Henry Fleming's The Red Badge Of Courage

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The Red Badge Of Courage The Red Badge of Courage is a fictitious psychosomatic representation of a young war fighter named Henry Fleming, following his experiences and reactions to events that come to light during an unnamed battle of the Civil War. Henry is a mediocre farm boy from the northern part of New York, who envisions the disillusioned glory and honor in battles that he has read about in his school books. At a young age he has enlisted in the 304th New York regiment. The 304th New York regiment is a unit of the Union Army, or the “North”. The Union army is fighting the Confederates or “The South” to abolish slavery in the United States. The novel begins with Henry's regiment in a bivouac sits (camp) by a river, where they have been stagnant for several months. Anecdotes of an upcoming battle spread among the men like a plague, although the rumors are empty, and the unending anticipation throws our young Henry into a virulent internal fight. His thoughts torment him and question…show more content…
Here Henry achieves the classic valor for which he has sought; he fights so hard and courageously that both his comrades and his command look up to him. Later, while looking for water, both Henry and Wilson overhear a high ranking officer speaking ill well of their regiment, saying he can spare them for a charge because they fight so poorly. This irritates them, and creates in Henry the desire to prove the command that they are wrong. The regiment is sent in to charge for the first time, and amongst insurmountable casualties, Henry saves the regiment's flag when the color bearer is shot. He becomes, along with Wilson, the noncommissioned leader of his regiment. The charge fundamentally fails at first and Henry's regiment is forced to withdrawal. Then however, they are charged by a Confederate regiment, and Henry's regiment repels the enemy, eventually taking

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