Mark Twain

Close Reading Essay on Mark Twain’s “A Private History of a Campaign That Failed”            Mark Twain’s “A Private History of a Campaign That Failed” seems to be his way of liberating himself from the guilt he feels from what happened while he was part of the Civil War on the shores of
Missouri.  This short story is told in the first person by Mark Twain and he gives descriptions of how naïve and young the soldiers in his military group are.  I feel that this story is told in the first person because he wants to explain why he left the war, and give the reasons behind his decision.                          Through characterization he develops the story, he begins by giving examples of who the soldiers are, “Another was Ed Stevens, son of the town jeweler, trim built, handsome, graceful, neat as a cat, bright, educated, but given over entirely to fun.  There was nothing serious in life to him.  As far as he was concerned, this military expedition of ours was simply a holiday” (Private 2).   The men in the military group did not have any experience of real war, and had no idea what they were getting themselves into.  The men were basically not the war or soldier type, if you will.    He gives another example of a man, like him, that was not ready to be a soldier, “Joe Bowers, another sample, was a huge, good natured, flax headed lubber, lazy, sentimental, full of harmless brag, a grumbler by nature, an experience and industrious ambitious and often quite picturesque liar, and yet not a successful one for he had no intelligent training but was allowed to come up just anyways (Private 3).  With these examples of the company he was with, I feel, he was trying to again explain his reasons for leaving the war without adding anything to the war effort while he was in the war