Book Review: The Red Badge of Courage

I am pretty confident that I should have read The Red Badge of Courage much earlier in my life. However, if I read it in high school, I don’t remember it. Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage in 1894, nearly thirty years after the Civil War. Additionally, Crane did not take part in the war. Nonetheless, Crane was able to pull together a moving story that touched on so many different emotions and thoughts a soldier may have experienced.

The Red Badge of Courage focused on the story of Henry Fleming. Fleming is eighteen years old and has volunteered to be part of the Union Army during the Civil War. His enlistment is against his mother’s wishes, however, Fleming is swept up in the romantic notion of war. For some reason, people of that time and even those in the two great wars had an unrealistic view of what warfare was about. Unfortunately, in every case, they came to understand the reality of the horrors.

Crane did a good job highlighting these horrors with an intimate look from someone who would be on the front line.

A couple of the things Crane captured well were the levels of boredom soldiers experience while in garrison or waiting to be moved forward and the impact of the rumor mill. Soldiers always want to know what is happening and are often subjected to constant rumors.

Crane also tapped into the self-talk of the soldier. In Fleming’s case, Fleming was concerned about whether he would fight valiantly in combat. Everyone seemed to wonder whether they would stay and fight or run. These are things that I have wondered about while I served. I am confident I would do my duty upon the initial attack but I am not sure how I would respond under a prolong fierce attack. I don’t think one ever knows until the moment.

Another interesting aspect discussed in the book was the care of the dead, sick, and wounded. I say this was interesting because my wife and I had an opportunity to visit the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD. This is where modern-day triage and combat medicine originated. To see it in person and to have it described in the book helped to bring it to life.

The language of The Red Badge of Courage was expectedly more challenging than current works of fiction. As I have noted before, every 50 years seems to increase the language level. This book was no exception. Crane was very descriptive of his scenes and characters. His use of dialogue was in the same style of Mark Twain. One could get a sense of the character being described.

In the end, Crane was able to show us the horrors of war. I felt like I was in Fleming’s shoes as he responded to the situations he experienced. For someone who was not even born yet, Crane ably captured a horrific period of time. I definitely enjoyed The Red Badge of Courage.

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