Just like Crane was there...
It's touted as THE Civil War novel because it smacks
with the authentic feel of "being there". Stephan Crane wrote like a soldier and many
readers thought he had served. While he
dabbled with being a war correspondent, Crane never was a Union or Confederate soldier.
He was born in 1871, a bit to late to have
fought in the War Between the States.
The Red Badge of
Courage is an average book, a predictable story about cowardice and
redemption, with the "fictional" Battle of Chancellorsville set as a
backdrop. Henry Fleming, the
protagonist, acquires a wound to conceal his act of deserting in the face of
the enemy, hence, the "badge of courage" to allay any dispute of his
"bravery". Fleming is no
different than many men who served in the War, so the theme is unremarkable and
not very imaginative. Perfect timing,
and an air of realism made Crane's book as popular as it was...and has
become.
The 1890's saw a genesis of remembering the War with bleary
eyes. It was being romanticized. Legends like the "ragged rebel", a
myth created to justify the South's loss, began to take form. Veteran’s groups were meeting fraternally,
memoirs from soldiers to Generals were being published, and grandchildren were
asking grandpa which side he fought on and what the War was like. Of course, grandpappy's memory always took
one side or the other, and more often than not it was heaped with a sweet
tablespoon of hindsight and the way "it should have been". With the assassination of President Lincoln
being a final curtain to the tragedy, what developed was a national psyche
hungry for literature about what was fast developing into the "greatest
event" in American History.
Crane merely "played" to the audience...
In its first edition form...