Adam Enlists in the Army

Adam Trask's enlistment in the United States Army was not a voluntary act of patriotism but the culmination of a lifelong campaign by his father, Cyrus Trask, to force him into a military career. The event took place in Adam's childhood bedroom on the family farm in Connecticut, where he lay recovering from a savage beating administered by his half-brother Charles. On the third day of his convalescence, Cyrus demonstrated the power he had accumulated through his fabricated military reputation. A captain of cavalry and two sergeants in full dress uniform arrived at the house, their horses held by two privates in the dooryard. Lying in his bed, Adam was enlisted as a private in the cavalry, signing the Articles of War and taking the oath while his father and stepmother Alice looked on. Cyrus's eyes glistened with tears as he witnessed the fulfillment of his design.

Causes and Background

Cyrus Trask had long planned this moment. He had raised his sons on a regimen of close-order drill, forced marches with loaded knapsacks, and constant marksmanship practice, all designed to prepare them for what he considered the only honorable profession for a man. Adam had always hated the discipline, but he had also always been obedient, shrinking from violence and contention. The beating by Charles, which left Adam with a broken nose, split lips, and cracked ribs, had been triggered by Charles's jealousy over their father's favoritism. Cyrus had confessed to Adam that he loved him better than Charles, a revelation that only deepened the family's dysfunction. The enlistment was Cyrus's way of both rewarding Adam and asserting his control, a prize for his suffering and a poultice to his own pride.

What Happens

The enlistment ceremony itself was a carefully staged military spectacle. A captain of cavalry and two sergeants in blue dress uniform came to the house, their horses held by two privates in the dooryard. Adam, still stiff and aching from the beating, was enlisted as a private in the cavalry while lying in his bed. He signed the Articles of War and took the oath as his father and Alice looked on. Cyrus had used his influence with the War Department to arrange this, telling Adam, "I've put you in the cavalry for a reason. Barrack life is not a good life for long. But the cavalry has work to do. I made sure of that. You'll like going for the Indian country. There's action coming." Adam's only response was a quiet "Yes, sir." The event was not a public ceremony but a private, almost intimate affair, conducted in the same room where Adam had been beaten and where his stepmother had nursed him.

Consequences and Aftermath

The enlistment set Adam on a path that would define much of his adult life. He served five years in the cavalry, fighting in the Indian Wars, but he never developed the love for soldiering that his father had hoped for. Instead, he felt an increasing revulsion for violence, deliberately missing his targets and committing treason against his unit by refusing to kill. His nonviolence became a prejudice, and he ventured his life to bring in wounded men and volunteered for field hospital work. Despite this, he was commended three times and decorated for bravery. The experience of the army, combined with his father's earlier lectures on the nature of soldiering, left Adam with a deep and lasting ambivalence about authority, violence, and duty. The enlistment also severed him from his brother Charles, who remained on the farm, and from his father, who moved to Washington. It was the first step in a long journey that would take Adam from the rigid world of his father's making into the chaotic freedom of the open road, the degradation of a chain gang, and ultimately to the Salinas Valley, where he would attempt to build a new life.