Born six years after the close of the Civil War, Stephen Crane was fascinated by the subject and read all materials he could find on the conflict. He found, however, that the accounts of battle were rather superficial; based solely on action, they lacked feeling. As a writer keenly attuned to human experience and emotions, Crane wanted to explore the soldiers' emotions during battle. He created The Red Badge of Courage to expose the human side of warfare. Written when Crane was twenty-three, the novel is a realistic account of a young man's struggle to come to terms with the brutality of war and his own fear of death and cowardice, as contrasted with romantic notions of glory through battle. Published just before the nation began the Spanish-American War, The Red Badge of Courage served as testimony to the horrors of battle on any front.
Civil War. The Civil War began in April 1861 and lasted through May 1865. The conflict between the Northern and Southern sections of the United States arose in 1860 when seven Southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America.
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