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Chapters
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The Red Badge of Courage has 24 chapters.
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Chapters24 items
Chapter 1
Henry Fleming, a young Union soldier, waits in camp and obsesses over whether the regiment will finally see battle. A rumor spreads that the army is moving out, which sets off a w…
Chapter 2
The regiment marches but sees no action, and the waiting gets worse. Henry talks with Jim Conklin and a loud, cynical soldier named Wilson, who brags that he will perform well in…
Chapter 3
The regiment keeps marching through the night and into unfamiliar terrain. Henry sees a dead soldier on the road, his first encounter with an actual corpse.
Chapter 4
The regiment reaches the edge of the fighting and waits while another unit engages the enemy nearby. Henry watches the other soldiers being shot and hears the full noise of battle…
Chapter 5
Henry's regiment engages the enemy. In the chaos of his first real firefight, Henry stops thinking and starts shooting mechanically.
Chapter 6
Henry watches the second wave of Confederate soldiers charge and sees Union men around him break and run. He panics and flees too, convinced the battle is lost and that any soldie…
Chapter 7
Henry moves deeper into the woods away from the fighting, looking for nature to confirm that running was the right call.
Chapter 8
Henry moves toward the sound of renewed fighting and joins a column of wounded soldiers heading to the rear. He feels shame walking among men who were actually hurt.
Chapter 9
Jim Conklin dies. Henry and a tattered soldier watch Jim's final moments as he staggers away from the road and collapses in a field.
Chapter 10
Henry walks with the tattered soldier, who keeps asking where Henry is wounded. The questions are innocent but they cut Henry open because he has no wound to show.
Chapter 11
Henry watches other soldiers retreating in panic and feels a complicated mix of envy and shame. He has run from battle, but now he sees men who fought and are still losing.
Chapter 12
Henry gets the wound he wanted, but not through battle. A retreating soldier hits him on the head with a rifle butt while Henry grabs at the man trying to get information.
Chapter 13
Henry returns to his regiment at night and finds Wilson on guard duty. Wilson helps him without suspicion, assuming the head wound came from battle.
Chapter 14
Henry wakes up the next morning inside the regiment. He watches the men around him and notices how Wilson has changed: quieter, more confident, less in need of attention.
Chapter 15
Henry remembers that he gave Wilson a packet of letters before the first battle, letters Wilson had asked him to hold in case he died.
Chapter 16
Henry and Wilson march with the regiment, and Henry starts to feel a quiet superiority over the men around him. He clings to the idea that he has seen more of war's reality than o…
Chapter 17
Battle starts again and Henry fights with a fury that surprises even himself. He keeps shooting long after others around him have stopped, almost in a trance of rage.
Chapter 18
Henry and Wilson are sent to get water and overhear two officers discussing the upcoming charge. One officer says the regiment will probably take heavy losses and names Henry's un…
Chapter 19
The regiment charges. Henry throws himself into it and fights hard.
Chapter 20
The regiment retreats under heavy fire and tries to regroup. Henry holds the captured flag and keeps moving.
Chapter 21
After the regiment's charge, Henry and Wilson are singled out by the lieutenant colonel for their bravery, but they also overhear a general dismissing the regiment as mule drivers…
Chapter 22
The regiment is thrown back into fighting. Henry battles with focus and something close to fury, no longer thinking about fear or reputation.
Chapter 23
The regiment makes a desperate charge against a Confederate position and captures the enemy flag. Henry and Wilson both push forward aggressively.
Chapter 24
The battle ends and the regiment marches away. Henry reflects on everything that happened to him over the two days of fighting.
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