An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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 feel to the level of his knees.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded.

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.

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 arrangement commended itself to his judgement as simple and effective.

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.

Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell.

By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home.

By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South, no adventure to 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.

No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South, no adventure to 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.

No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South, no adventure to 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 Fahrquhar 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.

One evening while Fahrquhar 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.

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

Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs.

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.

The intellectual part of his nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was torment.

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.

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.

To die of hanging at the bottom of a river! - the idea seemed to him ludicrous.

He was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his wrist apprised him that he was trying to free his hands.

Ah, that was a fine endeavor!

They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside, its undulations resembling those of a water snake.

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 whole body was racked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish!

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

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

Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived.

Something in the awful disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that they made record of things never before perceived.

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 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 shouted and gesticulated, pointing at him.

Their movements were grotesque and horrible, their forms gigantic.

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.

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 tranquillity in the men - with what accurately measured interval fell those cruel words:

"The officer," he reasoned, "will not make that martinet's error a second time.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

He had not wish to perfect his escape - he was content to remain in that enchanting spot until retaken.

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.

The forest seemed interminable; nowhere did he discover a break in it, not even a woodman's road.

There was something uncanny in the revelation.

By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished.

By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished.

No fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere.

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.

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.

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 eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them.

Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene - perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium.

At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity.

No service was too humble for him to perform in the aid of the South, no adventure to 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.

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.

In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference.

Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician, he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause.

They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside, its undulations resembling those of a water snake.

How coldly and pitilessly - with what an even, calm intonation, presaging, and enforcing tranquillity in the men - with what accurately measured interval fell those cruel words: "Company! . . . Attention! . . . Shoulder arms! . . . Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!"