An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

First published: 1891

Type of plot: Gothic

Time of work: About 1863

Locale: Northern Alabama

Principal Characters:

• Peyton Farquhar, the protagonist, a southern plantation owner and a patriot
• Assorted members of the Northern army

The Story

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" contains three distinct sections: a matter-of-fact opening scene, a flashback to provide some necessary history, and a fast-paced conclusion. The story begins with clear, simple, declarative sentences:

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in Northern Alabama, looking down into the swift waters twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope loosely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head.

In the next sentence, it becomes apparent that this man is about to be executed by a unit of the Union army. The preparations for the execution are described in clinical detail. The narrator seems to be a dispassionate spectator who is unfamiliar with any of the participants in this grim event. The physical setting and movements of the Union company are rendered with such calm accuracy that the scene comes to life clearly and vividly. The condemned man is judged to be "about thirty-five years of age" and is "evidently" a southern "gentleman."

"The preparations being complete," the focus narrows to the condemned planter; the objective description yields subtly to a more subjective point of view, which allows the reader insight into the Southerner's thoughts. The man is calm but, as might be expected, somewhat disoriented; he imagines that the "swift waters" are "sluggish." He is disturbed by "a sharp, distinct, metallic precussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil. . . . [W]hat he heard was the ticking of his watch." As he stands alone awaiting his death, he imagines throwing off his noose, diving into the water, and escaping to his beloved home and family. As these thoughts pass through his brain, the sergeant steps off of the back of a board on which the man is balanced over the water, and the condemned planter falls toward the stream, the noose tight around his neck.

The second section discloses who the man is and what events lead him to his desperate plight. His name is Peyton Farquhar, and he is a member of "an old and highly respected Alabama family." Peyton, who was "ardently devoted to the Southern cause," was prevented from joining the army by circumstance and was eager to serve the South in any way possible. One evening, while he was sitting with his wife, a grey-clad soldier rode up, asked for water, and told them that the Northern army was preparing to advance once the bridge over Owl Creek had been repaired. The soldier indicated that the bridge was poorly guarded and that a brave man could easily burn it down. Farquhar undertook the challenge of destroying the bridge and was captured. The last sentence of section two reveals that the planter never had a chance, because the grey-clad soldier was, in fact, a "Federal scout."

The third section returns abruptly to the present: "As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge, he lost consciousness and was as one already dead." His agony as the rope snaps tight is briefly described; "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. . . . [H]e knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream." He struggles desperately to free his hands and rises to the surface, frantic for air; his miraculous escape fills him with such intensity that he can see "the individual trees, the leaves and the veining of each leaf"; he can hear "the beating of the dragon flies' wings, the strokes of the water spiders' legs." The joy of his resurrection is short-lived, however, for the Union troops immediately open fire on him, and Farquhar is forced to dive deeply and swim furiously in order to escape the ignominy of being shot after having avoided death by hanging and drowning. The troops fire at will and even artillery is brought to bear on the fleeing prisoner; but with the help of the current, the man evades cannon and rifle shot and plunges into the forest.

He drives himself relentlessly through the rest of that day and all through the night toward his home. He apparently falls asleep while walking, for when he awakens "he stands at the gate of his own home. All is as he left it, and all is bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine." His wife "stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy. . . . As he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow upon the back of his neck." The story ends brutally with this final sentence: "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge."

Bibliography

Berkove, Lawrence I. A Prescription for Adversity: The Moral Art of Ambrose Bierce. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002.

Blume, Donald T. Ambrose Bierce's "Civilians and Soldiers" in Context: A Critical Study. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2004.

Davidson, Cathy N. The Experimental Fictions of Ambrose Bierce: Structuring the Ineffable. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

Davidson, Cathy N., ed. Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982.

Fatout, Paul. Ambrose Bierce, the Devil's Lexicographer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951.

Gale, Robert L. An Ambrose Bierce Companion. New York: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Grenander, Mary Elizabeth. Ambrose Bierce. New York: Twayne, 1971.

Hoppenstand, Gary. "Ambrose Bierce and the Transformation of the Gothic Tale in the Nineteenth-Century American Periodical." In Periodical Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, edited by Kenneth M. Price and Susan Belasco Smith. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995.

McWilliams, Carey. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. 1929. Reprint. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1967.

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Schaefer, Michael W. Just What War Is: The Civil War Writings of De Forest and Bierce. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997.

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