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By Root 183 0

“Oh,” he said, comprehending: Fleming’s unease when he realizes that others notice his actions under fire ironically anticipates an incident that occurred later when Crane was a war correspondent in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898. In the company of the Rough Riders, who at one point were pinned down by enemy fire, Crane needlessly and nonchalantly strolled along a ridge in his white rain slicker, smoking his pipe and inviting a hail of Spanish bullets. He ignored the orders of an American colonel and others to regain cover until fellow correspondent and fiction writer Richard Harding Davis commented, “You’re not impressing anyone by doing that, Crane,” at which point a self-conscious, embarrassed Crane ended his show of bravado and rejoined the entrenched troops.

Chapter XVIII

42 (p. 100) th’ 12th ... th’ 76th ... th’ 304th: The officer’s omission of state names before regimental numbers may be because all are from New York, as was the case for the actual Second Brigade of the Second Division in the Third Corps.

Chapter XXI

43 (p. 114) Whiterside: This is probably a commander of another brigade in Fleming’s division.

Chapter XXII

44 (p. 117) a house: This is possibly the Bullock house, a structure that stood near a strategic crossroads just north of Chancellorsville.

Chapter XXIII

45 (p. 122) “We must charge’m!”: A “charge” is among the more desperate of military tactics. It concedes that a sizable percentage of a regiment will become casualties while traversing open ground, yet presumes that the size of the advancing force will not be depleted by gunfire before overrunning the enemy’s position and that its survivors will overwhelm the defending force and take the position. History is replete with examples of commanders who miscalculated the strength of their own and opposing forces.

Chapter XXIV

46 (p. 129) “we got a dum good lickin‘”: Although some historians argue that Hooker still had enough forces in reserve to win the battle, his decision to withdraw iced the cake of the Confederate victory. Union casualties for the battle totaled 17,304 killed, wounded, and missing; Confederate casualties totaled 13,460 killed, wounded, and missing. The next major battle in the East would come two months later at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

47 (p. 130) as if hot plowshares: The metaphor comes from the popular religious symbol taken from the Bible, Isaiah 2:4: “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares.”

The Open Boat

1 (p. 131) The Open Boat: In November 1896, Crane traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, employed as a correspondent by a newspaper syndicate. He had been assigned to cover the Cuban insurrection against Spanish authority and so tried to secure passage on any available “filibuster” vessel, one that would run the blockade of the island to transport supplies and personnel. This was the only way an American reporter could make his way to the fighting. After a month of intrigue and frustration, on January 1, 1897, he embarked on the steamer Commodore, which was to convey weapons, supplies, and rebel troops to Cuba. Under mysterious circumstances, the vessel sank rapidly in the open ocean on January 2, drowning many crew members and passengers. Crane and three others escaped certain death in a small, precarious dinghy and rowed their way back to Florida’s east coast, where they landed near Daytona Beach on the morning of January 3. William Higgins, an oilman, was killed after the boat capsized in the surf On January 7 Crane published in the New York Press a news account of his experience that focuses on events involving the sinking and almost entirely ignores the thirty hours spent in the dinghy. During the following months, while recuperating in Jacksonville, he composed “The Open Boat,” which reverses the focus in the newspaper article. He first published the story in the June 1897 issue of Scribner’s Magazine and later collected it in The Open Boat and Other Stories (1898).

2 (pp. 133—34) the cook ... the oiler ... the correspondent ... the captain: The captain’s name was Edward Murphy, the oilman