Discussion Text

English • Grade 10

12.1. The Historical Approach

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Read the text and answer the questions that follow.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Ambrose Bierce

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift
water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound
with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber
above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid
upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his
executioners—two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in
civil life may have been a deputy sheriff. At a short remove upon the same temporary
platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank, armed. He was a captain. A sentinel
at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as "support," that
is to say, vertical in front of the left shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm
thrown straight across the chest—a formal and unnatural position, enforcing an erect
carriage of the body. It did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what
was occurring at the center of the bridge; they merely blockaded the two ends of the
foot planking that traversed it.

Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad ran straight away into a
forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view. Doubtless there was an
outpost farther along. The other bank of the stream was open ground—a gentle slope
topped with a stockade of vertical tree trunks, loopholed for rifles, with a single
embrasure through which protruded the muzzle of a brass cannon commanding the
bridge. Midway up the slope between the bridge and fort were the spectators—a

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single company of infantry in line, at "parade rest," the butts of their rifles on the
ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands
crossed upon the stock. A lieutenant stood at the right of the line, the point of his
sword upon the ground, his left hand resting upon his right. Excepting the group of
four at the center of the bridge, not a man moved. The company faced the bridge,
staring stonily, motionless. The sentinels, facing the banks of the stream, might have
been statues to adorn the bridge. The captain stood with folded arms, silent,
observing the work of his subordinates, but making no sign. Death is a dignitary who
when he comes announced is to be received with formal manifestations of respect,
even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and
fixity are forms of deference.

The man who was engaged in being hanged was apparently about thirty-five years of
age. He was a civilian, if one might judge from his habit, which was that of a planter.
His features were good—a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from which his
long, dark hair was combed straight back, falling behind his ears to the collar of his
well fitting frock coat. He wore a moustache and pointed beard, but no whiskers; his
eyes were large and dark gray, and had a kindly expression which one would hardly
have expected in one whose neck was in the hemp. Evidently this was no vulgar
assassin. The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons,
and gentlemen are not excluded.

The preparations being complete, the two private soldiers stepped aside and each
drew away the plank upon which he had been standing. The sergeant turned to the
captain, saluted and placed himself immediately behind that officer, who in turn
moved apart one pace. These movements left the condemned man and the sergeant
standing on the two ends of the same plank, which spanned three of the cross-ties of
the bridge. The end upon which the civilian stood almost, but not quite, reached a
fourth. This plank had been held in place by the weight of the captain; it was now held
by that of the sergeant. At a signal from the former the latter would step aside, the
plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties. The

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arrangement commended itself to his judgement as simple and effective. His face had
not been covered nor his eyes bandaged. He looked a moment at his "unsteadfast
footing," then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly
beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes
followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish
stream!

He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. The
water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some
distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift—all had distracted
him. And now he became conscious of a new disturbance. Striking through the
thought of his dear ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a
sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the
anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether
immeasurably distant or near by— it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as
slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each new stroke with impatience
and—he knew not why—apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively
longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds
increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he
feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.

He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. "If I could free my hands,"
he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could
evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and
get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little
ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance."

As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the
doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant.
The sergeant stepped aside.

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II

Peyton Farquhar was a well to do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama
family. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician, he was naturally
an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause. Circumstances of
an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from
taking service with that gallant army which had fought the disastrous campaigns
ending with the fall of Corinth, and he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing
for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for
distinction. That opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to all in wartime.
Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in the
aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the
character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier, and who in good faith and without
too much qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that
all is fair in love and war.

One evening while Farquhar and his wife were sitting on a rustic bench near the
entrance to his grounds, a gray-clad soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink
of water. Mrs. Farquhar was only too happy to serve him with her own white hands.
While she was fetching the water her husband approached the dusty horseman and
inquired eagerly for news from the front.

"The Yanks are repairing the railroads," said the man, "and are getting ready for
another advance. They have reached the Owl Creek bridge, put it in order and built a
stockade on the north bank. The commandant has issued an order, which is posted
everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridges,
tunnels, or trains will be summarily hanged. I saw the order."

"How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge?" Farquhar asked.

"About thirty miles."

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"Is there no force on this side of the creek?"

"Only a picket post half a mile out, on the railroad, and a single sentinel at this end of
the bridge."

