Henry And The Tattered Soldier example essay topic

During the Civil War, a Union regiment rests along a riverbank, where they have been camped for weeks. The tall soldier Jim Conklin spreads a rumor that the army will soon march. Jim is a man who is very sure of himself and his own opinions. Henry Fleming, a recent recruit with the 304th regiment, worries about his courage, thinking that if he were ever to see a battle, he might run.

Henry joined the army because he was drawn to the glory of military conflict, but since he joined, all the army has done is wait. At last the regiment is given the orders to march, and the soldiers spend several wearying days traveling on foot. Eventually they near a battlefield, and they begin to hear the distant roar of battle. After taking their positions, they were charged by the enemy; Henry, boxed in by his fellow soldiers, realizes that he could not run even if he wanted to. He fires mechanically, feeling like a gear in a huge machine. The blue regiment defeated the gray soldiers, and then men congratulate one another.

Henry wakes from a brief nap to find that the men are being charged again. This time, terror overtakes him, and he leaps up and flees from the line. As he dodges through the landscape, he tells himself that he did the right ting to flee, that his regiment could not have won, and the men who remained to fight were fools. But he passes a general on horseback, and overhears the commander saying that the men have held back the enemy charge. Feeling ashamed, Henry tries to convince himself that he did the right thing to preserve his own life. He wanders through a forest glade where he encounters the decaying corpse of a soldier; shaken, he runs away in fear.

After a time, he joins a column of wounded soldiers winding down the road. Henry is deeply envious of the wounded men, thinking that a wound is like 'a red badge of courage,' a visible proof of valorous behavior. He meets a tattered man who has been shot twice, who speaks proudly of the fact that his regiment did not flee. Repeatedly asking Henry where he is wounded, the man makes Henry very uncomfortable, and he hurries away from him in the line. He meets an eerie soldier with a distant, numb look on his face. Henry eventually recognizes the spectral soldier as a badly wounded Jim Conklin.

Henry promises to take care of Jim, but Jim runs from the line into a small grove of bushes, where Henry and the tattered man watch him die. Henry and the tattered soldier wander through the woods; Henry hears the rumble of combat in the distance. The tattered soldier continues to ask Henry about his wound, even as his own health visibly worsens. At last Henry is unable to bear his questioning, and abandons him to die in the forest. Henry continues to wander until he is very near the battlefield, and can watch a little of the fighting. He sees a blue regiment in retreat and tries to stop the soldiers to find out what happened.

One of the fleeing men hits him on the head with his rifle, and Henry receives a bloody gash on the head. Eventually, another soldier leads him to where his regiment is camped, and Henry is reunited with his companions. Believing him to be shot, Henry's friend Wilson cares for him tenderly. The next day, the regiment is taken back to the battlefield, and Henry fights like a lion; thinking of Jim Conklin, he feels rage at the enemy soldiers, and his lieutenant says that with ten thousand Henrys, he could win the war in a week.

Nevertheless, Henry and Wilson overhear an officer say that the 304th fights like 'mule drivers. ' They are insulted, and long to prove the man wrong. In a charge, the regiment's color bearer falls, and Henry takes the flag, which he carries proudly before the regiment. After the charge fails, the derisive officer tells the regiment's colonel that they fight like 'mud diggers,' and Henry is outraged. Another soldier, however, tells Henry and Wilson that the colonel and the lieutenant have said that they are the best fighters in the regiment, and they are pleased. The group is sent into more fighting, and Henry continues to carry the flag.

The regiment charges a group of enemy soldiers fortified behind a fence, and after a pitched battle, they succeed in winning the fence. Wilson seizes the enemy flag, and the regiment takes four prisoners. As they march back to their position, Henry reflects on his experiences in the war, and though he feels exultant about his recent success in battle, he feels deeply ashamed of his behavior the previous day, especially his abandonment of the tattered man. After a moment, though, he is able to put his guilt behind him, and he realizes that he has come through 'the red sickness' of battle. He is now able to look forward to peace, feeling a quiet, steady maturity within himself.