In Ambrose Bierce's short story, "An Event at Owl River Scaffold," Peyton Farquhar is a mainstay of the American South, which, amid the period being referred to, the Common War, can be generally meant mean a well off, upstanding native of the Alliance, and an adversary of the abolitionist development. At a very early stage in his story, Bierce gives the accompanying depiction of his hero who, in the story's opening sections, is going to be executed by hanging:
"The man who was occupied with being hanged was evidently around thirty-five years old. He was a non military personnel, on the off chance that one may judge from his propensity, which was that of a grower. . .Obviously this was no obscene professional killer."
Bierce goes ahead to develop his depiction of Peyton Farquhar, taking note of that this figure "was a well to do grower, of an old and exceedingly regarded Alabama family," and that, being "a slave proprietor and like other slave proprietors a legislator, he was normally a unique secessionist and vigorously committed toward the Southern reason." Bierce takes note of that Farquhar imagined himself at one point as an officer in the reason for the Alliance, however one whose military interests were hindered for reasons that are incidental to the account.
In area II of his story, Bierce gives foundation to clarify Farquhar's difficulty as referenced in the account's opening sections, portraying the primary hero's experience with a dark clad trooper, probably a Confederate warrior battling on an indistinguishable side of this contention from that to which Farquhar's sensitivities lie. It is soon uncovered, be that as it may, that this dim clad trooper is with the Association and has basically set-up the well-to-do southerner as an assumed saboteur. The "Government scout" does this by planting in the psyche of Farquhar the proposal of setting flame to the Owl Brook connect, a key structure vital to the development of Association troops as they progress over the South:
The fighter reflected. "I was there a month prior," he answered. "I watched that the surge of the previous winter had stopped an incredible amount of driftwood against the wooden dock at this finish of the extension. It is presently dry and would consume like tinder."
The response to the inquiry - why was Peyton Farquhar hanged - lies in this recommendation negatively offered by the Government spy. Farquhar takes the draw, as it were, and endeavors to cut off the tie to keep its misuse by northern troopers.
