In Chapters 3 and 4, Crane uses rumors to play on Henry's fears and doubts. To this point, Henry has observed battles, but his regiment has not yet been in a battle. Fear — in this case, fear of the unknown — grows because Henry has not yet seen the enemy. (The reader experiences the war through Henry's eyes, so the reader easily identifies with Henry's fear of the unknown, unseen enemy.) Indeed, the fear of the unknown is greater than the fear of facing the problem directly. This fear of the unknown is a normal human behavior, one with which all people can identify, and, as a result, the reader can empathize with Henry.
Chapter 5 brings the first real shift in Henry's character. It is the first day of the first battle for Henry and his regiment. Henry stands his ground and fires, forgetting his fears and doubts about his performance. The reader wonders if Henry has crossed the line from youth to man as a result of his first battle. The answer to this question comes in Chapter 6, when Henry experiences another character shift. In Chapter 6, the enemy troops immediately regroup to begin another charge. This move surprises the Union troops, including Henry, and his fears return. Indeed, he becomes so afraid that he drops his rifle and runs as the enemy approaches. Henry, as a result, returns to being a boy. Crane uses the quick shifts in Henry's character from chapter to chapter to show Henry's unstable mental condition; his courage and commitment to duty don't come from within, but are entirely influenced by external forces which whip him from one extreme to the other.
Henry remains a frightened boy as he continues to run and to try to determine if, when, and how he should return to his regiment to face the ridicule which he thinks that he will surely receive. In Chapter 12, a cheery soldier befriends him and returns him to his regiment. Prior to meeting the cheery soldier, Henry received a head injury inflicted on him by another fleeing soldier, and he left another comrade, a wounded, tattered soldier, wandering in a field because this soldier asked too many questions about him — questions which he refused to answer at that time. Henry's behavior continues to be boyish and immature.
