' have every dumb bushwhacker
in th' kentry walkin' 'round on it. Se he went t'
th' hospital disregardless of th' fight. Three
fingers was crunched. Th' dern doctor wanted
t' amputate 'm, an' Bill, he raised a heluva row, I
hear. He's a funny feller."
The din in front swelled to a tremendous
chorus. The youth and his fellows were frozen
to silence. They could see a flag that tossed in
the smoke angrily. Near it were the blurred and
agitated forms of troops. There came a turbulent
stream of men across the fields. A battery chang-
ing position at a frantic gallop scattered the
stragglers right and left.
A shell screaming like a storm banshee went
over the huddled heads of the reserves. It landed
in the grove, and exploding redly flung the brown
earth. There was a little shower of pine needles.
Bullets began to whistle among the branches
and nip at the trees. Twigs and leaves came
sailing down. It was as if a thousand axes, wee
and invisible, were being wielded. Many of the
men were constantly dodging and ducking their
heads.
The lieutenant of the youth's company was
shot in the hand. He began to swear so won-
drously that a nervous laugh went along the regi-
mental line. The officer's profanity sounded
conventional. It relieved the tightened senses of
the new men. It was as if he had hit his fingers
with a tack hammer at home.
He held the wounded member carefully away
from his side so that the blood would not drip
upon his trousers.
The captain of the company, tucking his sword
under his arm, produced a handkerchief and
began to bind with it the lieutenant's wound.
And they disputed as to how the binding should
be done.
The battle flag in the distance jerked about
madly. It seemed to be struggling to free itself
from an agony. The billowing smoke was filled
with horizontal flashes.
Men running swiftly emerged from it. They
grew in numbers until it was seen that the whole
command was fleeing. The flag suddenly sank
down as if dying. Its motion as it fell was a
gesture of despair.
Wild yells came from behind the walls of
smoke. A sketch in gray and red dissolved into
a moblike body of men who galloped like wild
horses.
The veteran regiments on the right and left of
the 304th immediately began to jeer. With the
passionate song of the bullets and the banshee
shrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and
bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety.
But the new regiment was breathless with hor-
ror. "Gawd! Saunders's got crushed!" whis-
pered the man at the youth's elbow. They
shrank back and crouched as if compelled to
await a flood.
The youth shot a swift glance along the blue
ranks of the regiment. The profiles were motion-
less, carven; and afterward he remembered that
the color sergeant was standing with his legs
apart, as if he expected to be pushed to the
ground.
The following throng went whirling around
the flank. Here and there were officers carried
along on the stream like exasperated chips. They
were striking about them with their swords
and with their left fists, punching every head
they could reach. They cursed like highway-
men.
A mounted officer displayed the furious anger
of a spoiled child. He raged with his head, his
arms, and his legs.
Another, the commander of the brigade, was
galloping about bawling. His hat was gone and
his clothes were awry. He resembled a man
who has come from bed to go to a fire. The
hoofs of his horse often threatened the heads of
the running men, but they scampered with sin-
gular fortune. In this rush they were apparently
all deaf and blind. They heeded not the 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 not even con-
scious of the presence of an audience.
The battle reflection that shone for an instant
in the faces on the mad current made the youth
feel that forceful hands from heaven would not
have been able to have held him in place if he
could have got intelligent control of his legs.
There was an appalling imprint upon these
faces. The struggle in the smoke had pictured
an exaggeration of itself on the bleached cheeks
and in the eyes wild with one desire.
The sight of this stampede exerted a floodlike
force that seemed able to drag sticks and stones
and men from the ground. They of the reserves
had to hold on. They grew pale and firm, and
red and quaking.
The youth achieved one little thought in the
midst of this chaos. The composite monster
which had caused the other troops to flee had
not then appeared. He resolved to get a view
of it, and then, he thought he might very likely
run better than the best of them.
CHAPTER V.
