An episode of war

- Stephen Crane

 The lieutenant was dividing a coffee heap into many equal parts with his sword to distribute them among his corporals. Suddenly, he cried in pain and blood appeared on his sleeve. He was wounded by a bullet fired from the nearby forest. It was a sudden attack, so everybody, including the lieutenant himself, was astounded.

Breathing hoarsely, the lieutenant held his sword with his left hand and struggled to put it into the scabbard. The surprised corporals came forward to help him. A wound gives strange dignity to the bearer. A normally healthy person doesn’t want to have this dignity. His comrades were conscious not to hurt him while helping him put the sword in its place.

While returning from the battle field, he saw a general on a black horse watching the fighting soldiers. Several people were taking part in the fight with their own tasks. He heard the guns’ rattling sound.

He got information about the hospital from some soldiers who were lagging behind. Wonderfully, they knew everything about the war in detail.

When an officer saw him holding his wounded arm carefully, he scolded him as if he did not know how to become correctly wounded. The tied his handkerchief over the lieutenant’s wound.

The lieutenant reached the ‘hospital’ made of low white tents grouped around an old school house. He saw a man smoking pipe sitting his back against a tree. A surgeon passed by him and greeted him. But as soon as he saw his wound, his changed his face colour. The wound evidently placed him on a very low social plane. The doctor told him to follow him. As he was following, he felt he was going to jail.

The doctor amputated the lieutenant’s wounded arm. When he reached home, his sisters, his mother and his wife cried. He felt ashamed of his wound.