There was crimson clash of war.
Lands turned black and bare;
Women wept;
Babes ran, wondering.
There came one who understood not these things.
He said, “Why is this?”
Whereupon a million strove to answer him.
There was such intricate clamour of tongues,
That still the reason was not.
In this anti-war poem scared people try to flee from the horrors of war. But they don't know where they are going, also they don't mind it because they want to survive the war. The poem depicts the horrors in a simple and realistic style. Stephen Crane was a prominent author in literary realism and the poem is an example of this genre. The line “Babes ran, wondering.” supports this idea in which the proceeding lines explain it in a realistic manner, without any other implication. There is no reason to war if you are searching one.