# A Baffled Ambuscade explained — Can Such Things Be?

> Chapter companion for Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

A Federal cavalry squadron under Major Seidel sets out on a secret night mission from Readyville. Trooper Dunning, who had been ordered to a post, is found ahead of the column with a dead horse and a dead man. He warns the major back from the road, then disappears. At dawn, Dunning is found dead across his horse's neck, a bullet in his brain, and evidence shows the cedar forest was occupied by Confederate infantry, revealing an ambuscade.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

Dunning's mysterious death and his ghostly warning to the major evoke a supernatural atmosphere.

### Fate and Inevitability

Dunning's doomed ride and the failed expedition suggest an inescapable fate.

## Character check-ins

### Dunning

Trooper who rode forward against orders, found dead at dawn with a bullet in the brain, having apparently warned the major of an ambush.

### Stevens

Adjutant who followed the major and witnessed the encounter with Dunning.

## Key lines

> One night a squadron of Federal horse commanded by Major Seidel, a gallant and skillful officer, moved out from Readyville on an uncommonly hazardous enterprise requiring secrecy, caution and silence.

A Federal cavalry squadron under Major Seidel departed Readyville on a dangerous night mission that demanded stealth.

_Sets the scene for the covert operation._

> Dunning raised his hand, motioning him back with a gesture of warning; then, lowering the arm, he pointed to the place where the road lost itself in the blackness of the cedar forest.

Dunning silently signaled the major to retreat and indicated the dark cedar forest ahead.

_Dunning's warning gesture hints at the impending ambush._

> In the little open space off the road they found the fallen horse. At a right angle across the animal's neck face upward, a bullet in the brain, lay the body of Trooper Dunning, stiff as a statue, hours dead.

At dawn, the troopers discovered Dunning's body lying across his dead horse, killed by a bullet to the head.

_Reveals Dunning's fate and the failure of the expedition._

## Links

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