Chapter 1 Summary:

As The Red Badge of Courage opens, we do not know precisely where we are or whom we are watching. As the fog clears gradually, we see a part of the Union army upon a riverbank. Rumors are flying among the troops about their own movement. One soldier, named Jim but always referred to by his tall height, tells his comrades that he has heard, through several sources, that they will be on the move on the next day. Arguments break out between the soldiers whether this rumor is true.

The attention then shifts to another private named Henry. The narrator rarely refers to him by his first name, rather as "the youth" or "the young soldier." He sits in his tent and thinks about the possibility of finally going into battle. He had before joining the army dreamed of grand battles that "thrilled him with their sweep and fire"; and he seems to desire a "Greeklike" or "Homeric" struggle. His mother had discouraged him from joining, saying "'Henry, don't you be a fool.'" He enlists anyway, and upon learning so his mother only cries two tears and says, "The Lord's will be done, Henry."

However, when Henry finally leaves, his mother does not try to convince him to be a hero, as he expected. Instead of an impassioned, beautiful scene, his mother gives him some simple advice. She tells him to be careful and not try to beat the entire rebel army himself and not to fall in with a bad group of soldiers. Then she adds: "I don't know what else to tell yeh, Henry, excepting that yeh must never do no shirking, child, on my account. If so be a time comes when yeh have to be kilt or do a mean thing, why, Henry, don't think of anything Œcept what's rightŠ."

He leaves his mother, who cries softly as he goes, and joins his comrades on the way to Washington. Along the way, they are fed at every station, treated almost like heroes just for joining the fight. Then they train and drill often. Yet they have not fought in battle. Henry does not know what to think of battle. He is sure it will not be a Greeklike struggle. The veterans he meet claim that the rebels are starving and tattered, but these same veterans taunt the new recruits, so Henry is unsure whether to trust them either.

Most of all, Henry is concerned that he will run when he finally faces a conflict. He wants to be a hero, but his fears nag at him, making him doubt his own courage and mettle as he lies in his tent. Jim, the tall soldier, and another soldier, "the loud soldier," both come in Henry's tent, still arguing about the rumor. Jim offers both of them evidence that they are about to move out‹the cavalry have moved out. Henry nervously asks Jim how he thinks their regiment will do and gets the vague answer that they will do well, probably. Henry then asks if he thinks any of them will run when faced with a fight. Jim is confident that they will fight, because they are from good stock; however, there is no way to tell‹they have not been under fire yet. Henry finally asks Jim if he would run from the battle. Jim speculates that he might, especially if a whole group began to run. "But if everybody was a-standing and a-fighting, why, I'd stand and fight," he adds. These words comfort Henry as the first chapter ends.

Chapter 1 Analysis:

Stephen Crane begins a new course of realism in The Red Badge of Courage. Many critics point to him as one of the first American authors of a modern style, and The Red Badge as a fine example of this. The novel is built on a coming-of-age theme, and many of its descriptive elements, such as its concentration on nature and character's actions, are in the realist style, most popularized in America by William Dean Howells and Frank Norris. However, Crane's style in this book has some slight differences from earlier styles. The narrator does not name the characters. In the first chapter, we discover the names of Henry and Jim only through their dialogue with other characters. The narrator only refers to them by descriptors‹"the tall soldier" in Jim's case and, most importantly, "the young soldier" in Henry's case.

Calling Henry "the youth" is the most important indicator that this novel is about his maturity. In this first chapter, he is unproven even to himself. Before enlisting, Henry's thoughts of war and battle are those of valiant struggles for life and death; the possibility of cowardice does not arise in his initial thoughts of battle. However, his mother's speech leaves much more room for interpreting his own future struggles. Rather than give him the advice of the Spartans of ancient Greece to "return carrying your shield or on top of it" (meaning either victorious or killed in combat, not having dropped it fleeing), his mother tells him that, when faced with a situation of kill or be killed, he has to do what he thinks is right, and only that. This is a critical moment in the plot of the book. Henry's actions when facing battle are unknown, even to him. His convictions were strong enough to join the army. Yet these were not because of patriotism or a will to simply fight; the narrator shows Henry to be fantasizing of heroic deeds instead. His mother's farewell speech shows that no one, not even Henry or the narrator, is sure what he will do when faced with battle. Even Jim's answers, while they calm Henry's fears, still are so vague that they do not lead to any concrete predictions for their future actions in battle.

Yet Crane has written into this novel a way to tell certain characteristics even without explicit direction from the narrator‹the use of color metaphors. The title itself is a color metaphor. "The red badge of courage" could refer to an actual award given for heroism; yet it surely refers to a wound from battle. The "red badge" shows your valiancy by proving you were bold and brave enough to fight until wounded. However, as we see in the first chapter with the mother's speech, this courage is not guaranteed. Indeed, every man killed in battle would have a red badge, and still be dead.

Crane uses color metaphors to imply certain meanings throughout the book. An example of this in the first chapter is Henry's mother's discouragement is described as throwing a "yellow light upon the color of his ambitions." The use of yellow here is deliberate; it refers to cowardice or "being yellow." Henry somehow sees denying his heroic dreams as necessarily falling to cowardice, as this metaphor shows.

As the first chapter ends, we have been introduced to the characters, but also shown that they are even uncertain of whom they are and how they will act. Developments come in later chapters.

Chapter 2 Summary:

Upon rising the next day, the soldiers discover that the rumor is not true and they are not moving out, as Jim Conklin, the tall soldier, had said. For Henry Fleming, this is not a relief. His dilemma of whether or not he will run in battle is still present. Without a battle to test it, he has no idea if he will be courageous or cowardly. He begins to compare himself with other soldiers in and attempt to get some confidence. He asks several soldiers, in unquoted dialogue, certain questions trying to see if they have similar doubts and fears as he does; and he gets little confirmation of his anxieties in reply. His own feelings about his comrades are ambivalent. Sometimes he thinks them heroes. Sometimes he feels that they are all secretly scared.

One morning, he finds himself in the ranks. His regiment is on the move. The early morning is full of colors‹the men's uniforms glow purple, red eyes peer from across the river, and the sun slowly rises yellow in the east. The soldiers return to the validity of the rumors they heard the day before, especially when they turn a hill and find they are no longer along the river. Jim, the tall soldier, praises his powers of perception; others argue with him. Henry takes no part in these discussions. He is still despondent and sad. He keeps to himself, his feelings still ambivalent.

The rest of the soldiers seem to be rather jolly. A certain fat soldier attempts to steal a horse from a house. Its owner, a young woman, comes out to save it. The rest of the regiment jeers and yells at the fat soldier. He is beaten away from the horse and flees back into the soldiers, peppered with catcalls from his fellow troops.

At night, the men pitch camp. Henry Fleming lies in the grass, thinking. He wishes more than anything to be back at home, with its barn and fields. He remembers his milk cows, which caused him so much grief previously, with a bit of joy and nostalgia. He tells himself that he is not fit to be a soldier, and he feels quite different from those soldiers around him whom still seem happy and carefree.

The loud soldier, who we learn is named Wilson, come up to Henry, spouting exciting, confident statements about the upcoming battle. "We'll lick Œem good!" he repeats. His joy at the upcoming battle irritates Henry, who says, bitterly, that Wilson must think he will do great things. Wilson replies that he does not know if he will do great things, but he will fight "like thunder." Henry then challenges Wilson, saying that he may well run when the battle comes, and that he is not the bravest person in the world. Wilson replies coolly that he never said he was, just that he will give his share of the fighting. Then he tells Henry he talks "as if you thought you was Napoleon Bonaparte." Henry goes in his tent and hears the sound of card games outside. Exhausted from his ruminating, he falls asleep.

Chapter 2 Analysis:

This chapter of The Red Badge of Courage is dominated by Henry's mixed feelings about the upcoming battle. He goes back and forth in thoughts about himself and his fellow soldiers. One moment, he feels that he and they will both fight like brave heroes. The next, he is sure that he is not meant to be a soldier and neither are his companions. If they seem upbeat and happy, they are hiding a deep fear.

It does not matter at this point which one of these interpretations about the men is correct. It is Henry himself who is most important and who the novel follows closely. Because of this, his own feelings of fear and bravery and (above all) uncertainty dominate and tint the perception of all things in this chapter.

For instance, returning to the color metaphors, when they arise, they come grouped together. The best example of this is the description of the regiment moving out for the first time. Their uniforms are not the blue of melancholy and deep thought; they are purple. In the next sentence, "red eyes" of the enemy peer at them from across the river. In the east, the yellow of the sun appears, silhouetting a colonel on a horse, making him appear solid black.

These colors can be interpreted as having certain meanings. Eyes that are red seem more violent and potentially harmful. The yellow may still represent cowardice; but the color is from the sun, a far more courageous and proud symbol. The black of the colonel can be any number of things‹fear of the unknown, a death symbol, a figure of authority like a judge. Most important though is not the particular meanings of these color metaphors but that they appear so rapidly one right after another. They mirror Henry's ambivalence. All these emotions, represented by distinct colors, are embedded in this one scene of the regiment moving out.

Later that night, most of the colors are gone, washed out by darkness. Still, Henry broods. His conversation with Wilson does not help his mood much. What it does reveal is, despite outward appearances, Wilson seems to have made a certain peace with the unknown. He knows not what will happen exactly, just that he will try his best. His words to Henry echo his mother's farewell speech and Jim Conklin's responses to his questions.

The color that does appear in small splashes in this scene is red, the red of the fires. This suggests what we are soon to discover‹that a battle is eminent.

Chapter 3 Summary:

The regiment marches for another two days, picking up their pace on the last day. The men become tired, hot, and cranky. They begin to leave some of their supplies behind, trying to lighten their load. They move more fleet and quickly, like veterans. Yet they still do not have the look of veterans. Their uniforms are too bright and new.

One morning, however, Henry, the youth, is kicked awake by the tall soldier, Jim. The men are suddenly running in fog. They hear the distant sounds of firing. Regiments and other men become gradually visible, as the sun rises and the fog begins to melt away. The regiment eventually climbs a hill. As they get to its crest, Henry expects to see a battle scene.

Below a skirmish is in progress. There are lines of fighters spread across the field, and a flag flutters. The skirmishers melt into the scene only to appear later on. Henry is engrossed, trying to observe everything. His own regiment is still in a woody area. They eventually pass the body of a dead soldier. His uniform is yellow-brown and his shoe soles are paper-thin. This enraptures Henry too, wanting to walk around and around the body and stare at it.

Henry continues to think as the regiment marches. He feels threatened by the landscape. He sees it as full of fierce-eyed enemies. All of a sudden, he is full of distrust of his commanders. He is sure they have led the men into a trap. He must get out; he must be the sole eyes and ears aware of this danger.

