Henry Flemming underwent a major change as he became older. He became more courageous as an older man than he was as a youth. It may have been that he had not matured at the time of the war or that the war had changed him and made him more courageous. Regardless the reason, the older Henry Flemming was much more courageous than he was as a youth and there are a few situations in which he was able to prove that his courage had grown. Many times Henry would sit around and tell his stories of war.
When he was asked if he was ever scared, Henry would tell the people listening that in fact he did get scared during battles. In fact, he even told them that at his first battle, he was so frightened that he fled from it. Telling a group of people that you had a weakness and were so scared that you had to flee from the danger takes a lot of courage. When Henry was a youth at war, he was terrified that someone would find out that he had fled and he was terrified of what people would say if they found out that he had fled, but Henry developed the courage to be able to freely admit to it and even laugh about it.
Then, when he was in bed one evening, he arose out of bed to find his drunken help blabbering that the barn was on fire. When Henry ran outside, he discovered that the drunken helps lantern had caused the fire. Then, without thinking twice, Henry ran into the barn to rescue the animals. He rescued them even after he had been injured by one or more of them. When Henry was younger at war, he would always think twice or even more than twice before he went into battle, but the older Henry did not.
After Henry thought he had rescued all of the animals and that they were safe, the drunken help reminded him of the colts that he had left in the burning barn. Henry automatically decided that he had to get the colts out of the barn. The crowd of neighbors that had gathered told him that it was too dangerous and that it was just a suicide mission. Henry looked at the burning barn and, knowing that he was risking his life, he said that he had to at least attempt to rescue the colts anyways. When Henry was a youth at war, he always thought twice about every battle and if there was too much danger the he would flee from it.
When Henry remembered about the colts and, knowing it was extremely dangerous, still attempted to rescue them, the roof collapsed in on him and he was killed. When Henry was young at war, he was scared of battle and was not willing to die for his country, but the older Henry was courageous and willing to die in order to rescue a few colts from a burning barn. Henry Flemming as a youth was naive and had not matured and these conditions helped in the fact that Henry was not very courageous. He fled from battle and then was terrified of what people might think.
He always thought twice before every battle and if there was too much danger then Henry would remove himself from the situation. Then as Henry aged, he became much more courageous and there were many situations to prove that. He had enough courage to admit to being scared, to admit to fleeing from battle, to put himself in danger without thinking twice, and also to die in order to, at least, attempt to rescue. Henry as a youth was more cautious then courageous, and Henry as an older man was more courageous then cautious.