The Private History of a Campaign That Failed

"The Private History of a Campaign that Failed" is one of Mark Twain's sketches (1885), a short, highly fictionalized memoir of his two-week stint in the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard.Griffin, Benjamin, ed. (2019). Mark Twain's Civil War. Berkeley, California: The Bancroft Library, University of California. It takes place in Marion County, Missouri, and is about a group of inexperienced militiamen, the Marion Rangers, who end up killing a stranger in panic. In 1887, he claimed before Union veterans that he had been in one battle in which a stranger had been killed in the summer of 1861.Mark Twain explains why he turned his back in the Civil War In fact, Twain saw no action; he quipped that during his service he spent more time retreating while being hunted than fighting.History netCivil War Saga Mark Twain

Television film

In 1981, a made-for-television film adaptation of The Private History of a Campaign that Failed was broadcast on PBS starring Edward Herrmann, Pat Hingle, Joseph Adams, Harry Crosby and Kelly Pease. The film also adapts Twain's short story "The War Prayer".

Cast

Edward Herrmann as The Stranger Pat Hingle as Col. Ralls Joseph Adams as Capt. Tom Lyman Harry Crosby as Cpl. Ed Stevens Kelly Pease as Cab Gary McCleery as Second Lieutenant Roy Cockrum as Sgt. Bowers

References

External links

Full text mp3 audiobook 43:37 EPUB