The overall mood of the troops is now very serious. They are facing a true test of their mettle very soon, and it affects them in different ways. Primarily, though, the untried men are quiet and absorbed, waiting to face war finally. They are ordered to dig in. Then they are ordered to pull back.

The soldiers become annoyed, asking why they were marched this much if they are not going to face the enemy. They are then moved to another position, then another. The anticipation starts to irk Henry, who wants to return to camp or go in a battle, one or the other. The men eat their lunches and talk about their irritation. The loud soldier, Wilson, and the tall soldier, Jim, argue more about whether or not they are truly eager to fight.

In the afternoon, the regiment goes over the land they took, the same land Henry looked at that morning. It no longer threatens the youth; he feels familiar with it. However, he keeps changing his mind about the upcoming battle. He begins to think that it is just better to be killed directly and end his troubles. Out of the corner of his eye, death seems like rest and appreciation, much better than the present circumstances.

As gray smoke rises above the regiment, Wilson lays his hand on Henry's shoulder and says that, with a trembling lip, that this will be his first and last battle. He just has a feeling about it. He gives Henry a packet of letters to send to his family and then, crying slightly, turns away.

Chapter 3 Analysis:

The images of landscape and color are brought to bear in a very wide fashion in this chapter. After more marching and chatting, Henry and the regiment find themselves on a hill overlooking a battle. Their view is from afar. They do not get to experience it as direct participants and are therefore detached from the actual experience of battle (as we are to find in later chapters, this experience looks and feels quite different from this first view).

Henry's feelings remain ambivalent and shifting. He almost always has some opinion or thought about battle, but they change often. In this chapter, they change at least three times, from fear and dread upon seeing the battle, to anticipation of an actual fight, to frustration when the men are being withdrawn. The colors of this chapter do follow the previous pattern of relating to Henry's shifting feelings. Gold, orange, and red colors flash in this chapter.

Yet, there is an important shift of colors in this chapter towards gray and silver. These two colors have particular historical references to the Civil War. Silver refers to the metal of the troops' rifles, bayonets, and swords. More important, gray was the color of the uniform of the Rebel army. Much like the blue of the Union army uniforms often relates to Henry's melancholy and brooding, the gray refers to the southerners' uniforms, but symbolizes the unknown of battle. The blue Union soldiers, who have been thinking about the implications of battle for days, are now faced with the enemy, both in the metaphor of the "blood-swollen god" of war and the Rebel army. The gray of smoke and fog symbolizes this unknown; and in this chapter, Henry gets closer and closer to it. He believes it to be red, but all he can see now is gray.

Henry's manner begins to become more outward in this chapter as well. This will come to bear later in the book, but he starts to act less and less in his head. This is not through his doing. Wilson gives him his packet without comment of any intelligible sort from Henry. This shows a shift in Henry's interactions. The battle is getting closer and closer. It will finally stop to exist only as postulations in Henry Fleming's head.

Chapter Four Summary:

The new regiment is now halted just inside a grove of trees, facing out into a field covered in smoke. They talk about rumors and reports from battles, who has lost what and moved where. As always, there is a disagreement about what has actually happened, this time to a Union battery. There is talk about brave, stubborn soldiers.

Then the noise and altercation in the field in front of them grows louder, and the new troops grow silent. The Union troops in the field of smoke begin to run. A shell screams overhead the new regiment, landing in the grove and throwing up a shower of pine needles. Bullets begin to fly towards them as well. The lieutenant of the youth's company is then shot in the hand. He curses as if he had hit his finger with a hammer, which sounds quite funny to the rest of the troops. Curiously, the lieutenant holds his wound away from his uniform so as not to stain it.

Then the Union troops in the field begin to run away. The battle flag falls. The veteran regiments flanking the new troops catcall and jeer the fleeing men. Henry Fleming's regiment is dumbstruck with horror; before they fight, they have just witnessed a regiment's defeat. The officers try to get the running men to stop, using their swords, fists, and cursing to keep them back. They rage with fury at the retreating regiment. The commander of that brigade gallops about on his horse, weeping. He looks like "a man who has come from bed to go to a fire." The fleeing troops pay no attention to any of these officers as they run.

This makes Henry sure he will run. Seeing the "mad current" of retreat swallow up the men's conscience, he is sure that he too will be driven wild and panic with battle. Yet, at the chapter ends, Henry resolves that now is the time he must see the "monster" that made them run, regardless if he runs himself.

Chapter 4 Analysis:

The men still talk and gossip at the beginning of this chapter. They dig in at the edge of a forest facing an open field. A regiment in front of them is already engaging the enemy.

Henry and his regiment do not see the battle clearly; they see it in a haze. This shows their lack of knowledge. The haze and gray colors represent the unknown of battle. Bullets and cannon shells come screeching out of this haze. When one of these shells hits the lieutenant of Henry's company, note that he has no desire to play up his wounds. He holds the wound away from him, not wanting to get blood on his uniform, not wanting red to mingle with the blue. This stands in marked contrast to some of Henry's musings. Redness to this officer is not a badge. He got his wound almost by accident. He does not want to show others proof of this wound‹it is not an authentic "badge" from battle.

As the men watch the haze more, men start to run out of it. The defeated regiment runs through the young troops. The "blue line" only watches them go. The officers try to stop their flight, but the other troops only watch. They are still "blue" and considering an outside action. War, though so close to them, has still not touched them. Though Henry can observe what "the struggle in the smoke" has done to other men (made them wild and flow like a flood), he can still only think about this. He is resolved to view this beast of battle, and only that he might run. He still does not know. He will find out in the next chapter.

Chapter 5 Summary:

The waiting makes Henry think of his home and all its images. Suddenly, someone cries, "Here they come!" Beyond the smoke, a brown swarm of men begins running down the hill. A general comes up on his horse, yelling to a colonel that the men have to hold them back. Henry sees the colonel regarding his men with resentment after the general gallops away.

The captain of Henry's company coaxes the troops to reserve their fire and not shoot wildly. Henry sweats out of pure nervousness. The fight is about to begin. Before he himself is ready or even consciously decides, he lowers his rifle and fires the first shot of the battle. Henry then loses concern for himself, and becomes "not a man but a member." Whatever he was part of, it was in a critical state; and he was part of its desire. What it did then was blast loudly. The noise of the firing reassures Henry in a certain way.

The furious haste and noise make the atmosphere even more confusing‹sweat blisters, his eyes are hot, and the blasts burn in his ears. He is not fighting the enemy men so much as the swirling battle phantoms that surround him. He hears men speak around him as if he were sleeping.

No one has a heroic pose. They are moving as fast as they can, reloading and then firing almost at random in the smoke in front of them. The lieutenant of the company encounters a soldier fleeing in terror and beats him back into the ranks. Men occasionally drop from being hit.

Eventually the firing recedes, and the men begin to rejoice. They have driven back the enemy. They attempt to recollect themselves. It takes Henry some moment to come back to his senses. He realizes the grime and smoke makes him choke. He looks at the men still standing and simply enjoys being able to look around. On the ground there lay a few contorted bodies. A battery still throws shells over the troops towards the enemy. Henry looks around and takes in the whole scene, moving horses, wounded men, and flags. Henry feels these flags look like beautiful birds that have lasted a storm. Then he looks and notices the beautiful blue of the sky.

Chapter 5 Analysis:

Finally, Henry sees a battle in this chapter. The enemy troops come rushing out of the grayness and smoke in front of his regiment. His doubts still live on in his head, until he actually begins to fire. The change from Henry's head to Henry's communal action, first suggested by Wilson's package in chapter three, comes out fully here. Henry is no longer aware of himself as a person. He acts instead as a member of some greater force.

However, the narrator does not describe exactly what this body is. Rather than one particular thing, he gives a list: regiment, army, cause, and country. It does not matter what exactly it is. He just feels the panic of self-preservation. Yet, it is important that the "self" is a group or collective of some sort. Up until now, most of what we have followed has been Henry's thoughts. He has largely lived in his own head. Now, he is not the only person he is concerned of. There are greater organisms that he is a part of, and he fights for their preservation as much as his.

Interestingly, this means that the troops in Henry's regiment, who have been looking at so much smoke and gray, must create it themselves. The smoke that clouds their vision is as more from their own rifles as the enemy's. While he fights more against "swirling battle phantoms" than other men, Henry is creating the smoke of battle and the smoke of uncertainty himself, along with the other troops. The organism he is a part of, which we cannot describe exactly, is also covered with the same smoke of mystery and unknowing. Henry only knows how to act, not how to think.

This is apparent when Henry finally stops fighting. He fired and reloaded with a furious, mechanical speed. Only when the battle is over does he realize how the smoke chokes him. He sees the cannon shoot behind him, the corpses on the ground, and the blue of the sky. The world has become a picture again, not a world of action. However, something is changed. "Blue" here does not stand for the men's uniform or Henry's brooding; it is that of a blue sky, of optimism and tranquility. It is this peacefulness of Nature that Henry feels as the chapter closes.

Chapter Six Summary:

As Henry becomes more and more aware, he is relieved. The trial has been passed and the difficulties of war have been vanquished. He feels good about himself. He and the other men exchange pleasantries about the weather and shake hands.

But this good feeling does not last for long‹the enemy attacks again. Masses of troops begin to swell out of the grove on the opposite side of the field. Shells from enemy cannon begin to explode in the grass and trees. The glow fades from the men's eyes. They complain about not having replacements; they groan about aching joints.

Henry is convinced that this is a mistake; and the advancing troops will stop, apologize, and turn around. He is wrong. The battle starts again as the Union troops open fire on the field. Henry, the youth, begins to quiver. He feels numb. He is convinced that his foes are machines of steel.

He stops firing to peer through the smoke. All he can see is faint views of the ground, covered with men, running like imps and yelling. He waits horrified, feeling as if he could shut his eyes and be eaten.

A man near him, who had been working on his rifle, suddenly stops and runs screaming. Others begin to run. Henry then yells with fright, swings about, and charges for the rear. He loses his rifle and cap, and his open coat sways in the breeze as he runs. He loses all direction of safety.

The lieutenant suddenly jumps, red-faced, in front of Henry, attempting to keep him there. He swings with his sword. Henry simply continues to run blindly. He falls a few times. As he runs, he sees others running along side him and hears running behind him. He is convinced the regiment is fleeing, chased by the crashing shells.

He continues to run up to the Union battery. Cannon shots go overhead as he speeds through them. The men working the guns seem calm and collected, unaware of their impending doom. They stand on a smoke-wreathed hill. Henry feels pity for the poor, unaware fools as he runs. He sees other troops running into battle. Henry is filled with wonder at these fools, speeding to feed the war god.

He runs so far he comes up to a hill where the general and his staff are standing on their horses. Henry considers telling him of the carnage and terror. He also considers thrashing him for his poor judgment and behavior. How could he stay still while such destruction was going on?

