An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
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• A man is about to be executed by army officers.
• The man that is about to be executed is a
  civilian (probably a planter).
• Before he is executed the man thinks about his
  wife and children and how he might be able to
  escape.

3

• Peyton Farquhar is a southern slave owner with
  Confederate sympathies, but is unable to enlist
  in the Confederate Army although he really wants
  to fight.
• A Confederate soldier stops by Farquhars house
  one day for water and tells him about the Union
  Army at Owl Creek Bridge and how they are
  rebuilding the railroads. The Union Army
  threatens to hang anyone who interferes with its
  progress.

4

• Farquhar and the soldier covertly discuss how the
  bridge might be taken down.
• The Confederate soldier turns out to be a Union
  spy.
• The rope breaks and Farquhar falls into the
  stream. He gets the rope off of his wrists and
  takes the noose from around his neck.

5

• He swims to the surface and finds that his senses
  seem very acute.
• The soldiers begin to shoot at him.
• Farquhar begins to swim with the current and gets
  caught in a whirlpool which throws him onto the
  bank.
• He makes it back home to his wife, but as he is
  about to embrace her, the reader learns that the
  entire escape was a fantasy and Farquhar dies.