The Red Badge of Courage Ch.5-6

After the long wait the enemy soldiers attack and Henry's regiment begins to fire right back at them. The Captain stands behind Henry's regiment giving orders. I guess he is wuss. Henry is starting lose his sense of being a lone, miserable outcast and begins to conceive of himself as a single cog in a machine. Then the lieutenant had to beat an one of his own for trying to retreat from the battle. Im not sure if they were losing the battle or not, but if it came down to my life, I think my life would be more important than taking someone else's life just because there my enemy, so yeah, that soldier is not in the wrong is they are losing the battle, now if they were winning the battle thats a whole different story, then he's a coward. At last, the enemy soldiers begin to retreat. Henry’s regiment lets out a cheer and the survivors heartily congratulate one another. Henry looks around; seeing the sun on the treetops and the bright blue sky, he is surprised that Nature keeps on going, with no regard for the bloody events of the field. Henry and other members of the regiment draw them selves out and praise each other fortitude and valor, shaking each others hand and smiling. Later on someone cried out that the enemy forces have come back for some more, all the men groan and prepare to repel the attack they are about to recieve. This time, Henry does not feel as though he is part of a machine. He thinks that the enemy soldiers must be awe-inspiring men to have such persistence, and he panics. One by one, soldiers from Henry’s regiment begin to jump up and flee from the line, and after a moment, Henry too runs away. Henry then flees from the battlefield, convinced that at any moment, the charging enemy horde will burst out of the forest and overrun him.