The general then calls on an assistant to direct a brigade to send a regiment to the center, where Henry was, for it is in danger of breaking. The assistant returns in a moment with news that the regiment has held. Henry's feeling that doom was eminent turned out not to be true. The general jostles excitedly on his horse.

Chapter 6 Analysis:

As Henry become more and more aware after the battle, he and his fellow soldiers experience a reprieve. They believe that the battle is over; their trials have passed. Yet, when the Rebel army comes again, they must get up and recreate the grayness and clouds of smoke again.

Henry loses himself again, but this time not in a way that leads him to fight. He feels that he is about to be eaten by "a red and green monster"‹the monster of war and death, which these two colors represent. As men around him begin to flee, Henry loses his nerve and runs in terror.

As he runs, he is no longer engaged in the battle at all. As soon as he turns, all the things he sees are not part of some whole that he is one of, as was in the previous chapter when the battle began. All the things he sees‹the lieutenant, the battery, the general‹are now not part of him. He assumes that he is above them all. It is Henry's superior observation and senses that lead him to flee the battle scene. All those who stay are fools who will soon be devoured by that same red and green monster that Henry fled. He even goes as far to feel that the general of the troops is a fool who knows not what he is doing. They are all machines or fools, not higher beings like he.

To match this, the images we get are mostly peripheral. This follows Henry's vision. He does not stop until he reaches the general. He has thoughts about the men and the battery, for example. Yet for the most part, he does not pay attention to them. Their images are fleeting, vague senses of men running. The most fleeting image, which we never actually see, is that red and green monster in pursuit of Henry. He is convinced he hears it behind him as he runs. However, he is wrong about impending doom. His regiment held their ground. He does not find this until he stops running, and his vision is still. His reaction to this discovery begins in the next chapter.

Chapter 7 Summary:

Henry recoils in horror upon hearing that his regiment is victorious. He looks in the direction of the battle and sees a yellow fog along the treetops. He feels wronged. He fled, he tells himself, because annihilation was approaching. As a little piece of the army, he did a good job in saving himself. He thinks his actions to be wise, given the situation.

He thinks of his comrades, dressed in blue. They had won. The thought makes him bitter. He, the enlightened one, had fled because of his greater perception. They would not see it like that, however. He thinks about the derisions and insults he will have to bear upon returning to his regiment. He pities himself, as if an injustice against him was committed.

The guilt of having run away overwhelms Henry. He plods along, his brain in a fit of agony and despair. He goes into a thick wood, trying to hide himself. The underbrush is thick, and he travels slowly. He keeps going and going into the darkness. Soon the sound of the guns is faint. He notices more things of the forest‹the sun, insects, and birds. Nature seems to not hear the rumble of death.

Henry is relieved and relaxed by the landscape. It carries a sense of peace. He throws a pine cone at a squirrel, who runs away in fear. This also settles Henry's mind. The squirrel did not stand still in front of the thrown object; it ran away, trying to preserve itself.

Henry continues walking until he gets to a swamp. The sounds of the battle are barely audible. He goes into a small clearing with light streaming down from above, as in a church. What he sees horrifies him. A corpse sits against a tree in front of him. The uniform was blue, but had faded to green. His eyes were dull and looked like those of a dead fish. His mouth hung open, and small ants ran across his face.

Henry shrieks but stands still, looking at it for a long time. Then, the youth put one hand behind him and backed away slowly. As he goes away, he still faces the corpse, afraid that if he turns on it, it will chase him stealthily. As he goes through the branches, he gets small suggestions to touch the corpse. The thought makes him shudder. At last he turns around and runs, thinking of the sight of small ants. After a bit, he pauses, imagining a voice coming from the dead man's throat and yelling at him. Silence dominates the small chapel of the forest.

Chapter 7 Analysis:

Henry's reaction to finding his perceptions of impending doom were incorrect is a similar mix of emotions that we saw before. Though they are now more intense. He is no long postulating on what may one day happen. He has run from the battle. And he must now figure out how to interpret his own feelings.

At first he feels as if he has been caught committing a crime. He then looks towards the battlefield. Above the forest where he was fighting, he sees a yellow fog. This is an incredibly important metaphor. The color of cowardice, yellow, covers his view of the past battle and his actions. Though he moves almost instantly to thoughts of his superior intelligence justifying his running, he is in no way "sagacious" as he believes. He is still very young. He panicked during battle and ran. The yellow fog represents an overlying emotion to the battle and Henry's thoughts about it.

The reason his actions can be seen as cowardice is not because he ran trying to preserve himself. He ran because he was convinced that his regiment was about to be annihilated. Because this is not true, he must reorganize his own thoughts about what he just did. To do this, he walks into a different wood, trying to get away from the battle.

In the forest, the sounds of the battle grow quiet. His "return to Nature" is somewhat akin to Thoreau's in Walden. He attempts to take lessons from nature in some way. Yet, what he is doing is not learning from nature, but rather finding some kind of justification for his actions. When he muses on the squirrel running from his thrown pinecone and how it somehow explains his running from danger, he is only explaining a situation that has already happened. The interpretation is not valid. Nature is not a place of peace, as he believes. It can be, for the forest is quiet. Yet, his encounter with the corpse proves it is not. The uniform, which used to be the blue of the Union army, has faded to green, the same color as the dragon from which he fled during battle. In this place of peace, Henry meets that same green animal of death.

He is once again filled with horror. He runs from the green-colored corpse, but in a different way than when he fled the green monster of battle. He tries to perceive the corpse as he leaves. He first sneaks away backwards, watching the body to make sure it will not rise up again. When he finally turns and runs, he is not thinking of a metaphor, of the force of battle; he is thinking of the one corpse, with its flesh and eyes. He does imagine things that are not there, like the corpse's voice. Yet even one person by himself away from the battle must face some form of death. He could not get away from this, even though he tried.

Chapter 8 Summary:

Henry continues on through the forest. He hears loud crashes and roars through the darkening sky. It seems as if the world is being torn. Henry's mind is going in all directions at once. He feels that the two armies are going at each other in a panther-like fashion. He then runs, ironically, in the direction of the battle, more two witness the collision of the armies than to participate.

As he runs, the forest becomes silent and still. Henry feels that the fight he had fled from was not a struggle, but instead a small skirmish. He doubts that he has seen a real battle. He feels silly for having taken the situation so seriously. He was not carving his name in the tablet of history; it would not even garner a headline in a newspaper. However, he feels that is just fine, otherwise every soldier would run in battle to save himself.

The noises still describe a large battle. The brambles of the forest grab him as he runs. Eventually he sees long gray walls of the battle lines. He stands awestruck of the fight. He then proceeds along his way. The complexity of the fight fascinates him. He wants to go close and see it make corpses.

He climbs a fence. Five corpses lie on the other side in a road. He scampers away, afraid to disturb them. He soon encounters a procession of wounded soldiers making their way down the road. They are cursing and moaning. One with a wound in his foot hops and laughs hysterically. One swears he has been shot because of the general's mismanagement. Another sings nonsense lyrics to old nursery rhymes. They hang and move dragging their limbs. A wounded officer comes up, demanding that they make way. They do so with irritation, making short remarks as he passes by.

A tattered soldier, wounded in his head and arm, comes up to the youth. He wants to converse about the battle. Henry can barely say anything as the man babbles on. Soon the tattered man asks him where he has been hit. The question makes Henry panic. Embarrassed, he stutters to the man; then he bends his head away and picks at his uniform.

Chapter 8 Analysis:

"A crimson roar from the distance" breaks the tranquility of the forest. This color signifies war and conflict once again. Yet, what truly interrupts the peace, more than the fighting itself, is its gruesome outcomes. Henry had a glance of this in the previous chapter, when encountering the corpse in the forest. Soon he will see the effects of the war on the bodies of men.

He can see the gray of battle from where he stands. He is long away from the grayness; but upon the road, he soon sees men wounded from that battle from which he fled. They are bloodstained, with both new and old blood, looking red and black. Between battle and the dead are these men. They have the marks of war obviously upon them, and it turns them into walking specters. Henry has been imagining these ghosts of battle for a long time. Now he sees and interacts with them. They are so unlike the real living as soldiers that they do not defer quietly to an officer, and even insult him, something no real soldier would do.

One tattered soldier approaches him in all this. What is interesting about this man is the amount he speaks. Henry, so caught up in his own considerations, musings, and emotions, cannot think of a thing to say, even when asked direct questions. This man has facility of language, and uses it thoroughly. Henry has not yet mastered it, having fled from his battle. He cannot speak about it or his wounds, for he knows nothing about them. In this context, this tattered man is full of words. He knows both about battle and wound. Therefore, his direct questions cut Henry to the quick. They show his immaturity and cowardice, though they do so without malice. Henry cannot process these and, like before when faced with an unknown, runs away.

Chapter 9 Summary:

Henry, the youth, falls back in the procession of wounded men in order to get away from the tattered soldier. Every one around him is wounded and bleeding. He perceives these men to be happy. He wishes now that he too had a red badge of courage.

One soldier by his side looks like a specter. He moves stiff and gangly, and if looking for his grave. Henry looks and realized who it is‹Jim Conklin, the tall soldier. Jim holds out his hand to shake; it is a gory combination of red new blood and black old blood. Jim first tells Henry that he was worried the youth had been killed. He then tells him the obvious, that he's been shot.

Henry tries to help the tall soldier along the way. The other soldiers are preoccupied in their own wounds. Suddenly, along their march, the tall soldier is overcome by a terror. His face turns into a "gray paste." Jim then tells Henry he is afraid of being overrun by an artillery wagon as it speeds down the road. Henry swears to his friend that he will take care of him. He begins to sob.

Jim, however, forgets those fears and then goes forward steadily. He keeps repeating "leave me be‹leave me beŠ" Henry must follow him. He must lead Jim out of the road, because a battery of cannon is coming down the road, threatening to run them over.

Henry directs Jim to the fields. He turns to watch the guns go by, then hears a cry from the tattered soldier that Jim is running. Henry turns to see his friend running clumsily through the field. The youth and the tattered soldier run in pursuit. They catch up to him, and Henry implores Jim to stop moving and rest. Jim can only repeat to leave him alone. He lurches forward, with Henry and the tattered soldier following slowly.

Then Jim pauses. His chest heaves. Henry calls after him; Jim just insists he should leave him alone. There is another silence. Then Jim stiffens. His legs shake and his arms flail slightly. He stretches upward and then falls to the ground, dead. Henry watches this display in horror and sadness. He rushes up to Jim, whose mouth is frozen open, blue-lipped, in a smile. Henry turns towards the battlefield with rage, as if he were to deliver a speech. All he can say is "Hell‹" as the red sun sits on the horizon.

