The battlefield was detailed differently by various writers. In Stephen Crane's Fictional work, he presents his hero which is Henry Flemming as a child who wants to receive "the red badge of courage" in order to show his "patriotism and manhood".
In "The Crater" written by L. Tracy Power, is a factual work, based on true evidences.
The two readings are different because one is based on evidences which have happened, and the other is based on imagination and facts which did not necessarily take place.
In Stephen Crane's work, memories are at first evocated followed by an instant change of situation when someone cried "Here they come!". In this passage, the battlefield seems to be a place of torture. "... rushing toward him as against the swirling battle phantoms which were chocking him, stuffing their smoke robs down his parched throat." Starting on page 112, the individuality of each warrior is crucial. Each warrior has a task to accomplish Stephen Crane describes the ambience as chaotic; "making low toned noises with their mouths, and these subdued cheers, snarls imprecations, prayers, make a wild, barbaric song...". As explained by Mr. Crane, many bullets were wasted due to the smoke and unclear atmosphere. The battlefield seemed very unorganised, "The Crater" is a reading about events which occurred in the past. Strategy is far more important than the military power in this reading. The Crater has of course many more details of how the battlefield was like since the people who talks about it in this reading experienced it. In this reading, the soldiers knew when the battle would happen: it was planned to happen in 10 days. Land mines, was used as a new kind of weapon. Attacking troops were "blown away" after stepping on these mines.
Lee's army having a powerful land power filled with mines, gave no other solution to Grant but to attack from under. He and his men digged a tunnel for more than a month and...