By invoking the gritty details of an enemy’s execution, Bierce participates in a realist tradition that helped to transform popular conceptions of war. He takes his place among other writers, artists, and photographers of the era who did not romanticize or avoid the war’s horrific nature. Instead, they presented shockingly detailed portrayals of violence and death. For example, in the novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Stephen Crane, Bierce’s contemporary, brought a startling psychological realism to the story of protagonist Henry Fleming’s wartime experience. Crane attempted to capture the barbaric ways in which an untrained soldier proved his mettle, and in doing so he exposed the unenviable side of military life: wanton killing. Similarly,