Chapter 9 Analysis:

The beginning of this chapter stands out because of its specific reference to a "red badge of courage." The youth wishes he actually had a wound, which would show his bravery in the face of the terrors and struggles of battle. However, he sees the effects of these red badges in an upfront way when confronted with the spectral figure of Jim Conklin. The tall soldier has been wounded twice. The badges he carries prevent him from walking and thinking clearly.

Furthermore as they walk together, the gray fear and unknown is still with Jim, despite his wounds. His face turns gray as he tells Henry that he fears being trampled to death by the speeding artillery carts. This shows that the phantoms of battle and death, the gray unknown, do not escape even those who have a red badge of courage.

Henry, though he finally wants to act for the first time since the battle, cannot do anything. Jim will not let him even touch him. Besides, death is so close for Jim that there is nothing the youth can do. This frustration and anger at seeing his friend die makes Henry weep so much, that he cannot talk. Henry's words and thoughts are finally halted. He is no longer thinking now. Remember that he was still interpreting the images he saw as the fled from battle; now, he can do little but cry.

After Jim dies and Henry rushes up to his body, we see a transition from blue to red. The flap of Jim's uniform falls open, showing his side, which looks "as if it has been chewed by wolves." The blue musings of Henry have now transformed into a red reality. Wounds are not just outward marks; they have consequences on the body. While he may have desired to be seen with a badge of courage, Henry now realizes that these marks can lead to death.

Henry, still a youth, mistakenly calls this situation "hell" as the red sun sinks in the horizon. The red suggests this vision; and yet, while it may resemble his views of hell, he has not yet seen hell or even a battle to its conclusion. His views about red badges and war will undergo even more changes as the book moves on.

Chapter 10 Summary:

The tattered man and the youth can merely stand in awe of Jim's final struggle. Henry is full of grief, but has been rendered speechless. The tattered man tells him to not worry so much about the dead; they should look out "for number one." As he says this, he too looks as if he is about to fall over. Henry is very much afraid that this man will be dead soon. The soldier insists however they he will not, and cannot, die. He then tells stories of two soldiers. One, named Tom Jamison, was his friend from home. This man informed him during battle that he had in fact been shot. The other was a man who was shot in the head, replied (when asked) that he was fine, and then collapsed dead.

He then asks the youth again where his wound is. Henry becomes exasperated and replies that the tattered man should leave him alone. He was enraged at him for making him feel shame. The tattered man is slightly put off and says that is was not his intention to bother anyone.

Henry suddenly, after thinking to himself, turns to the man and says, "Good-by." The man gapes after him and asks where he is going. The youth can see that this man is starting to act animal-like and dumb. He sputters after Henry, calling him Tom Jamison, asking him where he is going. Henry merely points in a direction and says, "over there." The tattered man just sputters after him to not leave with such a bad wound. His sentences are broken and stuttered. Henry simply walks away. As he goes he turns and sees the tattered man wandering about in the field helpless.

At this moment, Henry wishes that he were dead. He believes that he envies the corpses that lay in the field and on the leaves of the forest. The questions of the man were like knife stabs to the youth. He feels that he cannot keep his crimes concealed; one of these arrow-like questions that flew through the air was bound to hit him. He could not defend himself against this.

Chapter 10 Analysis:

Henry still remains speechless, unable to act as this chapter opens. His companion, the tattered soldier, speaks as much as anyone in this book has up to this point. The chapter is dominated with his words. He can speak easily and freely. Because of his wounds, he feels woozy and strange; and he rambles throughout the chapter.

Henry, on the other hand, barely says anything. He has just witnessed his friend from home die and was unable to prevent it. He is in a line of wounded men, himself not wounded and in fact having fled from a battle, which his regiment won. Unlike the tattered man, he is not free to talk. He cannot interact with the tattered man or even like him. His actions and experience are totally different. And given the recent circumstances, he cannot feel like the tattered man. Therefore, he does not speak.

What he does do is walk. In doing so, Henry finally detaches himself from the wounded and their "red badges." Not having one, he cannot tell the tattered man where he is hit. The shame from this fundamental realization makes him finally leave the scene.

The tattered man, however, feels that the youth is wounded and yet does not know it. He calls after him, in his confused way, to stop and not go. "It ain't right," he says, for Henry to just walk away. Yet Henry must. He does not belong to these people, who bring "ghosts of shame" into his mind. Furthermore, these men, though they have red badges of courage, are near to death. This fact dominates the scene. Henry fled battle to save himself. Though he wants some mark of courage for himself, this is not the procession he should be in. Therefore, he flees the stinging questions of the tattered man. Now he runs toward the battle, instead of away from it.

Chapter 11 Summary:

Henry continues across the field. He rounds a hill and is encounter by a running mass of wagons, horses, and men. He is momentarily relieved. Everyone is retreating; perhaps his own retreat is not so bad after all. A column of troops comes up in the road, heading in the opposite direction. They push themselves through the fleeing wagons towards the enemy.

These men bring Henry's feelings of inadequacy back. He feels that these are chosen beings, marching in the sunlight. He could never be like these men. He feels that the final blame for his condition lies on some unnamable thing. He wonders why these men would be in such a hurry to get to the battle. As he watches Henry grows more envious. He wishes a tremendous force would throw him off, leaving a better person. He can see pictures of this more fleet and heroic soldier he would make. He feels the desire to fight again.

However, he has no rifle. This is not a problem, he thinks. There are plenty around to be had. He could fight with any regiment if he wanted. Yet he feels guilty returning to his regiment now. He imagines himself concocting lies to face the questions of his mates. These thoughts squash his courage. He suddenly feels consumed by thirst, feels dirty, and feels full of aches and pains. Small patches of green mist float in front of his eyes. He feels it impossible for him to be a hero.

Of course, he has not lost his greed for a victory, but the army's loss would be good for him. His mates would look at his absence less suspiciously. His thoughts go to the army as a whole and its future failures and then valorous deeds. Public opinion, he decides, cannot be accurate at a long range. Generals must deal with the agony of these opinions, much like he himself would deal with the opinions of his fellow troops.

If the army did well, he would be lost. He would be a condemned man. Henry's thoughts make him frustrated. He calls himself a villain and selfish. He again wishes he were dead. He envies the corpses, killed by luck. They would receive the laurels of tradition.

Besides, the army was not likely to be defeated. He needed to think of good excuses. Yet he cannot invent a plausible tale. He pictures the whole regiment talking about him derisively, how he ran in the thick of battle. He imagines who would not leave him alone about the issues, who would laugh at him. All the men would stare cruelly. He would be turned into a slang phrase.

Chapter 11 Analysis:

Unlike the previous chapter, which was dominated by the spoken words of one character, chapter eleven is a return to Henry's tortured, varied thoughts. He sees two conflicting images. First, he sees men driving wagons with horses and mules, fleeing a battle scene. These men have wild looks in their eyes. He initially feels that they justify his own fleeing. Notice, however, that their looks are animal and that they are driving animals.

In contrast, the troops going into the thick of battle have neither animal-like look nor animals accompanying them. These men seem to Henry to be superhuman. They march into battle in images of light and beauty, full of grace and dignity. At first these thoughts make him feel the urge to fight. He is described as soaring on "the red wings of war." Again war is described as something red, but now as a part of an animal, which Henry can assumedly fly upon.

However, his next thoughts kill his own courage. He fears returning to his regiment and bearing their questions and stares. This makes the wings fail. In order to master his fears of war, this images suggests, Henry cannot rely on his animal instincts. They return him to thoughts of his flight, during which he succumbed to his most animal-like impulses. Remember now the squirrel in the forest; fleeing does not make a hero. And Henry Fleming still wants to be hero.

This desire is so strong, it make him wish he were dead or that the army, which he should care about as a body and cause greater than himself, is defeated. Therefore evidence of his flight or the reasons for it would not matter. He does not see how he can still be a hero, despite his flight. Therefore he refers to himself in absolute terms in his grief, as villain and selfish.

However, his thoughts of his tortured return to his regiment still show his youth. As we will see very soon, his return to camp is not the torture he imagines. Yet it is interesting that he thinks that he will be reduced to "a slang phrase" by camp gossip, for in the context of the narrative, he is already a slang phrase‹"the youth." He must go back to camp and face battle again to cease existing as a slang phrase. For as long as he does not face these fears, the book suggests, he will always be simply "the youth."

Chapter 12 Summary:

The column of heroic troops has no sooner gone in the forest then they come out of it again, this time running. Henry is thunderstruck; these steel-hearted men are already defeated. The red animal of war will have its fill.

He tries to call out a rallying speech, but can only manage blubbering "what‹what's the matter?" The fleeing men run around him. They do not see him. Guns fire from behind them. They are asking questions, mostly about where roads lie. Henry finally clutches a man as he runs by. He can only stammer out the word "why." The man who he stopped screams, "Let go me! Let go me!" When Henry does not, the man hits him on the head with his rifle butt, and runs away.

The youth's legs turned to jelly when the rifle hit him. He falls to the ground and crawls around on his hands and knees. He is fighting with his body to stand. When he does, he feels his head. His wound is painful and bleeding.

The artillery of the army begins to gather facing the front. Officers, meanwhile, are trying to contain the fleeing troops. A squadron of cavalry rides into the fray as well. Various elements of the army are thrown together in a mass.

As the youth leaves, the cannon suddenly roar, followed by an answer from enemy infantry. Orange light of sunset bathes the scene. He hurries on in the dark. He hears men babbling as he passes them. His wound hurts much less, but his head feels swollen. He goes along, tired, thinking of old scenes from home.

Soon, he hears a voice over his shoulder, asking him cheerily how he is. Henry only replies with a grunt. The other man offers to go along with him, and helps him along as they walk. The other man talks constantly about the battle, saying that there was so much fighting, he could not tell what side he was on. He also tells a story of a troop in his unit that was shot in the head in the process of telling someone to go to hell. The cheery man takes Henry through all kinds of forests in the dark. Eventually, he leads him to his regiment, which he had left so long ago. The cheery man departs, wishing Henry luck. The youth then realizes that, in the dark, he had never once seen the man's face.

Chapter 12 Analysis:

Interestingly, the same troops who sent Henry on such a fit of philosophy about war and bravery soon turn tail and flee battle themselves. Their flight lends to a general air of confusion and commotion, with troops, officers, artillery, and cavalry all going in different directions, all making different noises. The scene is so confusing that Henry is again speechless and thoughtless. He can only blubber out his lack of understanding, repeating to himself and others, "Why? Why?"

It is in this confusion that he gets a wound. Being hit on the head does not help Henry's understanding of what is going on around him. And yet it is a real wound, with blood, resembling the red badge that he had wished for earlier. It comes to resemble a "red badge" in certain senses, as we will see in the next chapter.

