An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Summary | Part 1 Summary

The story opens with a man standing on a railroad bridge, somewhere in northern Alabama, sometime during the American Civil War. The man is fixed to the spot, because his neck is in a noose. The man's hands are tied behind his back, and he is looking down into the water below. The rope around his neck is attached to a cross timber over his head. The footing is comprised of some slack boards, laid upon the railway supports. Four other men share this platform with him: two privates, a sergeant, and a captain, all from the Federal army. At either end of the bridge stand two sentinels. These two men do not appear to have anything to do with the impending execution. They simply block the ends of the bridge.

The only spectators are from a single company of infantry, in line at parade rest. A lieutenant stands to their right. With the exception of the four men on the platform, there is no movement at all. The infantrymen just stare motionless at the scene in front of them. The sentinels are even more detached from the scene and could have been statues adorning the ends of the bridge. According to their unwritten code, death is a dignitary and is to be received with military etiquette and silence.

The man who is about to be hanged is a civilian; a nice looking man of about thirty five years of age. The man's well-fitting frockcoat indicates he has been successful, probably a planter. The man's large, gray eyes have a kindly look to them, something unexpected from someone in such a position. Clearly, this was no common criminal, but military law makes provisions for hanging offenders, and gentlemen are no exception.

Everything was ready now. The two privates step aside, and each pull away the plank upon which he had been standing. The sergeant salutes the captain and moves behind him. The two men then move apart, one step. This leaves one plank to span three of the cross ties of the bridge. The man in the noose stands at one end of the plank and the sergeant at the other. A fourth plank in place almost reaches the end of the condemned man's plank, but not quite. So now, the only thing holding the critical plank in place is the weight of the sergeant. When it is time, the captain will give the signal, the sergeant will step off the plank, which will then tilt, and the man will fall, hanging him instantly.

This seems to be an efficient system from the perspective of the man in the noose. The man can see everything, because his eyes have not been blindfolded, and he wears no hood. The man looks for a few moments at his precarious footing, and then to the water below. The man focuses on a piece of driftwood and makes a note to himself that it seems to be moving very slowly.

The man then closes his eyes and thinks of his wife and children, and then his concentration is averted to something else… a sharp, metallic sound, like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer. The man wonders what it could be and waits for each strike with apprehension. The sound becomes maddening to him, and he feels as though his ears are being punctured with a knife. The man thinks he will scream until he realizes that the sound is the ticking of his watch. The man opens his eyes again and thinks that if he can just free his hands, he can rip off the noose, dive into the water and swim away. While these thoughts swirl in his head, the captain nods to the sergeant, and he steps aside.