THERE were moments of waiting. The youth
thought of the village street at home before the
arrival of the circus parade on a day in the
spring. He remembered how he had stood, a
small, thrillful boy, prepared to follow the dingy
lady upon the white horse, or the band in its
faded chariot. He saw the yellow road, the
lines of expectant people, and the sober houses.
He particularly remembered an old fellow who
used to sit upon a cracker box in front of the
store and feign to despise such exhibitions. A
thousand details of color and form surged in his
mind. The old fellow upon the cracker box ap-
peared in middle prominence.
Some one cried, "Here they come!"
There was rustling and muttering among the
men. They displayed a feverish desire to have
every possible cartridge ready to their hands.
The boxes were pulled around into various posi-
tions, and adjusted with great care. It was as if
seven hundred new bonnets were being tried on.
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The tall soldier, having prepared his rifle, pro-
duced a red handkerchief of some kind. He was
engaged in knitting it about 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.
Across the smoke-infested fields came a brown
swarm of running men who were giving shrill
yells. They came on, stooping and swinging
their rifles at all angles. A flag, tilted forward,
sped near the front.
As he caught sight of them the youth was
momentarily startled by a thought that perhaps
his gun was not loaded. He stood trying to
rally his faltering intellect so that he might rec-
ollect the moment when he had loaded, but he
could not.
A hatless general pulled his dripping horse to
a stand near the colonel of the 304th. He shook
his fist in the other's face. "You 've got to hold
'em back!" he shouted, savagely; "you 've got
to hold 'em back!"
In his agitation the colonel began to stammer.
"A-all r-right, General, all right, by Gawd! We-
we'll do our--we-we'll d-d-do--do our best, Gen-
eral." The general made a passionate gesture
and galloped away. The colonel, perchance to
relieve his feelings, began to scold like a wet
parrot. The youth, turning swiftly to make
sure that the rear was unmolested, saw the com-
mander regarding his men in a highly regretful
manner, as if he regretted above everything his
association with them.
The man at the youth's elbow was mumbling,
as if to himself: "Oh, we 're in for it now! oh,
we 're in for it now!"
The captain of the company had been pacing
excitedly to and fro in the rear. He coaxed in
schoolmistress fashion, as to a congregation of
boys with primers. His talk was an endless
repetition. "Reserve your fire, boys--don't
shoot till I tell you--save your fire--wait till
they get close up--don't be damned fools--"
Perspiration streamed down the youth's face,
which was soiled like that of a weeping urchin.
He frequently, with a nervous movement, wiped
his eyes with his coat sleeve. His mouth was
still a little ways open.
He got the one glance at the foe-swarming
field in front of him, and instantly ceased to de-
bate the question of his piece being loaded. Be-
fore he was ready to begin--before he had an-
nounced to himself that he was about to fight--
he threw the obedient, well-balanced rifle into
position and fired a first wild shot. Directly he
was working at his weapon like an automatic
affair.
He suddenly lost concern for himself, and for-
got to look at a menacing fate. He became not a
man but a member. He felt that something of
which he was a part--a regiment, an army, a
cause, or a country--was in a crisis. He was
welded into a common personality which was
dominated by a single desire. For some mo-
ments he could not flee no more than a little
finger can commit a revolution from a hand.
If he had thought the regiment was about to
be annihilated perhaps he could have amputated
himself from it. But its noise gave him assur-
ance. The regiment was like a firework that,
once ignited, proceeds superior to circumstances
until its blazing vitality fades. It wheezed and
banged with a mighty power. He pictured the
ground before it as strewn with the discom-
fited.
There was a consciousness always of the pres-
ence of his comrades about him. He felt the
subtle battle brotherhood more potent even than
the cause for which they were fighting. It was a
mysterious fraternity born of the smoke and dan-
ger of death.
He was at a task. He was like a carpenter
who has made many boxes, making still another
box, only there was furious haste in his move-
ments. He, in his thought, was careering off in
other places, even as the carpenter who as he
works whistles and thinks of his friend or his
enemy, his home or a saloon. And these jolted
dreams were never perfect to him afterward, but
remained a mass of blurred shapes.
