A Gray Sleeve

by Stephen Crane

"It looks as if it might rain this afternoon," remarked the lieutenant of artillery. "So it does," the infantry captain assented. He glanced casually at the sky. When his eyes had lowered to the green-shadowed landscape before him, he said fretfully: "I wish those fellows out yonder would quit pelting at us. They've been at it since noon." At the edge of a grove of maples, across wide fields, there occasionally appeared little puffs of smoke of a dull hue in this gloom of sky which expressed an impending rain. The long wave of blue and steel in the field moved uneasily at the eternal barking of the far-away sharpshooters, and the men, leaning upon their rifles, stared at the grove of maples. Once a private turned to borrow some tobacco from a comrade in the rear rank, but, with his hand still stretched out, he continued to twist his head and glance at the distant trees. He was afraid the enemy would shoot him at a time when he was not looking.

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2013

About the author

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American novelist, poet and journalist, best known for the novel, The Red Badge of Courage. That work introduced the reading world to Crane's striking prose, a mix of impressionism, naturalism and symbolism. He died at age 28 in Badenweiler, Baden, Germany.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have arranged my thoughts on this short story into a haiku:

"Entranced at a glance,
What's more awkward than star-crossed,
Is that it's hot air."

[Darinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in The Stephen Crane Megapack: 94 Classic Works by the Author of The Red Badge of Courage.

A bit of romance in a Stephen Crane war story. After one encounter, a Union officer fell for a Confederate woman.

A Union army captain burst into a house because he and his men suspected Confederate soldiers were inside. To his surprise, a woman was standing inside the house and claimed there were no other people in the house. After his men searched the place, he told the woman he wanted to see her again. It was not possible though, because they were on opposing sides of the war.

This story was included in a collection of Crane's Civil War stories titled The Little Regiment and Other Civil War Stories. The other stories in the collection included The Little Regiment, A Mystery of Heroism, An Indiana Campaign, Three Miraculous Soldiers, The Veteran, and An Episode of War.