In Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge," the reader discovers that the man to whom Farquhar has been speaking is not a Confederate...

Clearly, the
fact that the man to whom Farquhar speaks at the end of his property one evening is not a
Confederate soldier, but a Federal scout instead is central to Bierce's ridicule of the
sentimental illusions to which humans cling as Farquhar later becomes the butt of theof this
story, rather than the sympathetic hero.

Thus, it is not so much the horrors
of war that Bierce writes of, but the romantic illusions...