"Suppose a man—a civilian and student of hanging—should elude the picket post and
perhaps get the better of the sentinel," said Farquhar, smiling, "what could he
accomplish?"

The soldier reflected. "I was there a month ago," he replied. "I observed that the flood
of last winter had lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier at this
end of the bridge. It is now dry and would burn like tinder."

The lady had now brought the water, which the soldier drank. He thanked her
ceremoniously, bowed to her husband and rode away. An hour later, after nightfall, he
repassed the plantation, going northward in the direction from which he had come.
He was a Federal scout.

III

As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness
and was as one already dead. From this state he was awakened—ages later, it seemed
to him—by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of
suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward
through every fiber of his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well
defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. They
seemed like streams of pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As to
his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of fullness—of congestion. These
sensations were unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his nature was
already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment. He was conscious

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of motion. Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely the fiery
heart, without material substance, he swung through unthinkable arcs of oscillation,
like a vast pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about him
shot upward with the noise of a loud splash; a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all
was cold and dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had
broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was no additional strangulation; the
noose about his neck was already suffocating him and kept the water from his lungs.
To die of hanging at the bottom of a river!—the idea seemed to him ludicrous. He
opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant,
how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became fainter and fainter until it
was a mere glimmer. Then it began to grow and brighten, and he knew that he was
rising toward the surface—knew it with reluctance, for he was now very comfortable.
"To be hanged and drowned," he thought, "that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be
shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair."

He was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his wrist apprised him that he
was trying to free his hands. He gave the struggle his attention, as an idler might
observe the feat of a juggler, without interest in the outcome. What splendid
effort!—what magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor!
Bravo! The cord fell away; his arms parted and floated upward, the hands dimly seen
on each side in the growing light. He watched them with a new interest as first one
and then the other pounced upon the noose at his neck. They tore it away and thrust
it fiercely aside, its undulations resembling those of a water snake. "Put it back, put it
back!" He thought he shouted these words to his hands, for the undoing of the noose
had been succeeded by the direst pang that he had yet experienced. His neck ached
horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great
leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. His whole body was racked and wrenched
with an insupportable anguish! But his disobedient hands gave no heed to the
command. They beat the water vigorously with quick, downward strokes, forcing him
to the surface. He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight; his
chest expanded convulsively, and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs

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engulfed a great draught of air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek!

He was now in full possession of his physical senses. They were, indeed,
preternaturally keen and alert. Something in the awful disturbance of his organic
system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before
perceived. He felt the ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they
struck. He looked at the forest on the bank of the stream, saw the individual trees, the
leaves and the veining of each leaf—he saw the very insects upon them: the locusts,
the brilliant bodied flies, the gray spiders stretching their webs from twig to twig. He
noted the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass. The
humming of the gnats that danced above the eddies of the stream, the beating of the
dragon flies' wings, the strokes of the water spiders' legs, like oars which had lifted
their boat—all these made audible music. A fish slid along beneath his eyes and he
heard the rush of its body parting the water.

He had come to the surface facing down the stream; in a moment the visible world
seemed to wheel slowly round, himself the pivotal point, and he saw the bridge, the
fort, the soldiers upon the bridge, the captain, the sergeant, the two privates, his
executioners. They were in silhouette against the blue sky. They shouted and
gesticulated, pointing at him. The captain had drawn his pistol, but did not fire; the
others were unarmed. Their movements were grotesque and horrible, their forms
gigantic.

Suddenly he heard a sharp report and something struck the water smartly within a
few inches of his head, spattering his face with spray. He heard a second report, and
saw one of the sentinels with his rifle at his shoulder, a light cloud of blue smoke rising
from the muzzle. The man in the water saw the eye of the man on the bridge gazing
into his own through the sights of the rifle. He observed that it was a gray eye and
remembered having read that gray eyes were keenest, and that all famous marksmen
had them. Nevertheless, this one had missed.

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A counter-swirl had caught Farquhar and turned him half round; he was again looking
at the forest on the bank opposite the fort. The sound of a clear, high voice in a
monotonous singsong now rang out behind him and came across the water with a
distinctness that pierced and subdued all other sounds, even the beating of the
ripples in his ears. Although no soldier, he had frequented camps enough to know the
dread significance of that deliberate, drawling, aspirated chant; the lieutenant on
shore was taking a part in the morning's work. How coldly and pitilessly—with what an
even, calm intonation, presaging, and enforcing tranquility in the men—with what
accurately measured interval fell those cruel words:

"Company!… Attention!… Shoulder arms!… Ready!… Aim!… Fire!"