However, unlike the confused ramblings of the fleeing troops in the first part of this chapter, it is the words of the cheery man that get Henry to his destination. This is one of the longest unbroken speeches in the entire book. It is unclear exactly who this man is. In fact, he himself says that he did not know in battle whether he was from Ohio or Florida. The army, the man states, is a disorganized mess. For a brief moment, we are no longer following Henry's or the narrator's thoughts. We are listening as readers to this cheerful man, as he guides the youth from the confusion of the earlier scene to safety and home‹Henry's regiment. It is through his words, not the youth's, that we arrive at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 13 Summary:

As the youth approaches the fires of his regiment, he fears the men will welcome him with jibes and insults. In his tired state, he cannot invent a story to explain his actions. He might have run away, but was too tired for that. He had to brave their insults in hope of rest.

Suddenly, a guard comes running at him with a rifle, yelling for Henry to stop. It is Wilson, the loud soldier. After recognizing the youth, Wilson is glad to see him, expressing happiness that Henry is not dead. This is not what the youth expected. He still thinks the conversation may turn toward his cowardice; and so, even in his tired state, he tells Wilson a fragmented story about fighting on the right, getting shot in the head, and then getting separated from the regiment.

The corporal of the regiment comes up, demanding to know to whom Wilson is speaking. When he sees it is Henry, he also expresses joy at his return. Before Henry can tell his tale, Wilson finishes the story for him. Both me are exceedingly nice to the youth. They wrap him in their blankets, give him coffee to drink, and examine his wound. He feels weak and finally sits down.

After the corporal leaves, Henry is left to contemplate the fire and his surroundings. Shadows flicker from the firelight. Men circle the fire and seem fleeting and tired. An officer is asleep sitting upright, looking exhausted. Other soldiers sit around in the rose and orange light. The fire crackles, and overhead the trees sway softly, with silver hued leaves edged in red. The soldiers occasionally change position, moving with grunts and groans.

Wilson, once he goes off duty, comes over and bandages the wound. He compliments Henry on not crying out as he clumsily applied his first aid. He then gives the youth a blanket and leads him to open ground to get some sleep. When Henry protests that he is using the loud soldier's blanket, Wilson tells him to just be quiet and go to sleep. Henry does, soon thereafter.

Chapter 13 Analysis:

For all of Henry's worrying about his return to his regiment, the men who are awake when he arrives welcome him back. They are happy to see him return. Despite this, and because of the constant questioning of the tattered man, Henry makes up a story about getting shot. He still cannot face the reality of his situation, cannot retell it for what it was. His juvenile nature is still in effect.

However, his actions are counter-balanced by the more mature and self-less actions of Wilson, the loud soldier. He takes care of Henry and his wound, trying to make him comfortable, complimenting his toughness, making sure he gets to sleep. There is little bragging about the loud soldier's actions. He does them, it seems, out of his joy to see Henry.

The imagery of the chapter suggests that he also may do this out of weariness for battle himself. Pictures of exhausted, sleeping soldiers dominate this chapter. While we do not know what the regiment has gone through exactly, all the men are asleep by the time Henry arrives. The youth has had a longer day than the rest of the soldiers. Perhaps this is driving Wilson's desire to take care of Henry‹he is a member of their regiment, of their group, who was given up for dead. Now that he has returned, he needs a little extra care.

The color images, so strong and bellicose before, take on a much more placid feel as Henry takes in the sights caused by the fire. The dark shadows and sleeping soldiers dominate the forms. These men are exhausted and weary. They need the rest they are getting. However, the same fire that bathes them in warm orange and red is the fire of the regiment. These fires also make the trees overhead seem to be those same colors of war‹gray and red. While the regiment is a place for comradeship, it is also a fighting force. This gray and red of the trees foreshadows the happenings of future chapters. The day may have been extremely tiring, and yet the men's hardships are not done. There are still more battles to be fought.

Chapter 14 Summary:

As the youth awakes, a gray mist is coming in over the fields, bending the initial sunlight. In the distance is the noise of fighting. He and the rest of the men are trying to get the last bits of sleep before awaking. The light makes them look like corpses. The youth, in this forest, thinks that he is in a house of the dead. He gradually comes to his senses and sees the scene for what it is.

Soon there is the rumbling of drums and a bugle call. Heads begin to move and turn upward. The men curse softly as they are roused. Once an officer calls out, however, the men straighten up. Henry does the same. As he rises, his friend Wilson calls out to him if he is feeling okay. His head feels like a melon. He tells Wilson: "Pretty bad." When Wilson tries to examine the bandage in an attempt to help, Henry yells at him to be more careful. He is angry, but Wilson persists in being calm. He leads Henry over to get food.

As Henry eats, Wilson continues to take care of him. The youth notices how much he has changed. He no longer seems concerned with his personal prowess. He is not angry at little words against him. He is no longer a loud soldier. He seems reliable and confident. Henry used to think of him as swaggering and headstrong. He knows seems to have garnered wisdom from somewhere.

Wilson asks if Henry thinks they will win today. Henry tells him that yesterday he would have bet on beating the whole rebel army himself. Wilson replies that he was indeed a bit of a fool "in those days." As they continue to talk, Henry informs him of Jim Conklin's death.

An argument breaks out between some soldiers. Wilson, now referred to as "the friend," goes over, and breaks it up. When he returns, Henry remarks at his change. Wilson replies that it is true, he has changed. He tells Henry that the regiment lost half its men the previous day. It was believed that they were dead, but they keep coming back from wherever they had scattered, just like Henry. To this, the youth replies, "So?"

Chapter 14 Analysis:

This chapter deals mainly with Henry's changing maturity and self-perception. As the youth awakens, the gray mist is back again, with all of its meaning of mystery and conflict. In the early light, Henry thinks that the forest is a house of the dead. Before this point, this reflection might have led him on a mental flight of fancy, thinking over and over about the implications of this image. In earlier chapters, Henry often gets caught up in these thoughts and ideas, perceiving something to be one thing and applying it directly to his own condition. This first view of the soldiers around him would lead in a similar direction. He thinks he is in a house of the dead, perhaps he himself dead because of his wound. However, he quickly realizes that this is not the truth. He is just in a forest with his regiment. He sees that his idea was "not a fact of the present, but a mere prophecy." This is not to say that these men will become corpses in any certain amount of time. This does show, however, that Henry's perception of the outside world and his place in it is changing. He is not getting so carried away by his thoughts.

Another element of prophesy in this chapter is the developments of Wilson. "The loud soldier" is no more. Something in the battle yesterday and his reflections on it lead him to an increase in wisdom and compassion. The narrator renames him "the friend." This shows that he has been fundamentally changed in some way, so much so that he needs a new name. Henry even notices these changes to himself. Wilson no longer gets angry at slight words, is not so interested in demonstrating his prowess. He is far more concerned in helping people get along and survive, as evidenced by his stopping a fight between soldiers and taking care of Henry.

Henry, however, has not changed enough. It is true that the first words of this chapter show some of a change in his character. But he is still eager to avoid drawing attention to his flight. He yells at Wilson as the latter tries to change his bandages. Wilson does not get upset at this. Furthermore, even after he has noticed the changes in Wilson, he cannot restrain his own expressions of irritation at small things. He does not recognize that others are glad to see that he is alive. When Wilson talks about troops coming back and how they were thankfully not dead, Henry says, "so?" in a very callous way. He has not learned the same lessons that Wilson has, because he has not been through the same experiences as Wilson. Notice, also, that he still bears the title "the youth." Until he matures more, this name still sticks.

Chapter 15 Summary:

The regiment is standing at order, waiting for the command to march. The youth suddenly remembers the packet of letters that Wilson, the friend, gave to him the day before. He calls to Wilson. However, when the latter turns to him, Henry merely says, "Oh, nothing." He had been gathering fear about his friend, certain that he will ask him questions about his wound and what happened on the previous day. The packet is a kind of a small weapon against his embarrassment.

He remembers his friend, speaking with sobs about his own death. He had not died, and thus he delivered himself into the hands of the youth. Henry feels superior; his self-pride is restored. His actions happened in the dark. Therefore he was still a man. Wilson let his heart spill out to another and was vulnerable. Henry could talk like a veteran, for he saw enough on the day before. It is only the unfortunate people, he thinks, that yell out with sincerity.

He is still not thinking of the battles before him. What he learned from the previous day's events was that retribution is blind. His faith and confidence is blossoming out of this. The dragons he encountered were not so hideous. He had fled, unlike the others, with dignity and not wildness.

During these ruminations, Wilson turns to Henry and sheepishly asks for his packet of letters back. Henry attempts to think of something to say to demonstrate his presumed nature but cannot, and gives the letters to Wilson unmolested. His friend seems to be shamed. Henry reflects that this is too bad. He has enough stories to tell people at home of the stories of war. His laurels are small, he thinks, but they would still shine where there were none before. His mother and the girl that flirted with him will drink up his words.

Chapter 15 Analysis:

Henry's immaturity is all too obvious in this chapter. He still fears Wilson, who has been so kind to him since he returned to the regiment. He fears his ability to ask questions, to use words to shame Henry. The youth is still insecure about his having fled battle.

As he sees it, he has a weapon against this‹Wilson's packet of letters. With these, he can remind Wilson of his own insecurities and fears. It makes Henry feel haughty and proud. We now see him go on another of his flights of fancy, where his thoughts and imagination get the better of his emotions. He holds all those in contempt who complain. Retribution for his actions, which he feared almost as much as death the day before, he dismisses as being "laggard and blind." He even goes as far to say that those dragons he saw yesterday were not so bad. From his previous actions, we know this is not true. Those same dragons threatened to eat him earlier‹this is why he ran in the first place. The zenith of his ridiculous, prideful thoughts come when he even holds those others who fled in battle in contempt, because they ran with wildness. He, on the other hand, fled "with discretion and dignity." We know, from the earlier chapter, that this is not the case. He fled because others were fleeing. He fled because he too was afraid. And he fled wildly.

Wilson, however, interrupts these silly thoughts by asking for the letters back before Henry can dangle them over his head. Though Wilson feels embarrassed by this and Henry continues to feel superior, what is most important is that Henry cannot say anything to further shame his friend. Despite all of his thoughts of combatable dragons and war stories for home, Henry is still the youth. He dreams of speaking, but when the time comes to put his thoughts into action and ridicule Wilson, he cannot. His actions betray his thoughts. Words once again fail for the youth.

Chapter 16 Summary:

The fog-filled air is full of the noise from muskets and cannon. A new day of battle is starting. The regiment is to relieve men in trenches. They sit with their backs to the trenches, listening to the occasional pop of a skirmisher's rifle. Henry peers over at the trees up and down the trench line. Cannons on the right begin to roar with such volume that no one can say a sentence and have it be heard. They eventually stop, and then the rumors begin to fly. They are not good. Their commanders are said to be hesitating and uncertain. Disaster stories are concocted. They ask themselves what more can they do.