Presently he began to feel the effects of the
war atmosphere--a blistering sweat, a sensation
that his eyeballs were about to crack like hot
stones. A burning roar filled his ears.
Following this came a red rage. He devel-
oped the acute exasperation of a pestered animal,
a well-meaning cow worried by dogs. He had a
mad feeling against his rifle, which could only be
used against one life at a time. He wished to
rush forward and strangle with his fingers. He
craved a power that would enable him to make a
world-sweeping gesture and brush all back. His
impotency appeared to him, and made his rage
into that of a driven beast.
Buried in the smoke of many rifles his anger
was directed not so much against the men whom
he knew were rushing toward him as against the
swirling battle phantoms which were choking
him, stuffing their smoke robes down his parched
throat. He fought frantically for respite for his
senses, for air, as a babe being smothered attacks
the deadly blankets.
There was a blare of heated rage mingled with
a certain expression of intentness on all faces.
Many of the men were making low-toned noises
with their mouths, and these subdued cheers,
snarls, imprecations, prayers, made a wild, bar-
baric song that went as an undercurrent of sound,
strange and chantlike with the resounding chords
of the war march. The man at the youth's elbow
was babbling. In it there was something soft and
tender like the monologue of a babe. The tall
soldier was swearing in a loud voice. From his
lips came a black procession of curious oaths. Of
a sudden another broke out in a querulous way
like a man who has mislaid his hat. "Well, why
don't they support us? Why don't they send
supports? Do they think--"
The youth in his battle sleep heard this as one
who dozes hears.
There was a singular absence of heroic poses.
The men bending and surging in their haste and
rage were in every impossible attitude. The steel
ramrods clanked and clanged with incessant din
as the men pounded them furiously into the hot
rifle barrels. The flaps of the cartridge boxes were
all unfastened, and bobbed idiotically with each
movement. The rifles, once loaded, were jerked
to the shoulder and fired without apparent aim
into the smoke or at one of the blurred and shift-
ing forms which upon the field before the regi-
ment had been growing larger and larger like
puppets under a magician's hand.
The officers, at their intervals, rearward, neg-
lected to stand in picturesque attitudes. They
were bobbing to and fro roaring directions and
encouragements. The dimensions of their howls
were extraordinary. They expended their lungs
with prodigal wills. And often they nearly stood
upon their heads in their anxiety to observe the
enemy on the other side of the tumbling smoke.
The lieutenant of the youth's company had en-
countered a soldier who had fled screaming at
the first volley of his comrades. Behind the lines
these two were acting a little isolated scene. The
man was blubbering and staring with sheeplike
eyes at the lieutenant, who had seized him by the
collar and was pommeling him. He drove him
back into the ranks with many blows. The sol-
dier went mechanically, dully, with his animal-
like eyes upon the officer. Perhaps there was to
him a divinity expressed in the voice of the other
--stern, hard, with no reflection of fear in it. He
tried to reload his gun, but his shaking hands pre-
vented. The lieutenant was obliged to assist him.
The men dropped here and there like bundles.
The captain of the youth's company had been
killed in an early part of the action. His body
lay stretched out in the position of a tired man
resting, but upon his face there was an astonished
and sorrowful look, as if he thought some friend
had done him an ill turn. The babbling man was
grazed by a shot that made the blood stream
widely down his face. He clapped both hands
to his head. "Oh!" he said, and ran. Another
grunted suddenly as if he had been struck by a
club in the stomach. He sat down and gazed
ruefully. In his eyes there was mute, indefinite
reproach. Farther up the line a man, standing
behind a tree, had had his knee joint splintered
by a ball. Immediately he had dropped his rifle
and gripped the tree with both arms. And there
he remained, clinging desperately and crying for
assistance that he might withdraw his hold upon
the tree.
At last an exultant yell went along the quiver-
ing line. The firing dwindled from an uproar to
a last vindictive popping. As the smoke slowly
eddied away, the youth saw that the charge had
been repulsed. The enemy were scattered into
reluctant groups. He saw a man climb to the
top of the fence, straddle the rail, and fire a part-
ing shot. The waves had receded, leaving bits of
dark debris upon the ground.
