Chickamauga

by

Ambrose Bierce

The Soldiers Character Analysis

The only living, human characters with whom the child interacts during the course of the story are the group of wounded soldiers he encounters in the forest. The soldiers are a mystery to the child, and at first he cannot even identify them as human, thinking instead that they are dogs, pigs, or even bears. When he realizes they are men, he is not afraid. He fails to register their wounds, and tries to play with them. The narrator, of the story, however, reveals that the soldiers are retreating from a battle, and that many of these men are already dead or are currently dying. The child, however, pretends to be the soldier’s leader, even going so far as to try to ride one like a horse. No words are spoken between the soldiers and the boy. At the end of the story, it becomes clear that the reason for the lack of communication—and for the boy’s total inability to see the truth of the soldier’s situation—is is because the child is deaf and mute. But while the child is still with the soldiers, the narrator has not yet revealed the child’s situation, leaving it a mystery as to why to the child cannot or will not communicate with the soldiers, which drenches the entire interaction in a kind of ghostly horror, and forces the reader to register the brutality of war in a way that the child does not.

The Soldiers Quotes in Chickamauga

The Chickamauga quotes below are all either spoken by The Soldiers or refer to The Soldiers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy of War vs. Reality of War Theme Icon
).
Chickamauga Quotes

Suddenly he saw before him a strange moving object which he took to be some large animal—a dog, a pig—he could not name it; perhaps it was a bear…But something in the form or movement of this object—something in the awkwardness of its approach—told him it was not a bear, and curiosity was stayed by fear. He stood still and as it came slowly on gained courage every moment, for he saw that at least it had not the long, menacing ears of the rabbit…Before it had approached near enough to resolve his doubts he saw that it was followed by another and another. To right and left were many more; the whole open space about him was alive with them—all moving toward the brook.

They were men. They crept upon their hands and knees

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 42-43
Explanation and Analysis:

Not all of this did the child note; it is what would have been noted by an elder observer; he saw little but that these were men, yet crept like babes. Being men, they were not terrible, though unfamiliarly clad. He moved among them freely, going from one to another and peering into their faces with childish curiosity. All their faces were singularly white and many were streaked and gouted with red. Something in this—something too, perhaps, in their grotesque attitudes and movements—reminded him of the painted clown whom he had seen last summer in the circus, and he laughed as he watched them. But on and ever on they crept, these maimed and bleeding men, as heedless as he of the dramatic contrast between his laughter and their own ghastly gravity. To him it was a merry spectacle. He had seen his father’s negroes creep upon their hands and knees for his amusement—had ridden them so, “making believe” they were horses. He now approached one of these crawling figures from behind and with an agile movement mounted it astride.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers, The Slaves
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

An observer of better experience in the use of his eyes would have noticed that these footprints pointed in both directions; the ground had been twice passed over—in advance and in retreat. A few hours before, these desperate, stricken men, with their more fortunate and now distant comrades, had penetrated the forest in thousands. Their successive battalions, breaking into swarms and reforming in lines, had passed the child on every side—had almost trodden on him as he slept. The rustle and murmur of their march had not awakened him. Almost within a stone’s throw of where he lay they had fought a battle; but all unheard by him were the roar of the musketry, the shock of the cannon, “the thunder of the captains and the shouting.” He had slept through it all, grasping his little wooden sword with perhaps a tighter clutch in unconscious sympathy with his martial environment, but as heedless of the grandeur of the struggle as the dead who had died to make the glory.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers
Related Symbols: The Toy Sword
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Soldiers Quotes in Chickamauga

The Chickamauga quotes below are all either spoken by The Soldiers or refer to The Soldiers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fantasy of War vs. Reality of War Theme Icon
).
Chickamauga Quotes

Suddenly he saw before him a strange moving object which he took to be some large animal—a dog, a pig—he could not name it; perhaps it was a bear…But something in the form or movement of this object—something in the awkwardness of its approach—told him it was not a bear, and curiosity was stayed by fear. He stood still and as it came slowly on gained courage every moment, for he saw that at least it had not the long, menacing ears of the rabbit…Before it had approached near enough to resolve his doubts he saw that it was followed by another and another. To right and left were many more; the whole open space about him was alive with them—all moving toward the brook.

They were men. They crept upon their hands and knees

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 42-43
Explanation and Analysis:

Not all of this did the child note; it is what would have been noted by an elder observer; he saw little but that these were men, yet crept like babes. Being men, they were not terrible, though unfamiliarly clad. He moved among them freely, going from one to another and peering into their faces with childish curiosity. All their faces were singularly white and many were streaked and gouted with red. Something in this—something too, perhaps, in their grotesque attitudes and movements—reminded him of the painted clown whom he had seen last summer in the circus, and he laughed as he watched them. But on and ever on they crept, these maimed and bleeding men, as heedless as he of the dramatic contrast between his laughter and their own ghastly gravity. To him it was a merry spectacle. He had seen his father’s negroes creep upon their hands and knees for his amusement—had ridden them so, “making believe” they were horses. He now approached one of these crawling figures from behind and with an agile movement mounted it astride.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers, The Slaves
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:

An observer of better experience in the use of his eyes would have noticed that these footprints pointed in both directions; the ground had been twice passed over—in advance and in retreat. A few hours before, these desperate, stricken men, with their more fortunate and now distant comrades, had penetrated the forest in thousands. Their successive battalions, breaking into swarms and reforming in lines, had passed the child on every side—had almost trodden on him as he slept. The rustle and murmur of their march had not awakened him. Almost within a stone’s throw of where he lay they had fought a battle; but all unheard by him were the roar of the musketry, the shock of the cannon, “the thunder of the captains and the shouting.” He had slept through it all, grasping his little wooden sword with perhaps a tighter clutch in unconscious sympathy with his martial environment, but as heedless of the grandeur of the struggle as the dead who had died to make the glory.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Child, The Soldiers
Related Symbols: The Toy Sword
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 44-45
Explanation and Analysis: