The Private History of a Campaign That Failed

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. 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. In fact, Twain saw no action; he quipped that during his service he spent more time retreating while being hunted than fighting.

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 (1981-04-06)

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
EPUB
The Private History of a Campaign That Failed at IMDb

v t e Mark Twain
Bibliography
Novels	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss
Short stories	"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" "1601" "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls"
Collections	Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories
Plays	Is He Dead?
Essays	"The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth
Nonfiction	Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science
Speeches	"Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women"
Places and events	Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy
Popular culture	Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical
Family	Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother)
Related	Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain National Forest National Tom Sawyer Days

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