Chickamauga By Ambrose Bierce: The Struggles Of Americans During Civil War

Innocence is the one thing we try to hang on to as humans and as Americans. When I say innocence, I also mean ignorance. As most people say, ignorance is bliss. Chickamauga is a story about a boy losing his innocence and his ignorance about the war. When the civil war came along, many people were affected, and their lives were changed. The war took away the innocence of America, adults, and children. The story, “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce is reflective of what American people went through during the Civil War.

As we grow from babies to children, and children to adults, we become more and more aware of the real world. As children, we are hidden from the reality or the ugly of what goes on around us because our parents want to protect us. They do this by putting us in a bubble full of cartoons, bed time stories, and make-believe characters like the Tooth Fairy and Santa. When Veteran’s day comes around, I explain to my students that we celebrate soldiers who protect us from bad people. By doing that, I’m protecting them from the reality of the world. What they don’t know, won’t hurt them, but what they do know, may hurt them. Children are the happiest creatures on earth and we want them to stay that way as long as we can. The most intriguing aspects of “Chickamauga” concern the bizarre world it creates and the fact that this bizarre world is not illusion but reality (Brower).

In Chickamauga, the little boy soon realizes that what he sees is not the fun, illusion he thinks it to be. In the beginning of the story, the little boy runs away from home with his wooden toy sword. Even though the sword is a symbol for a weapon intended to kill people, the readers undoubtedly know that it is not the child’s intent to kill someone. Little boys have always played with toy guns with their ignorant and innocent intent to kill bad people, but they never mean it, its always an illusion or pretend. Made reckless by the ease with which he overcame invisible foes attempting to stay his advance (Bierce). When the little boy realizes what’s going on, when we all grow up, and when all of America saw blood in their back yards, their innocence and ignorance was stripped from them.

Not only were children affected by the war, but adults were as well. Just imagine the wives, sending their husbands to war not knowing if they’d come back or not. Or the husbands knowing they were sure to get shot at and must kill others. How about the children, not know what was going on at all and wondering what the loud noises down the road was? Murder is a big deal. When anyone is murdered, it usually ends up in the paper. When someone dies, its also in the paper. So, for someone to go from waking up, going to work, and coming home to your family everyday to fearing for yours or your loved one’s life, is very intense and traumatizing. While “Chickamauga” may have not been a true story, it is certainly based off true events. Americans were fighting other Americans, our country full of freedom and liberty was now a pool of blood killing our own brothers. An important ending to the story is a line that reads, for a moment he stood stupefied by the power of the revelation (Bierce).

Before the Civil War, America had been in wars, but not with itself. When the war started, our country wasn’t very old. Our country was torn apart by disagreements and our reputation as a unified nation was tarnished. America was no longer the place for freedom seekers, dreamers, and believers. Instead, we were all at war and split apart by a direction. No one was safe to go outside, and no one was safe to be dreamers anymore. When the little boy from the story started to climb on top of one of the soldiers like a horse, he soon realized what he saw wasn’t normal. America would never be the same because of the Civil War. When he came home to find a lifeless body on the ground and his house on fire, he experienced what many Americans had experienced at the time. He recognized the blazing building as his own home! (Bierce).

In conclusion, the story “Chickamauga” is a great reflection of what people were exposed to during the Civil War. The little boy went outside with his little toy sword thinking he was going on an adventure, little did he know he would lose his ignorance about the war and about reality. Like the little boy, America went into a gruesome battle with each other removing innocence from very many lives as well as America as a country.