The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane

"He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death."

Henry Fleming, a young private in the Union Army during the Civil War, flees from his first battle in terror. Wandering the battlefield, he witnesses the suffering of the wounded and feels shame for his cowardice. He returns to his regiment and fights with a desperate, almost animalistic fury, seeking a wound (a "red badge of courage") to validate his manhood.

Crane's novel is a pioneer of psychological realism. It stripped war of its romantic glory, focusing instead on the internal chaos, fear, and confusion of the individual soldier in combat.