Chickamauga

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. His creation is individualized by sardonic view of human nature and criticism. Participated the American Civil War, he composed the writing style with an abrupt beginnings, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, impossible events and the theme of war. “Chickamauga” is the story that tells about a boy aged about six years, the son of a poor planter, that once entered a forest to play with his wooden sword, but lost in the forest. Crying the child fled, he knew not in what direction, calling with his mother, weeping, stumbling. 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 form or movement of this object--something in the awkwardness of its approach--told him that it was not a bear. The boy saw that it was followed by another and another; boy stayed petrified by fear… Who has the child met and how will the story end?