Some in the regiment began to whoop fren-
ziedly. Many were silent. Apparently they were
trying to contemplate themselves.
After the fever had left his veins, the youth
thought that at last he was going to suffocate.
He became aware of the foul atmosphere in
which he had been struggling. He was grimy
and dripping like a laborer in a foundry. He
grasped his canteen and took a long swallow of
the warmed water.
A sentence with variations went up and down
the line. "Well, we 've helt 'em back. We 've
helt 'em back; derned if we haven't." The men
said it blissfully, leering at each other with dirty
smiles.
The youth turned to look behind him and off
to the right and off to the left. He experienced
the joy of a man who at last finds leisure in which
to look about him.
Under foot there were a few ghastly forms
motionless. They lay twisted in fantastic contor-
tions. Arms were bent and heads were turned
in incredible ways. It seemed that the dead men
must have fallen from some great height to get
into such positions. They looked to be dumped
out upon the ground from the sky.
From a position in the rear of the grove a bat-
tery was throwing shells over it. The flash of
the guns startled the youth at first. He thought
they were aimed directly at him. Through the
trees he watched the black figures of the gunners
as they worked swiftly and intently. Their labor
seemed a complicated thing. He wondered how
they could remember its formula in the midst of
confusion.
The guns squatted in a row like savage chiefs.
They argued with abrupt violence. It was a
grim pow-wow. Their busy servants ran hither
and thither.
A small procession of wounded men were go-
ing drearily toward the rear. It was a flow of
blood from the torn body of the brigade.
To the right and to the left were the dark
lines of other troops. Far in front he thought he
could see lighter masses protruding in points
from the forest. They were suggestive of un-
numbered thousands.
Once he saw a tiny battery go dashing along
the line of the horizon. The tiny riders were
beating the tiny horses.
From a sloping hill came the sound of cheer-
ings and clashes. Smoke welled slowly through
the leaves.
Batteries were speaking with thunderous ora-
torical effort. Here and there were flags, the
red in the stripes dominating. They splashed
bits of warm color upon the dark lines of
troops.
The youth felt the old thrill at the sight of
the emblem. They were like beautiful birds
strangely undaunted in a storm.
As he listened to the din from the hillside, to
a deep pulsating thunder that came from afar to
the left, and to the lesser clamors which came
from many directions, it occurred to him that
they were fighting, too, over there, and over
there, and over there. Heretofore he had sup-
posed that all the battle was directly under his
nose.
As he gazed around him the youth felt a flash
of astonishment at the blue, pure sky and the
sun gleamings on the trees and fields. It was
surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on
with her golden process in the midst of so much
devilment.
CHAPTER VI.
THE youth awakened slowly. He came grad-
ually back to a position from which he could re-
gard himself. For moments he had been scruti-
nizing his person in a dazed way as if he had
never before seen himself. Then he picked up
his cap from the ground. He wriggled in his
jacket to make a more comfortable fit, and kneel-
ing relaced his shoe. He thoughtfully mopped
his reeking features.
So it was all over at last! The supreme trial
had been passed. The red, formidable difficulties
of war had been vanquished.
He went into an ecstasy of self-satisfaction.
He had the most delightful sensations of his life.
Standing as if apart from himself, he viewed that
last scene. He perceived that the man who 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.
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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.
"You bet!" said the other, grinning sociably.
"I never seen sech dumb hotness." He sprawled
out luxuriously on the ground. "Gee, yes! An'
I hope we don't have no more fightin' till a week
from Monday."
There were some handshakings and deep
speeches with men whose features were familiar,
but with whom the youth now felt the bonds of
tied hearts. He helped a cursing comrade to
bind up a wound of the shin.
But, of a sudden, cries of amazement broke
out along the ranks of the new regiment. "Here
they come ag'in! Here they come ag'in!" The
man who had sprawled upon the ground started
up and said, "Gosh!"
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