![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Mark_Twain_1863.jpg)
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
The Private History of a Campaign That Failed | |
---|---|
Written by | Philip H. Reisman Jr. |
Directed by | Peter H. Hunt |
Starring | Edward Herrmann Pat Hingle Joseph Adams Harry Crosby Kelly Pease |
Music by | William P. Perry |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Peter H. Hunt |
Cinematography | Walter Lassally |
Editor | Herbert H. Dow |
Running time | 89 minutes |
Production company | Nebraska Educational Television |
Original release | |
Network | PBS |
Release | April 6, 1981 |
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
- ^ Griffin, Benjamin, ed. (2019). Mark Twain's Civil War. Berkeley, California: The Bancroft Library, University of California.
- ^ Mark Twain explains why he turned his back in the Civil War
- ^ History net
- ^ Civil War Saga Mark Twain
External links
- Twain, Mark (1885). "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed". The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine. 31 (2): 193–204.
- Full text
- mp3 audiobook 43:37[permanent dead link]
- EPUB[permanent dead link]
- The Private History of a Campaign That Failed at IMDb