Henry Fleming broods in camp, obsessed with whether he will run when battle comes. He questions his mother's practical advice and romanticizes ancient glory.

Rumors of battle ignite and collapse. Henry probes other soldiers for signs of fear, desperate to know whether his dread is shameful or universal.

The regiment finally moves toward battle. Henry begins to feel the collective momentum of the army overriding individual will, and prepares for the unknown.

Henry's regiment encounters its first combat. He holds the line through the initial Confederate assault and briefly feels the intoxication of shared battle fury.

A second Confederate charge breaks Henry's resolve. He panics and runs, abandoning his regiment to continue fighting without him.

Fleeing deeper into the woods, Henry finds a squirrel that flees a thrown pine cone — 'proof' that flight is natural law. He then discovers a corpse in a forest clearing he expected to be a sanctuary.

Henry joins a column of retreating wounded soldiers and discovers his envy: they have the red badge of courage — visible proof of bravery — and he has nothing.

Henry walks with a badly wounded 'tattered man' who keeps asking where Henry was hit. Unable to endure the question, Henry abandons him in a field.

Henry joins a stream of panicking retreating soldiers, grabs one by the arm demanding information, and is clubbed on the head with a rifle butt by a fleeing Union soldier. He staggers away with his unearned wound.

A mysterious 'cheery soldier' guides the dazed and wounded Henry through the dark back to his regiment, then vanishes. Henry never sees his face.

Wilson tends Henry's wound, now a changed man — humble, competent, caring. Henry realizes Wilson has achieved what he has only performed: genuine self-knowledge through facing fear.

Morning. Henry, tended and rested, takes stock. He dreads that his cowardice will be discovered, but his wound protects him. The regiment prepares for another day of battle.

The regiment is ordered into another engagement. Henry fights mechanically at first, then with a growing fury that surprises even himself. His behavior begins to distinguish him.

Henry and Wilson charge ahead of their regiment, and when the color sergeant is shot, Henry seizes the flag. Carrying the colors becomes Henry's central act of the battle.

Henry and Wilson lead a charge on a Confederate-held fence. The regiment takes prisoners. Officers praise Henry's performance. He begins to believe in the version of himself the battle has produced.

Henry and Wilson's regiment charges again, heavily opposed. Henry fights with full ferocity, takes the colors of a Confederate regiment. The battle ends.

The battle over, Henry reviews what he has done. He feels pride but also a beginning of self-knowledge — a shadow-image of his earlier cowardice that he cannot yet fully confront.

Henry marches away from the battlefield. He tells himself he has earned manhood. The narrator's irony gently but unmistakably undercuts his self-congratulation.