Most critics agree that the setting of Stephen Crane's The
Red Badge of Courage is in Virginia, and the battle that is mentioned with the
question: The Battle of Chancellorsville, a major battle of the Civil War which took
place from April 30 to May 6 in 1863. This battle pitted the Union Army against a
Confederate army half its size, a battle that came to be known as Lee's "perfect battle"
because of its risky but successful division of his army in the presence of such a
puissant force.
The Chancellorsville campaign began with
the crossing of the Rappahannock River by the Union Army on the morning of April 27,
1863. Heavy fighting began on May 1 and did not end until the Union forces retreated
across the river on the nights of May 5-6.
Crane's
descriptions of the bush and thicket is suggestive of the wilderness a few miles west of
Fredericksburg, Virginia and the battle on May 1, 1963, in which Hooker ordered an
advance to strike Anderson. a battle seen by many Union commanders as a key to victory.
Perhaps, this is the victorious battle in which Henry Fleming and his friend Wilson lead
the 304th regiment so valorously.
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