Soon the men are marching through the woods, away from the trenches. The lines of the enemy can be seen through the groves. Now the youth joins in the condemnation of the generals. His words are long and elaborate. He asks rhetorical questions about the strength of the regiment and their fighting ability. The friend, Wilson, attempts to placate his words, saying that maybe the generals should not be fully blamed. Henry asks passionately if the regiment does not fight better than any other, as the general had said yesterday. The friend replies sternly that they do, but they just have bad luck. The youth says that therefore, this must be the general's fault. A sarcastic soldier replies to Henry that maybe he thinks that he fought the whole battle yesterday.

Henry is afraid that he is found out. He replies calmly that he did not think that. He then, however, realizes that there was no extra meaning in the man's question. He still feels threatened and grows quiet and modest.

The regiment comes to halt in a clearing. From the woods in front of them, the sounds of firing resound. They simply wait. The gray shadows of the woods stand still. A battery shells the distance from behind them. The youth launches into a protestation of wandering around just to be led into a bad place and beaten by the enemy. The friend says that it will all turn out all right in the end. Henry begins to respond with venom and volume, when his lieutenant lashes out himself. He says the men should shut up and quit talking and to get ready for a battle. As the sun rises more, there is a scent of battle. Sure enough, a few rifles flash in the groves in front of them. The regiment stands still, hesitant and tired. They look like men tied to stakes.

Chapter 16 Analysis:

The grayness of war peppers this chapter. As the regiment goes on into a potential battle, they still do not see any actual fighting. They only hear it‹from down the line of trenches and through the forest. Anticipation is building once again, but it is different from the previous day. Now the men are not fresh. They are tired and frustrated. Officers spit insults, and the troops are sullen.

Henry, however, is full of words for one of the few times in this book. While on the trench line, he tries to tell a joke. He complains about the generals to his friend. Later, he complains about being marched around only to eventual defeat. Each time, he is prevented from finishing his thoughts. In the trenches, the cannon above drown out his words. The sarcastic man bites off his comments while marching with a simple insult about his own battle prowess‹"Maybe you think you fought the whole war yesterday, Fleming." This quiets Henry for a time. Instead of the dread issue of his actions on the previous day coming as a question about what he did, this man shoots him down with a statement. Henry definitely did not fight the whole battle. He knows exactly how much of it he did fight‹very little. This keeps him quiet for a while. However, he later begins to rail out again. When Wilson, now matured, tries to say that everything will turn out okay in the end and think positively, Henry snaps at him that it will not. The lieutenant cuts him off, angry at all the words being uttered.

Henry tries to express himself with words, but his thoughts are not deemed to be worth listening to. He tries to appear to others and himself as if he knows some truth of battle. The only truth he does know is that it is frightening. This is not the truth that he describes. He goes on rants about the inability of the generals, whose job he knows little about. He, in fact, knows little about what it is to be a soldier. Those around him cut down his own thoughts, now brought out into the open. However, the grayness of the forest begins to be cut with muzzle flashes. Another battle is coming. The youth may indeed be able to prove himself.

Chapter 17 Summary:

The youth fumes at the approaching enemy. He feels that he deserves a bit of rest and reflection from his trials and tribulations of the day before. The other men do not seem to need this. Their energy seems endless. He hates them today, as opposed to the day before, when he fumed against the war gods. Now he rages against the enemy army.

He says to his friend that if they continue to chase, they better watch out. Wilson calmly replies that if they keep chasing, they will end up in the river. This makes Henry yells out. He crouches behind a small tree, looking the part of a wild soldier. He wants his rifle to be a destructive power, annihilating the other army, who he feels are mocking him and his fellow soldiers for being puny.

A shot is fired from the Union side and soon the entire regiment blazes at the enemy. As they fire, the youth feels that the fighters are at bay, but pushing back. The enemy, however, evades the bullets sent in their direction. He feels that his rifle is an impotent stick. He loses everything but his hate. He is soon no longer conscious that he stands on his feet. He loses balance, but then quickly stands again. The smoke broils his skin. His rifle barrel grows hotter and hotter, and he still continues to stuff it with cartridges. Even after the enemy falls back, and the rest of the regiment has stopped shooting, he continues fighting after his foe.

He is brought back into his head with a soldier laughing at him. He turns and sees the blue line staring at him with astonishment. The youth quits his actions with a simple "Oh." The lieutenant is overjoyed. He congratulates the troops for their fighting, and Henry in particular. Wilson comes over and asks if anything is wrong with the youth. He replies, though his throat hurts, that nothing is wrong.

Henry thinks of his actions and realizes that he has fought like a barbarian. Yet it was easy. Through his actions, previous obstacles seemed little. He was now what he called a hero.

He looks at his fellow soldiers and they look at him. They rejoice a little at their good fighting that morning. The forest still echoes with the sound of battle. And a cloud of smoke goes up into the blue sky.

Chapter 17 Analysis:

Though still "the youth," Henry has changed from the day before. At the beginning of the fight that day, he is no longer thinking of the metaphoric monsters and war gods that threaten to eat him up. There is no large metaphor that he gives flesh and life. There is only an opposing army, coming at him in his position with an energy he does not feel and cannot understand. This fills him with rage, instead of fear. While he thinks of them in bestial ways, as having "teeth and claws" and being "flies sucking insolently at his blood," they are still men of some type. This is an important change from the day before. Given that the force he faces is of men and not mythical beasts, Henry is more likely to actually be brave.

However, his actions are not of exceptional bravery. He becomes one of a smoke-producing group once again, acting quickly and with rage, as the day before. Yet he is even less aware of himself on this battle day. He cannot tell what is up or down or even that the battle is over.

He only thinks of his actions in a certain context when the lieutenant congratulates him. Only after that does he think of himself as something‹a hero. This idea of his is tenuous at best. He remains "the youth," which still shows his immaturity. His actions in battle were done without thought, consideration, or care. His heroism, if there was any in his actions, was accidental. The way we can tell his maturity and heroism is evident in his thoughts of the enemy he faces. He is still fighting out against metaphors. Though there are no war gods or dragons, the men he fights are superhuman or quasi-human with animal-like features. Interestingly, this makes the youth fanatical, "a barbarian," and a bit superhuman himself. Yet he is not quite a hero. Not yet. The blue sky reappears at the end of this battle, just like the first skirmish, representing optimism. But a cloud of smoke from battle drifts up into it. Henry Fleming has still not finished his journey through this book. The smoke shows that the mysteries of war still remain.

Chapter 18 Summary:

There is a brief rest after the battle, but the noises of cannon and guns soon resound in the forest again. One soldier has been shot through the body. The men rush to his attention. He lays twisting and thrashing about in the grass, yelling curses at the men standing there. Wilson, the friend, uses this occasion to go for some water. Soon he has the canteens from many men. Henry decides to go with him, wanting to put his body in cooling water.

They did not find the stream the friend thought he saw, so they turn back towards where they came. From where they were they could see more of the battle than when on the line. Their own troops are getting into formation. The sunlight twinkles off their steel. Near where they stand, bullets whiz by occasionally.

Looking down an aisle of trees, the youth and his friend see a general with his staff ride up past a wounded man crawling on his hands and knees. Soon the officers are directly in front of the two soldiers. The general speaks of the Rebel army massing for another charge and how he fears it may break their lines. The staff members speak amongst themselves. Then Henry and Wilson hear the general ask if any troops could be spared. One officer volunteers their regiment, calling them "mule drivers." The general tells him to get them ready, adding that many of them will not get back. The other yells something in reply.

The two foot soldiers hurry back to their line. The combination of the recognition of their feats and their seeming expendability wears on Henry's mind. They tell the men of their regiment that they are to charge. There are some protestations, but most of the men believe them. They are soon engrossed in thoughts about the charge. Officers soon come and put the men in tighter formation. The regiment draws a new breath. They are full of energy, like a sprinter in the starting blocks. The noises of battle go up around them. Wilson and Henry exchange looks. They are the only ones who have heard that they are not expected to survive in great number. One man muses out loud, "We'll git swallowed."

Chapter 18 Analysis:

This chapter shows a difference between the foot soldiers of the novel and the men who have the upper command. Throughout the story there have been occasional complaints from the troops about the general's lack of ability. It is true historically that in the Civil War, the Union side suffered from poor leadership in its upper ranks throughout much of the war. This fact, however, is not crucial for the story. What is important is that the commanders do not see the men as individuals, but as a fighting force.

The general and his staff almost crush a wounded man when riding along in the forest. They are oblivious to the suffering of this individual soldier and of individual soldiers in general. Their words are not groundbreaking, not those of great men. They are solidly technical and evaluative. Glory does not come easily even to a general, this goes to show. Henry, who has been obsessed with war glory since before his time in the army, waits for some grandiose language from these men. Instead, he gets the information that his regiment is a good one and that the attack they are about to commit to will likely kill many of the men. The simultaneity of this statement strikes Henry as odd. They are referred to "as a broom," in other words, as some sort of tool. To these generals, this is what war is about‹ordering and directing groups of actors against other groups of actors. They care little for the actions of sole members of that group as long as they do what is needed to help the army out.

The news of a coming advance on the enemy gives the regiment more energy and will. Yet, they only know that they will charge. They do not know the two-fold evaluation of their past acts and the outcome of their future acts. In the general's words is a similar approach to time that Henry has exercised throughout the novel, evaluating past actions and prophesizing on future outcomes. Yet he does it casually and seemingly without care. This is quite different from Henry's thoughts, which magnify the importance of everything, even events that have not yet happened. Of course this strikes Henry as strange. The general's words are a completely different way to look at the battle, separated from Henry by age, experience, and social class. The youth accepts the possibility, though, that they may indeed die. He exhibits in this some bravery for the battle to come.

Chapter 19 Summary:

The youth stand in formation. With a gasp that is intended to be a cheer, the regiment starts running at the enemy troops. Henry fixes on a distant clump of trees and runs toward it as if toward a goal. His face is drawn tight, and his features look disheveled and crazed. Yellow flames leap out of the forest at the advancing soldiers. The line lurches, its parts staggering ahead of each other as the troops all run. The youth is unconsciously at the lead. Bullets fly all around. Shells scream overhead. Men, hit by flying metal, fall in agony.

As the men run, the features of the enemy become clear. They can see a battery and the men working at it. The enemy infantry are still concealed by gray walls and smoke. The scene seem hyper-real to Henry. He sees the bold green of the grass and the features of the brown and gray trees. His mind makes an impression of everything, except the reasons why he is there.

