The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Sh - Stephen Crane [101]
In the Third Corps, the Second Brigade of the Second Division was composed of five New York veteran and new regiments. The Second Division’s leader, Major General Hiram G. Berry, was killed, similar to what is reported about the fictional 304th’s division commander in chapter XXI. Another interesting point that Crane knew about from articles in the Century was that Hooker had ordered that corps badges be worn on all uniforms. The badge worn by the First Division of the Third Corps was suggestively a red diamond. (The Second Division wore white diamond badges.) Given all this, it is possible that Crane came up with the number 304 by adding the numbers of four New York regiments in the Third Corps (the 40th, the 70th, the 74th, and the 120th; or the 40th, the 71st, the 73rd, and the 120th), which would numerically symbolize the cumula tion of the infantry’s experience during the battle. In chapter XXI, we learn that the name of the colonel in charge of the 304th is MacChesnay.
For a different assessment of how occurrences in the novel correspond to events at Chancellorsville, see Harold R. Hungerford, “ ‘That Was at Chancellorsville’ : The Factual Framework of The Red Badge of Courage,” American Literature 34 (1963), pp. 520-531.
Chapter V
22 (p. 33) “You’ve got to hold ’em back!”: In a bold, calculated stratagem, Lee had dispatched the bulk of his troops under the command of Lieutenant General Thomas J. (“Stonewall”) Jackson on a daring maneuver to surprise Union forces from the west—in essence, outflanking Hooker’s flanking maneuver. To divert attention from Jackson’s clandestine deployment, the remaining Confederate forces under Lee periodically engaged the Union center on May 2, where the fictional 304th had been deployed. Thus, despite the regimental commander’s histrionics here, this initial confrontation was only a diversionary action and was not where the brunt of the battle was to be fought that day.
23 (p. 34) the question of his piece being loaded: Fleming and his regiment were armed with muskets, probably either the Model 1861 Springfield (manufactured in the United States) or the Enfield (imported from England). An experienced infantryman could reload and fire within thirty seconds.
Chapter VI
24 (p. 43) a general of division: Quite possibly “Grandpa Henderson,” the division general later reported killed in chapter XXI.
Chapter VIII
25 (p. 51 ) imitative of some sublime drum major: Each Union regiment was allotted two musicians. Among other functions, a drummer would beat a tattoo to set the pace for an advance. Here Crane emphasizes one of a drum major’s noncombative roles—to strut before a band in parade.
26 (p. 51) “Sing a song ... pie”: Crane rewords the Mother Goose rhyme: “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye; four and twenty black-birds baked in a pie....” The alteration of the number to “five an’ twenty” may have been intended to correspond with the number of chapters in the original manuscript.
27 (p. 51) the specter of a soldier: Crane changes Conklin’s epithet from “the tall soldier” to “the specter” and later the “spectral soldier.” Fleming’s initial inability to recognize Conklin resembles an incident in Ambrose Bierce’s tale “One of the Missing” (published in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians), in which horror so disfigures an infantryman’s face that his own brother does not recognize him.
28 (p. 52) a tattered man: This is perhaps the most interesting of Crane’s epithets. Note how Crane avoids calling him a “soldier,” a term that associates an individual with an organization. The word “man” sets him apart from the army that surrounds him and thus emphasizes how war has broken him physically and psychologically and