Preparing for the Battle

El soldado observa el avance del ejército, las dificultades del camino y la preparación para la batalla. El camino estaba lleno de masas de carruajes, mulas y hombres, de donde se escuchaban gritos, órdenes e insultos…

En vocabulario encontramos teamster, que nos llevó a bullwacker, muletter y outfitter.

Del clásico de Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage…

 

He became aware that the furnace roar of the battle was growing louder. Great blown clouds had floated to the still heights of air before him. The noise, too, was approaching. The woods filtered men and the fields became dotted.

As he rounded a small hill, he perceived that the roadway was now a crying mass of wagons, teams, and men. From the busy tangle issued exhortations, commands, imprecations. Fear was sweeping it all along. The cracking whips bit and horses plunged and moved. The white-topped wagons strained and stumbled in their exertions like fat sheep.

The youth felt comforted in a measure by this sight. They were all retreating. Perhaps, then, he was not so bad after all. He seated himself and watched the terror-stricken wagons. They fled like soft, ungainly animals. All the roarers and lashers served to help him to magnify the dangers and horrors of the engagement that he might try to prove to himself that the thing with which men could charge him was in truth a symmetrical act. There was an amount of pleasure to him in watching the wild march of this vindication.

Presently the calm head of a forward-going column of infantry appeared in the road. It came swiftly on. Avoiding the obstructions gave it the sinuous movement of a serpent. The men at the head hit mules with their musket stocks. They pushed teamsters indifferent to all howls. The men forced their way through parts of the dense mass by strength. The rounded head of the column pushed. The raving teamsters swore many strange oaths.

The commands to make way had the ring of a great importance in them. The men were going forward to the heart of the clamor. They were to confront the eager rush of the enemy. They felt the pride of their onward movement when the remainder of the army seemed trying to flow down this road. They forced teams about with a fine feeling that it was no matter so long as their column got to the front in time. This importance made their faces grave and stern. And the backs of the officers were very rigid.

As the youth looked at them the black weight of his woe returned to him. He felt that he was regarding a procession of chosen beings. The separation was as great to him as if they had marched with weapons of flame and banners of sunlight. He could never be like them. He could have wept in his longings… (Chapter 11, The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane)

 

Vocabulario

Teamster: one who drives a team or motortruck especially as an occupation.

Originalmente el término teamster se refería a una persona que manejaba un equipo, usualmente de bueyes, caballos o mulas, tirando una carreta.

Este término era común en la época de la guerra Mexico-Norteamericana (1848) y las guerras Indias a través del siglo 19 y comienzos del 20.

Otro término para esta ocupación era bullwhacker. Un teamster también puede manejar animales en conjunto, tales como un conjunto de mulas, en cuyo caso también era conocido como muleteer o muleskinner. Hoy esta persona puede ser llamada outfitter o packer.

 

Wagon manned by a teamster

El autor

Aunque Crane nació después de la guerra y no tenía experiencia sobre la misma, la novela es reconocida por su realismo. Empezó a escribirla en 1893, usando las descripciones de testigos contemporáneos como inspiración. Se cree que basó la batalla ficcional en la de Chancellorsville. También podría haber entrevistado a los veteranos del 124th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, conocidos como los Orange Blossoms. Inicialmente se serializó en diarios en 1894. La novela fue publicada completa en 1895.

 

De la web

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) - Final battle scene

Aunque sobreactuada esta escena de la guerra civil nos da una idea de lo que pudo ser en aquellos tiempos un combate.

 

Artículos relacionados

Como todo joven tiene ideales y deseos de gloria, pero la realidad le muestra otra cosa… Resumen, The Red Badge of Courage

No fue considerado un intelectual hasta que denunció la guerra en Vietnam, de la cual no sabía nada… Tom Wolfe

Como Mark Twain Hemingway fue periodista antes que novelista… Ernest Hemingway

 

Suscribíte al blog para recibir datos interesantes sobre los autores y sus obras.