The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, is the story of a Henry Fleming, a teenager from Illinois who joins the Illinois 304th regiment after hearing countless tales of heroism and bravery told by Civil War veterans who passed through his town. Wishing not to be left out, he enlists to fight as well, but the 304th spends a long winter and a part of the spring camped in the hills doing nothing. When they finally prepare for battle, Henry has serious doubts about the level of his bravery and whether or not he will stay and see through the fighting. In his first battle, his doubts are substantiated, and he deserts the battle. Determined to never show such fear again, he decides to never desert again and to die - to display the 'red badge of courage' - if need be. He stays true to his commitment and in his next several battles he fights very well, even recieving a commendation for his bravery; however, he cannot forget the shame from his first battle until much later. Stephen Crane wrote one of the most exciting Civil War tales of all time; the book is the kind that is so interesting that one does not wish to put it down. It is short and easy enough for any literate child to read and adults will also enjoy it. The books twenty-four chapters vary significantly in length but have one common theme they are alled filled with exciting tales and vivid descriptions, exemplified perfectly by the first by the first few lines: The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army's feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.