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Title: The Little Regiment
And Other Episodes of the American Civil War

Author: Stephen Crane

Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #31488]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE LITTLE REGIMENT

AND OTHER EPISODES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

BY STEPHEN CRANE

Author of The Red Badge of Courage, and Maggie

COPYRIGHT, 1896,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

_Copyright, 1895, 1896, by Stephen Crane._

CONTENTS.

THE LITTLE REGIMENT

THREE MIRACULOUS SOLDIERS

A MYSTERY OF HEROISM

AN INDIANA CAMPAIGN

A GRAY SLEEVE

THE VETERAN

THE LITTLE REGIMENT.

I.

The fog made the clothes of the men of the column in the roadway seem of
a luminous quality. It imparted to the heavy infantry overcoats a new
colour, a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might have been
merely a long, low shadow in the mist. However, a muttering, one part
grumble, three parts joke, hovered in the air above the thick ranks, and
blended in an undertoned roar, which was the voice of the column.

The town on the southern shore of the little river loomed spectrally, a
faint etching upon the gray cloud-masses which were shifting with oily
languor. A long row of guns upon the northern bank had been pitiless in
their hatred, but a little battered belfry could be dimly seen still
pointing with invincible resolution toward the heavens.

The enclouded air vibrated with noises made by hidden colossal things.
The infantry tramplings, the heavy rumbling of the artillery, made the
earth speak of gigantic preparation. Guns on distant heights thundered
from time to time with sudden, nervous roar, as if unable to endure in
silence a knowledge of hostile troops massing, other guns going to
position. These sounds, near and remote, defined an immense
battle-ground, described the tr