John B. Van Petten

9HE STRONG possibility that reminiscences of the Reverend John B. Van Petten influenced the adolescent mind of Stephen Crane while Crane was at Claverack College in i888 and I889 was first advanced by Professor Lyndon Upson Pratt a number of years ago.' In his convincing discussion Pratt pointed out that Van Petten, as chaplain of the 34th New York Volunteers, probably had witnessed the rout of that regiment at Antietam, and that his later memories of that unhappy event may well have provided a source for some of the action of The Red Badge of Courage. Professor Pratt's findings led him to conclude that It seems altogether possible that The Red Badge of Courage owes more to General Van Petten than to any other single source of influence.... It seems certain that the elderly Van Petten, who had real war anecdotes to tell, was exactly the sort of man to whom Crane would have been

American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · History