Existing comment:
The Red Badge of Courage and Chancellorsville:
Henry Fleming, the main character in Stephen Crane's classic The Red Badge of Courage, did not name the battle that was his baptism of fire in that book, but in another short story, he did. "That was Chancellorsville," Fleming declared.
Historian agree that the fighting depicted in The Red Badge of Courage reflects the intense combat at Chancellorsville on the morning of May 3, 1863. Though born after the Civil War, Crane grew up around Civil War veterans and took an intense interest in their experiences. Crane's prose and descriptive abilities were so powerful that some doubted that the book could have been written by one who was not there. |