English Audio Request

In this extract from “The Red Badge of Courage”, Henry Fleming a new recruit to the Union army, speaks of the doubts and fears that troubled him – just as they have troubled most new recruits in every country since war began.

The division began to move away from the field, and went off in the direction of the river. When Henry noticed this, he breathed a sigh of satisfaction. “Well, it’s all over,” he said to Wilson.
Henry thought about events on the battlefield. He had been in a world of shot and shell fire, and at last he had come out of it. He had seen blood and passion, and he had escaped death. As the thought of his deeds, failures and achievements, he decided he had not done badly on the whole.
Henry was thinking of some deeds in action with pleasure and pride. He remembered the lieutenant’s words that gave him such a thrill. “If I had ten thousand wild cats like you, I could finish off this war in less than a week.” Henry would never forget this.
Nevertheless, there was the fact of his running away from that first battle. That still made him feel a sense of shame. Many of his fellows had run to – that was natural – but that was not excuse.
But yet at the back of his mind, the knowledge that he had desert the tattered soldier remained. It was an error that would remain with him all his life. And if he lived to be a hundred, he would still remember the look in the man’s eyes.
Ahead of him were peaceful skies, fresh meadows and cool brooks. Over the river a golden ray of sunshine came through the gray of the rainy clouds.