Art - Morristown-Beard School

Hey y’all,
How y’all doing today? My name is Henry. I’m gonna tell y’all bout my growin’ up during the Civil
War. About 30 years ago they wrote a book called The Red Badge of Courage bout me. I was called th’ youth.
I thought goin to war would let me look good witth’ pretty ladies and I would come back a hero, well I eventu-
ally came back a hero but all that dirty stuff I saw, I had to do a little growin’ up first. My mom did always
tell me to fight honestly and squarely even if it means sacrificing my life. Well I wasn’t really in the war, I
waas something called a flag bearer. So this war was between the blue guys, the Union Army. That was me.
And the gray guys, the Confederates.
I’ll just skippity to the best part. We had just finished a battle, we had fought th’ battle hard but we
didn’t get to where we wanted to be. When we met up with th’ other regiment, they all harassed us cause we
didn’t get to Whiterside. All of us felt a little bad and a tiny bit uppity, but then some of th’ men came back
and said who was that little lad what wuz carryin’ the flag. He was right in th’ front where he was suppose
to be. He and his friend Wilson were doin’ a great job. I can’t believe that the lieutenant said good job to me.
I was some jimhickey lad helping out and I’m getting noticed by the lieutenant. So we trudged on and on and
soon enough I saw men ducking and dodging past shells that were bein thrown in buckets. The shots of the
rifles were so loud I felt like I was just sittin’ in between two gunmen. I saw two regiments fightin’ in a separate
battle with two other regiments. In a different direction, I saw a big brigade trying to drive the enemy
from some woods. After a little while I saw that same brigade marching out with its English style formation.
As I was standin’ away from the battle the rifles stopped. I heard men shouting, it came from the blue men,
and I could see our flags raised in the air. Everything was quiet for a while, but then all of a sudden rifles
started goin’ off an’ over the hill I saw bunches men a swarmin. Two big waves of gray and blue were goin’
at each other. The advantage was goin back and forth, but both sides were goin’ at it while screamin’ and
yelling. Men fought over positions to be behind trees and fences. Men were being assaulted left and right. An
enemy’s line was comin’ within range. All our men suddenly froze, they all started firing their rifles without
command. The enemy took great position on th’ fence that was separating the two regiments. Th’ blue started
to bleed badly and bodies began to drop. The blue regiment was told to charge ‘em, they had to go farther.
Soldiers began to leap forward and blue started to feel a bit of success. A big cloud of smoke was over the
fence and behind it lay bloody soldiers and rifles on the ground. Everything was going through my head, my
thoughts were crazy. But then I saw their flag waving and I just knew that I had to get it. Getting that flag
meant everything to me. My friend went towards the flag and wrenched it from the color bearer as he died.
We finally got the flag, we all threw our caps in the air and we had four prisoners.
It was probably the best feeling in my whole entire life when my friend and I rested in the grass with
our treasures.
(ispired by The Red Badge of Courage)
40
Jared Bernstein