The story flashes back in time: Peyton Farquhar lives in the South and is a Confederate supporter. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, take to the woods and get away home.' His thoughts stray back to his wife and children. Then, an escape plan flashes through his mind: 'throw off the noose and spring into the stream. It is revealed that this noise is the ticking of his watch. He finds himself apprehensively awaiting each strike, which seem to grow further and further apart. He cannot tell if it was far away or nearby. He can not identify this noise, other than that it sounds like the clanging of a blacksmith's hammer on the anvil. Then he is distracted by a tremendous noise. As he is waiting, he thinks of his wife and children. Six military men and a company of infantry men are present. In the first part of the story, a gentleman planter in his mid thirties is standing on a railroad bridge in Alabama. It is later revealed that after a disguised Union scout enlisted him to attempt to demolish the bridge, he was caught in the act. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist stands bound at the bridge's edge. Set during the American Civil War, 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' is the story of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer condemned to death by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge. The story, which is set during the Civil War, is famous for its irregular time sequence and twist ending. Originally published by the The San Francisco Examiner in 1890, it was first collected in Bierce's 1891 book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' is a short story by American author Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913).

An occurrence at owl creek