The men break into cheers as they run. They were a blind frenzy against despair and death. Yet the pace eats up their energies. The regiment stalls. They begin to calculate and become self-aware once more. The moment the men stop, the musketry in front becomes a roar. Yellow flames cause inhuman whistlings in the air. Some fall, dead. The others simply stand. They appear dazed and stupid.

The lieutenant of the troops comes up and yells at them to keep going. He continues to yell and curse after the troops. Wilson, the friend, drops to his knees and fires a shot at the enemy. This awakens the men, who begin firing. They now move in small jerks, going forward a few steps, then stopping to reload and fire again. The shots against them keep coming. The smoke is so intense that it makes it difficult for the regiment to go forward with intelligence.

The men stop behind trees. They wear faces that express a lack of feeling responsible for being where they are. It is as if some other force is driving them. As soon as they stop, the lieutenant is at them again, cursing and swearing for them to go on. He grabs Henry to drag him across. The youth lashes out at his commander, saying, "Come on yerself, then."

Three men in front of the flag begin to yell to move. The flag sways proudly in the breeze. With a lunge, the men go forward again. They go over the small field. They run and duck as they go. As he runs, Henry is filled with a fondness for the flag, feeling its beauty and invulnerability. Because it still swayed proudly, he endowed the flag with power. In the rush, the color sergeant is hit. He sways where he stands. Both Henry and Wilson jump for the flagpole. The dead man will not let go, still doing his job. Soon, the two have wrenched the flag from the corpse's control.

Chapter 19 Analysis:

Now, Henry Fleming, the youth, is about to see something more of battle. As the regiment lurches forward towards the enemy, they seem driven by some super-human impulse. The red in Henry's features show that this madness is derived directly from the pressures of war. Somewhere in between the pressure from commanders and the pressure from the enemy lies this insanity, which makes the men speed forward towards firing guns.

Their nerves are tested as they go. The guns fire yellow flame, the color again representing cowardice. Fear of death causes feelings of self-consciousness and, in advanced cases, the desire to flee. However, as they get closer, the enemy becomes less mysterious. They can make out the cannon and the men working feverishly at them. The Rebel army is beginning to take on more human form, as a group of men and not a force of war.

However, the fear and the running cause the men to pause. As they pause, Henry becomes more self-conscious, wondering why he is actually here and fighting. This self-consciousness halts the crazed nature of the assault, but does not cause the troops to look for safety. They are caught in between two states‹bravery and cowardice. They are reduced to inactivity. The lieutenant, who cares more for the success of the regiment than the individuals, presses the men to keep charging and fighting, rather than fleeing to safety. Yet soon his actions are reduced too, he only able to curse at his troops and tug at them to charge. Meanwhile the smoke of battle, the recurring metaphor for this book, becomes so think that the men do not where to go. This adds to their general confusion, not just in the plot but also as a metaphor. They stop, illogically, in the middle of the battlefield because of it. However, Henry knows that on the other side, beyond this smoke of mystery, lay men of an opposing army. He must get through the smoke to see them and end his mythologizing of war.

What breaks Henry from his lethargy is the vision of the American flag. He latches on to the red and the white‹war and power‹as driving, energizing forces. The flag does not falter. As the troops go, it stays flapping in the breeze. Even as the color sergeant falls down dead, he feels that the flag gives him and the regiment power. His actions become slightly clearer, his energies more directed. He leaps for the flag. While it makes him more of a target, he also is attempting to master "the colors." If he can handle the red and the white of the flag, he will finally master his experience of war.

Chapter 20 Summary:

The men begin to slowly retreat. The lieutenant bellows at them to turn around. Another officer with a red beard yells at the soldiers to shoot into the enemy. Meanwhile, Wilson and Henry have a minor scuffle over who should carry the flag, both wanting to do so out of deference for the other's safety and their own pride. The youth pushes his friend away, finally.

The regiment falls back to some trees. Soon it resumes its path amongst the trunks. Their numbers are depleted, and they are receiving heavy fire. Most of them act discouraged, receiving the bullets like a deserved sentence. They feel as if they have tried to conquer an unconquerable thing. The rear of the regiment is still firing the occasional bullet at the enemy lines. The lieutenant has been hit in the arm; this makes him swear all the louder.

The youth feels anger at the officer that called his regiment mule drivers. His dreams wavered when the charge stopped at the clearing. Now they are retreating. He hates the enemy, but hates the man who called them mule drivers even more. This man had no connection with reality.

Despite all this, Henry keeps the flag erect. He yells at his fellows, but the regiment is running out of energy quickly. The smoke clears slightly, and he sees the enemy troops amassed across the way. They yell at once and fire a rallying shot at the regiment. The way in front seems eternal. Dismay descends on the men in a clouded haze. They begin to panic. Henry stays solid and strong with the flag. One soldier even approaches Henry to say goodbye.

The lieutenant, leaning on his sword like a cane, looks as if he feels all is lost. The smoke curls lazily as men hide from bullets. Suddenly, the lieutenant sees that the Rebels are attempting to sneak up on the regiment. The troops fire a quick volley at the approaching foes. Henry could, just before the shot was fired, make out the features of these men. Their uniforms were gray and looked new. They were not expecting the resistance that met them. The two groups of soldiers exchange volley like boxers exchange blows. By ducking and dodging, Henry can get glances of these men through the smoke.

Eventually, less resistance meets the regiment. The troops stop firing. As the smoke clears, they see the ground in front of them, clear of fighters, save for some corpses on the ground. The regiment had revenged themselves. They feel full of pride, trusting their weapons. The narrator adds: "And they were men."

Chapter 20 Analysis:

Henry finally gains control of the flag from his friend, Wilson. Something curious happens to him after this. He gains a sense of strength and pride while all of the troops begin to falter.

Indeed, most of this chapter describes the regiment running out of energy as they attack. The men bow their heads as they are pelted in a counter-attack. They scowl at the officers that try to get them to advance. This would be a better option than merely absorbing bullets. But the will of the regiment is broken.

Henry recognizes this and feels anger for the officer that volunteered the men for this charge. His anger is not unjustified or wild. He feels it along with the strength from holding the flag. He, along with the officers, exhorts the men to continue. As he does this, he finally sees briefly through the smoke. The other men appear on the other side. Yet the force still looks superhuman, a body of innumerable men. While they are identified as men, they still seem to be an unrealistic number. The enemy flag flashes through the smoke too.

Then, when all seems lost, the injured lieutenant, whose words failed him for most of this chapter, sees the enemy coming upon the regiment. Finally, his words come to a good end. The regiment creates more of their own smoke against their aggressors, surprising the enemy. Throughout this part of the altercation, Henry can see the features of the enemy troops. They are no longer a strange force; they are actually men. In fact, they resemble his regiment in the fact that their uniforms seem new, just like his had at the beginning of the novel. The mysteries of war are dissipating even more. He can see occasionally through the clouds of smoke and see that his foe is other men. And when the smoke finally clears, it shows the field clear of enemies, and the regiment depleted, but still a force.

The narrator adds at the end that these troops "were men." This is the crucial moment of the chapter. As a coming of age novel, the experience of this battle, where they saw and conquered their enemy, is the moment of maturity for the regiment. However, their trials are not over. As we will, see the smoke has not completely cleared from the battlefield. Their officers' opinions count for much, and before they can be truly glorious in battle, they must do more. Therefore, Henry is still referred to as "the youth."

Chapter 21 Summary:

No firing threatens the regiment as they return to their blue lines. The men are nervous as they go, suspecting that they may be fired on at anytime. When they get back to their lines, they are peppered with sarcastic questions, asking where they have been and why they are coming back. The men of the regiment make no reply, except one soldier who challenges any one of them to a fistfight.

Henry is stung by these remarks. He glowers at the men who ridicule him. Then he looks back at the ground they had covered. It seems different. The grove where they had their stand is much closer; the time taken now seems short. He wonders at the amount of emotions and information crammed into such a small amount of time. Yet, he is still satisfied with his performance during the charge. He had little time to do so before, and now thinks pleasantly on the colors of the battle that were stamped on his memory.

The officer that called them mule drivers rides up, looking wild. He begins yelling at the head of the regiment. According to this man, they stopped too short. The troops ruined a successful charge by a distance of about one hundred feet. The men listen to the harsh words for their commander, a colonel, who seems injured during the speech. He tries to defend the men, saying they went as far as they could. The officer says it was not enough; the charge as an intended diversion was a failure. After the officer rides away, the lieutenant says that he is a fool for thinking they did not fight hard in the field. The colonel tells him that it is his own affair, and he did not ask for anyone else's opinion.

The troops initially feel that it is a huge mistake. Then they begin to believe that the general actually did think their actions to be light. Henry does not get mad. He chalks the outcome up to bad luck. Wilson, the friend, agrees. Every thing they do, he adds, they cannot seem to do it right. Then Wilson adds that he heard some other people talking about how they two fought the best in the whole regiment.

Then several men come running up to Wilson and Henry. One begins speaking in an excited voice about a conversation he heard between the young lieutenant and the colonel of the regiment. The colonel asked, according to this soldier, who was carrying the flag, to which the lieutenant replies that it is Fleming. Also, the soldier adds, the lieutenant mentioned Wilson as being at the head of the charge, howling loudly. The colonel saw them in the distance, apparently, and called them "babies" to which the lieutenant replied that "they should be major generals."

The two men say that the soldier is fooling them, but in their hearts they are proud and happy. They do not think of their old mistakes. The past no longer holds disappointment.

Chapter 21 Analysis:

Upon returning, the new men of the regiment realize that other's perceptions of their actions are quite different from their own. The veterans mock them. The generals do not see their actions as successful at all. In fact, they are so minor that their charge was not even a successful diversion, let alone a successful charge.

Once again, the men of the regiment are let down. Every time they are lead into battle, they feel that it is the climatic time. Henry especially has this view. He believes himself to finally be grown after the battle before. He did demonstrate bravery in carrying the flag; the narrator did describe him as a "man." Yet, in the view of others, the regiment still has more to go before it can be successful in battle. To merely be men is not enough. They still have not demonstrated enough courage. They can be satisfied with their actions as a regiment, but they need to further the greater cause of the army before they can truly be successful.

In spite of this, Henry and Wilson continue to grow and mature both in their own actions and in the eyes of others. Henry does not throw venom at the leaders who reprimanded the regiment for their job. He and Wilson explain the happenings and others perception as "bad luck." This is a little short sighted on their part‹the charge they participated in was merely a diversion for another regiment's attack, and therefore not a "real" charge. Still, their outlook is mellower than before.

Also the rumors of their being commended by their officers supports this view of their maturity. Of course, we do not hear these from the officers themselves. We have no idea how accurate the soldier's version of the story is. And yet, that someone in the regiment would come and tell them the tale goes to show that their actions are being recognized. The two men are standing out as exemplary members of the regiment. They are beginning to combine group excellence with individual excellence. This, the book suggests, wipes away their old guilt and is a further step on their road to maturity and true heroism.

