The story begins and a soldier named Jim, also called the tall soldier, is telling everyone that he has heard the troops are going to be moved. The main character, Henry, is troubled with the thought of finally fighting and takes time to think about this, and his prior thoughts of the glory of battle, and how he will actually react when faced with the machine of war. The troops march for a few days the thought of what he will do in battle still flies through Henry's mind. One morning Henry is woken to fight. Henry finds that he does not trust the people he is around and begins to feel a great danger in his situation however they never do fight in this encounter. Henry no longer feels threatened by the area they had taken. Later Henry finds himself in the middle of a fierce battle. People pass him running away from the fight ahead. Henry finds he is a machine firing and fighting without thought. After a brief pause in shooting Henry finds himself running with everyone from the fight. Later he finds that more men that were sent into battle were actually victorious where he failed. Henry wanders farther only to return and join with wounded soldiers leavening the battle. Henry is deeply shamed for posing as a wounded soldier and equally disturbed over the death of a friend of his. Overwhelmed by guilt he heads back to the battlegrounds only to be over run by fleeing soldiers. While trying to find what is happening by grabbing a soldier he is hit on the head by that mans musket as he leaves. After stumbling around for a while Henry is helped back to the regiment by a soldier he didn't get a chance to see the man's face.
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