""The Red Badge of Courage"-still a good read" Topic

Hi everyone;

I just started reading this classic novel again after many years and I have to say that this still has to be one of the best reads that gives you the soldiers view of the American Civil War battlefield and probably war in general.

You get the feel of what a confused mess it all must seem to the common soldier, added with great imagery on parts of the battle that the young soldier does see (skirmishers coming back to the main lines at a run, followed by an unseen mass of screaming, yelling Reb infantry, a Regiment on the right seems to explode as it fires a volley, sheets of flame and curtains of smoke expand from the rifles towards the yelling mass), plus it's a good primer on the vernacular of the day…Thunderation…that sher was a fit t-day…
And that was from a New York Regiment:-)

And of course he deals with the cost of war on the human body and mind.

The wargaming reader also gets a lesson on tactics of the period and ACW.
I like the part where the regiment stops in a position long enoug for some guys to start making little field works, while others say that they should stand up and fight the rebs like duelists, the first soldiers point to the veteran soldiers who are "digging like Terriers" into the ground to build some protection.

or
The Lieutenant gets shot in the hand and after he gets done cursing a blue streak about it, he stands there with his arm out slightly so the blood doesn't get on his uniform.

So, my reason for this post is just a reminder, that here we have a classic and very inexpensive novel that is sure to get a wargamers interest in this period or to re-affirm why they game it in the first place.

Good gaming;
Joep

I agree. A great story! I've read somewhere that Crane had many conversations with Civil War vets to get the details correct

The movie was good too! Forget the exact year. About 1953? B&W. With Audie Murphy as Henry and Bill Mauldin as his best friend. Clever casting to put too WWII soldiers in the top roles. There was a later color version ('70s or '80s) with the guy who played John Boy on the Waltons in the lead. It was pretty good also.

I remember both movies and in fact, as I read the book, in my mind, Henry and his friends sound like Audie Murphy and crew from the 1953 movie.

I didn't know that about Crane's research Hrothgar, but it makes sense and comes out in the details of the story.

Joe

When I took a college course on War and Society it was required reading. I think that says something about its validity. It was included with All Quiet on the Western Front and Goodbye to All That.

It was required reading in any class I taught. Good stuff.

Way back in 1991, when I went through US Army basic training, the drill sergeants took any book we had during shakedown. I hid RBoC in my trousers just so I would have something to read. I must have read through if 50 times in those ten weeks.

I believe it was partly based on his experiences in the Spanish-American War.

Good book though, definitely a war classic.

The 1953 movie suffered from some technical issues, such as using surplus Span-Am War equipment.
Stephen Crane never served a day in the Army or battle.
Yet, somehow, this story still approaches perfection.

I wrote an essay on Badge comparing the experience of the Me to the experiences of Me in The Things They Carried, noting that Tim O'Brien served in Vietnam while Crane never went to war. Don't know if the essay was any good, but I had a good time researching for it.

What's a "Me"?

So far over the years for some unknown reason I have managed to collect 10 different versions of it, including a copy from 1896 along with 3 comic book versions.

The story of Henry Fleming doesn't end with the Red Badge of Courage. Crane wrote another story about Henry in a short story (all 4 pages) called 'The Veteran'. This can be found it in a book titled 'The Little Regiment and other Civil War Stories'. A version of Red Badge of Courage I purchased recently has it included at the end of the book.

Cheers,

Barry

When I was a boy, first getting interested in the ACW, my older brother had a summer job in the library and he steered me to a series of novels about the CW written for boys (and girls "of the better sort" as HG Wells called them). They were written c. 1900 and there was a whole series. They followed 2 fictitious brothers from Kentucky (I was born in KY), one who joined the Union army, in the West, and one who joined the Confederate army, in the East. So that between them they saw all the major battles, usually from the winning side. Years later I found one volume of the series in a used bookstore and got it for my son, who also enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I can't remember the author's name. Ring a bell with anyone?