Chapter 22 Summary:

As the next phase of the battle begins, Henry is still in command of the flag. He stands erect and tranquil, his vision unaffected by the smoke from the rifles of his regiment. In the distance, two regiments of one army fight two regiments of the other. They are engrossed in their own fights, not noticing the rest of the war around them. In another direction, there is a brigade trying to drive the enemy from a grove. They disappear into the trees, from which soon comes an incredible racket of guns. Soon, the brigade comes marching calmly back out of the trees. Cannons go off with a crimson flare. Men run around.

The battle of the four regiments lasts for some time. Their flags flutter in the air. Then there is a silence all around. The blue lines of the Union army shift and change slightly. Except for a distant cannon, it is very still.

Suddenly, the guns on the slope behind the regiment roar out. Muskets resound from in front. The din rises, sounding like enormous machinery. Henry can see the battle continuing on another front, with the two lines, blue and gray, swaying back and forth against each other. Places of cover, such as trees and fences, are argued over as if they were precious metals or gems. He can not tell which side is winning.

When its time comes, the regiment bursts forward with fierceness. As bullets hit them, they cry out in rage. Their front is a wall of smoke with yellow and red flashes. The faces of the men are smudges with powder and fogged with smoke.

The lieutenant, arm bandaged, still swears loudly at the men. The youth stands with the colors, absorbed in the battle as a spectator. It makes him babble occasionally, words coming unconsciously.

Then a line of the enemy begins to advance very close to them. The regiment simultaneously fires at them without waiting to be ordered. The Rebels are behind a fence, which covers them from the attack. They rise and shoot into the regiment. The smoke wafts through the Union soldiers' line. The Rebels yell taunts and gibes, while the men in blue remain silent, intent on keeping the ground they have gained.

Henry has resolved not to budge from his place. It is clear to him that his final revenge was to be his dead body, lying upon the field. The regiment bleeds profusely. Men are falling rapidly. Henry goes rearward. In the fray, he can make out his friend through the confusion. The regiment's fire is beginning to fade.

Chapter 22 Analysis:

Henry is now tied up with the flag he carries. As he gathered strength from it before, he continues to do so. He stands strong in the rush and din of battle. Interestingly, the gray phantoms, which haunted him at the first skirmish, are not bothering him now. They are smoke that he can see through. He makes out different parts of the battle and sees how the greater body, that of the army, is engaged even if he himself is not yet fighting.

In this view that he sees, the blue and the gray of the opposing armies are lashing out at each other. The two sensibilities of before, the blue of melancholy and reflection and the gray of the unknown, are finally in one view. This is one of the first times that they are identified in the same picture. This shows how Henry's perspective is becoming more encompassing, more improved. He sees the whole battle, and thus can finally see the blues and grays battling with one another. Introspection and mystery are converging; one side will win. He cannot tell which one is.

As his regiment strikes out, it seems like they will fall. They get close enough to finally see the enemy soldiers, becoming less and less mysterious all the time, while their cohesion as a group becomes stronger. The regiment makes more smoke of their own; their faces are blackened with soot. They are accustomed to these changes at this point. The battle experience has made them into something different. They were men before; they are changing into a fighting force.

However, those men in gray are fighting well, and the men in blue begin to drop more. Though they are growing, their survival is threatened. In the next chapter, they will commit one final act of bravery that will seal the actions of this book and be part of the defeat of the gray.

Chapter 23 Summary:

The officers from behind the line run up to the regiment, yelling that they must charge. Upon hearing this, the youth makes some rough calculations about the distance between them and the enemy. He suspects that they will have to be coaxed into charging, but instead the men quickly fix their bayonets and leap forward, running in a fever of haste. Henry keeps the colors up near the front, waving and shrieking. In the frenzy, there are no loopholes. Henry does not question or reflect. He merely goes forward with savageness and speed.

Up ahead, he sees a fence, which he is sure hides the bodies of the men in gray. He expects to hear a great concussion when the two groups collide. However, this does not happen. The men in gray begin to turn and run. One part of the line, however, stands firm. Their flag waves over them and their rifles. If they are going to be defeated, they must be engaged by the men in blue very closely.

Henry fixes on the sight of the enemy flag. Having it would fill him with pride. He races towards it, swearing to himself that it will not escape. The Union army stops, fires, and keeps running and the Rebels. Through the haze, Henry can make out four or five men stretched out on the ground, with their color sergeant tottering over them. He has obviously been hit and is fighting to stay upright. His wounds make him stumble.

The youth's friend, Wilson, jumps at the enemy flag like a panther and wrenches it free from the dead man, who falls on the grass, bleeding. The men yell and wave in ecstasy. They have won.

Four men in gray sit as prisoners. One is nursing a wound on his foot. It is not very serious, but he guards it carefully and swears frequently. Another, who looks very young, is taking the capture in stride, conversing lightly with the men in blue. The third sits stonily, replying to any attempt to speak to him "Ah, go to hell!" The last stays completely silent. He looks dejected and lost, perhaps thinking of what awaits him as a prisoner of war, perhaps out of shame for having been captured.

The men sit in long grass. Wilson comes up holding the enemy flag. The two congratulate each other.

Chapter 23 Analysis:

The regiment is facing their final test of this book. On their last advance, they have gotten close enough to the enemy to see features of their faces. Here, they stand so close that the men in gray insult them. Upon hearing their officers' demands to charge, they do so, towards the gray fence, through the smoke. Finally, after facing so much grayness, the regiment is cutting through it. Their actions will give it features. Henry does not know what they look like, but he knows that they are there: "he knew that in it [the smoke] lay the aged fence of a vanished farmer protecting the snuggled bodies of the gray men." He has grown and matured from his first experiences in battle. Beyond the fence lies an end to the mystery and even a chance to demonstrate heroism.

The flag of the enemy represents not just their power as an army, but the power of battle as well. When Wilson grabs the flag and waves its "red brilliancy" in the air, he is demonstrating an end to these struggles against war and its psychological terrors. The flag with its red field is no longer waving in defiance of their actions, representing their bad luck. The men in blue now hold it. They have faced and conquered those earlier dragons. Their colors make a brief reprise after the color sergeant falls dead. Where he falls is described as a place where "much blood [was] upon the grass blades." While these colors still hold some of the gore and horribleness of war, the red and the green no longer represent a mythological creature. Blood and grass intermingle the red and the green. These are real things. Henry Fleming can see these. He does not have to imagine them.

Also plainly visible are the captured Rebel soldiers, who resemble them in so many ways. They speak the same language as their captors and look very similar, save the color of their uniforms. They also span ages, physical conditions, and (most importantly) reactions to their present condition. All of their actions, full of self-care, fear, and thought, are not those of phantoms or war ghosts made of smoke. They are men, just like the men in blue. It took several skirmishes and an adventure fleeing for Henry to realize this, but now he knows. His war adventure, as far as the book is concerned, is drawing to a close.

Chapter 24 Summary:

The noises and cacophony of battle grow intermittent and weak. The youth and his friend look up, almost surprised at the sudden lack of these noises. Henry even asks out loud what will happen next. Eventually the regiment receives order to retrace its steps. The men get up slowly, stiff and groaning. They retrace the field they had run madly across just recently.

The regiment reforms and marches, soon joining up with other troops. They pass a house where other soldiers lay, waiting for more orders. Their march curves, giving them a view of the debris-strewn ground on which they have just fought. Henry says to his friend that it is all over.

The youth reflects again. His mind is undergoing a subtle change. It takes him a moment not to think as if he were in battle. He understands now that his shot/countershot existence was in the past. He escaped the place of red blood and black passion. Eventually, he thinks with satisfaction and cohesion about his past actions. He can look at them like a spectator and criticize with some correctness. Now, unlike before, he is unregretting. He feels good.

Then, a few ghosts from his flight from the first battle dance before him. He blushes slightly about these. Another phantom, this one of reproach, come to him as he remembers the tattered soldier, who was so concerned for Henry's fabricated wound and Jim Conklin's sufferings. He begins to sweat and then lets out a cry. Wilson, his friend, turns to him and asks what is wrong. The youth's reply is an outburst of crimson oaths.

Whichever way his thoughts turn, they are encountered now by his memory of desertion. He looks at his companions, wondering if they see his emotions in his face. Yet they are too engrossed in discussion about the battles that happened that day. For a time, Henry does not feel like he can join in. His thoughts are occupied with the tattered soldier and worrying that his fellow soldiers can see evidence of his past actions on his face.

Yet, he eventually puts his sin at a distance. He now looks at his past bombasts and opinions of battle and is happy when he despises them. With this comes a sort of assurance. He feels a quiet manhood, a sturdy blood. He knows that he will no longer doubt his inner guides. "He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man."

Henry leaves with his soul changed. It begins to rain, but he smiles nonetheless. It is a world for him. He feels rid of the red sickness of battle. He is ready to turn to the peaceful images. Over the river they march beside, a golden ray of sun comes through the clouds.

Chapter 24 Analysis:

Henry finally finishes his inner journey during the course of this chapter. He is no longer dealing with pressures of battle. With the admission that "it's all over," he is free from his constraints of attempting to guess the present or the future. He can now reflect on what he did in the past. At first, he feels that he is happy. He basks in his accomplishments, and as he does he is bathed "in purple and gold." This new color combination is used in its historical connotation of royalty. Henry has now become a hero. Without much fanfare, from himself or others, but still he seems to ascend ranks with these colors.

However, his good emotions hit a snag when he considers his flight. New ghosts of shame and reproach come back to haunt him. As he thinks about his flight during battle and the tattered man who cared for him so much that he abandoned him, he goes as far to cry out and swear "crimson oaths" at his friend. The redness of battle has returned to him. He acts out of rage again, this time at his own past.

Most importantly, though, he is concerned that his fellow soldiers can detect these emotions. People's perceptions matter very much to him still. He is doing enough battle with his own head; he does not want to fight the words and emotions of others when they find his secret.

He eventually puts the past in the past and does not let it bother his present state. In fact, he does this by looking back at his earlier thoughts of battle and fleeing. Note, however, that what we get is Henry's observation of his own emotions: "He was gleeful when he discovered that he now despised them [his old thoughts]." It is only by observing himself, and not putting so much importance on the view of others, that he can move beyond his old state. Once he sees that he despises his old mind, he is finally described as being sure, steady, and "a man" (as opposed to earlier, when he was one of many "men" of the regiment). He can now leave the battlefield changed. And while he his no longer decorated in gold and purple when he leaves in the rain, the golden sunlight comes through the leaden clouds. These are the final colors we are left with. In the gray mysteries of life, there is greatness. And one must realize this for one's self.

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