The Red Badge of Courage - Historical Accuracy and Inspiration

Historical Accuracy and Inspiration

Although Crane once wrote in a letter that "You can tell nothing... unless you are in that condition yourself", he wrote The Red Badge of Courage without any experience of war. He would, however, later serve as a war correspondent during the Greco-Turkish and Spanish-American Wars. Nevertheless, the realistic portrayal of the battlefield in The Red Badge of Courage has often misled readers into thinking that Crane (despite being born six years after the end of the Civil War) was himself a veteran. While trying to explain his ability to write about battle realistically, Crane stated: "Of course, I have never been in a battle, but I believe that I got my sense of the rage of conflict on the football field, or else fighting is a hereditary instinct, and I wrote intuitively; for the Cranes were a family of fighters in the old days".

Crane drew from a variety of sources in order to realistically depict battle. Century's "Battles and Leaders" series served as direct inspiration for the novel, and one story in particular—Warren Lee Goss's "Recollections of a Private"—contains many parallels to Crane's work. Thomas Beer wrote in his problematic 1923 biography that Crane was challenged by a friend to write The Red Badge of Courage after having announced that he could do better than Émile Zola's La Débâcle. This anecdote, however, has not been substantiated. The metaphor of the "red badge of courage" itself may have been inspired by true events; historian Cecil D. Eby, Jr. noted that Union officer Philip Kearny's insisted his troops wear bright red unit insignia patches, which became known as marks of valor and bravery. While the 304th New York Volunteer Infantry is fictional, many strategies and occurrences in the novel echo actual events during the Civil War. Details concerning specific campaigns during the war, especially regarding battle formations and actions during the Battle of Chancellorsville, have been noted by critics.

It is believed that Crane listened to war stories in the town square of Port Jervis, New York (where his family at times resided) told by members of the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the Orange Blossoms. The Orange Blossoms first saw battle at Chancellorsville, which is believed by local historians to have been the inspiration for the battle depicted in The Red Badge of Courage. Furthermore, there was a Private James Conklin who served in the 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and Crane's short story "The Veteran", which was published in McClure's Magazine the year after The Red Badge of Courage, depicts an elderly Henry Fleming who specifically identifies his first combat experience as having occurred at Chancellorsville.