The Red Badge of Courage Chapter 8 Summary

  • Henry starts heading back the way he came. The noise of the battle is incredible. He realizes that the battles before (when? Which battles?) are nothing compared to this.
  • There are dead men lying everywhere. Torn and bleeding men are limping and howling and falling to the ground.
  • He sees a wounded man with a shoe-full of blood, hopping like "a schoolboy in a game" and laughing hysterically (8.16).
  • A "tattered man" latches on to Henry and tries to talk to him. He keeps asking Henry where he is wounded.
  • Henry moves as far away from the tattered man as he can. (This is called "avoidance.")