The Private History of a Campaign That Failed
# 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