Farquhar dived—dived as deeply as he could. The water roared in his ears like the
voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dull thunder of the volley and, rising again toward
the surface, met shining bits of metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly
downward. Some of them touched him on the face and hands, then fell away,
continuing their descent. One lodged between his collar and neck; it was
uncomfortably warm and he snatched it out.

As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time
under water; he was perceptibly farther downstream—nearer to safety. The soldiers
had almost finished reloading; the metal ramrods flashed all at once in the sunshine
as they were drawn from the barrels, turned in the air, and thrust into their sockets.
The two sentinels fired again, independently and ineffectually.

The hunted man saw all this over his shoulder; he was now swimming vigorously with
the current. His brain was as energetic as his arms and legs; he thought with the
rapidity of lightning:

"The officer," he reasoned, "will not make that martinet's error a second time. It is as
easy to dodge a volley as a single shot. He has probably already given the command to

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fire at will. God help me, I cannot dodge them all!"

An appalling splash within two yards of him was followed by a loud, rushing sound,
DIMINUENDO, which seemed to travel back through the air to the fort and died in an
explosion which stirred the very river to its deeps! A rising sheet of water curved over
him, fell down upon him, blinded him, strangled him! The cannon had taken an hand
in the game. As he shook his head free from the commotion of the smitten water he
heard the deflected shot humming through the air ahead, and in an instant it was
cracking and smashing the branches in the forest beyond.

"They will not do that again," he thought; "the next time they will use a charge of
grape. I must keep my eye upon the gun; the smoke will apprise me—the report
arrives too late; it lags behind the missile. That is a good gun."

Suddenly he felt himself whirled round and round—spinning like a top. The water, the
banks, the forests, the now distant bridge, fort and men, all were commingled and
blurred. Objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of
color—that was all he saw. He had been caught in a vortex and was being whirled on
with a velocity of advance and gyration that made him giddy and sick. In few moments
he was flung upon the gravel at the foot of the left bank of the stream—the southern
bank—and behind a projecting point which concealed him from his enemies. The
sudden arrest of his motion, the abrasion of one of his hands on the gravel, restored
him, and he wept with delight. He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself
in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could
think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble. The trees upon the bank were
giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the
fragrance of their blooms. A strange roseate light shone through the spaces among
their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of AEolian harps. He had
not wish to perfect his escape—he was content to remain in that enchanting spot until
retaken.

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A whiz and a rattle of grapeshot among the branches high above his head roused him
from his dream. The baffled cannoneer had fired him a random farewell. He sprang to
his feet, rushed up the sloping bank, and plunged into the forest.

All that day he traveled, laying his course by the rounding sun. The forest seemed
interminable; nowhere did he discover a break in it, not even a woodman's road. He
had not known that he lived in so wild a region. There was something uncanny in the
revelation.

By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. The thought of his wife and children
urged him on. At last he found a road which led him in what he knew to be the right
direction. It was as wide and straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled. No
fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a dog
suggested human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed a straight wall on
both sides, terminating on the horizon in a point, like a diagram in a lesson in
perspective. Overhead, as he looked up through this rift in the wood, shone great
golden stars looking unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations. He was sure
they were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign significance. The
wood on either side was full of singular noises, among which—once, twice, and
again—he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue.

His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen. He knew that it
had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could
no longer close them. His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relieved its fever by
thrusting it forward from between his teeth into the cold air. How softly the turf had
carpeted the untraveled avenue—he could no longer feel the roadway beneath his
feet!

Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees
another scene—perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium. He stands at the
gate of his own home. All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning

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sunshine. He must have traveled the entire night. As he pushes open the gate and
passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking
fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him. At the bottom of
the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless
grace and dignity. Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forwards with extended arms.
As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a
blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon—then
all is darkness and silence!

Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to
side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

Guide Questions:

1. What are Peyton Farquhar’s views and beliefs about war?

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2. What is the significance of Farquhar’s dream sequence in the short story?

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3. How does the twist at the end add to the message of the story?
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4. What historical war is depicted in the story? How does it affect the themes and elements
of the short story?
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5. Research about the war or about the author, Ambrose Bierce. How do details from
actual history affect the telling of the short story?
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