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Mark Twain in 1863

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.[1] 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.[2] In fact, Twain saw no action; he quipped that during his service he spent more time retreating while being hunted than fighting.)[3][4]

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

  1. ^ Griffin, Benjamin, ed. (2019). Mark Twain's Civil War. Berkeley, California: The Bancroft Library, University of California.
  2. ^ Mark Twain explains why he turned his back in the Civil War
  3. ^ History net
  4. ^ Civil War Saga Mark Twain

External links