Close Reading Essay
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” (Twain 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 (Twain 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.
During the story, the imagery used sets a picture of who the soldiers are, and how they are being affected by their situation of being in war. “The first hour was all fun, all idle nonsense and laughter. But that could not be kept up. The steady drudging became like work, the place had somehow oozed out of it, the stillness of the woods and the somberness of the night began to throw a depressing influence over the spirits of the boys and presently the talking had died out and each person shut himself up in his own thoughts”(Twain 3). The men are having fun until it sets in that they are in war, trying to repel the invader, and this is not actually all fun and games. The next test the men had was to assault a group of Union soldiers, who they had come across, however the young men were so afraid that they did not follow their sergeant’s orders. “We realized with a cold suddenness that here was no jest—we were standing face to face with actual war. We were equal to the occasion. In our response there was no hesitation, no indecision. We said that if Lyman wanted to meddle with those soldiers he could go ahead and do it, but if he waited for us to follow him he would wait a long time” (Twain 3). The men were grouped in Missouri to fight against the Union Soldiers that had invaded their shore line; however these men had no authority in their group and did not do as they were told due to fear of dying. The men were hiding from the enemy instead of standing up and fighting for their land. The soldiers decided to go against their sergeant’s orders and went around the Union Soldiers camp instead of fighting them, and they made it around without being detected. “Horse play and laughing began again. The expedition had become a holiday frolic once more” (Twain 4). After the soldiers realized that they went around the enemy successfully they were so relieved that they were back to how they were at the beginning of the mission.
The author uses the setting to create a sense of aloneness, and fear of the unknown, because the soldiers are walking through the woods, and setting up camps along the way at random places. During their journey strangers come by their camps and give them insight as to whether the enemy is in their area, or not. When the soldiers are told that the enemy is near, they usually moved their camp so they did not get caught. The author states, “Our scares were frequent. Every few days rumors would come that the enemy were approaching. In these cases we fell back on some other camp of ours; we never stayed where we were” (Twain 10). There is one occasion, however, when the men decide to stay at their camp because most of the warnings that had come from strangers about the enemy being near were false. I feel the setting and imagery is used here to create mystery at the climax of the story. “We were all there, all there with our hearts in our throats and staring out towards the sugar-troughs where the forest footpath came through. It was late and there was a deep woodsy stillness everywhere. There was a veiled moonlight which was only just strong enough to enable us to mark the general shapes of objects. Presently a muffled sound caught our ears and we recognized the hoof-beats of a horse or horses. And right away, a figure appeared in the forest path” (Twain 11). The men decided to ignore the warning that the enemy was in the area, and now someone was coming near their camp, that they decided to stay at, so all the men are frightened and on edge, and there is not enough light to see who is coming, which creates more fear of the unknown.
The men are all fearful of who is standing in the path, but are too afraid, and too inexperienced to think through the situation. “I was so dazed with fright. Somebody said “Fire!” I pulled the trigger, I seemed to see a hundred flashes and a surprised gratification” (Twain 11). The man on the horse had been shot, and the men came out of hiding and went to him to see who he was; he was a stranger, who was not a soldier, and was unarmed.
Six shots had been fired; the author was not the only one that had fired, even though at first he thought he was, so his burden of guilt subsided slightly, however not completely. He states, “The thought of him got to preying on me every night, I could not get rid of it. I could not drive it away, the taking of that unoffending life seemed such a wanton thing…my campaign was spoiled” (Twain 12). So, due to the author being overwhelmed by the thought that he actually killed someone, it consumed him, and eventually made his mind up to go home, and leave the war.
The theme of this story could be that even though your efforts seem unimportant or pointless at the time, one’s efforts and lessons learned are still taken, and carried away from every situation good or bad. In the ending of this story the author states, “I could have become a soldier myself if I had waited. I had got part of it learned, I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating” (Twain 14). Jokingly he states that he did take a lesson from his time in war; however he learned many things about himself, and who he is during his time at war, as well as the other men that were there with him.