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
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