# A Cold Night explained — Can Such Things Be?

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

## What happens

After the first day's battle at Stone River, a Federal sergeant's body is found among the dead with a bullet wound through the forehead. During the cold night, a soldier and his companion take the blanket covering the corpse for their own warmth. At dawn, they discover the body has shifted into a curled, fetal position as if suffering from cold, despite the fatal head wound.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

The sergeant's corpse inexplicably changes position overnight, suggesting a supernatural animation or lingering consciousness after death.

### The Uncanny and the Grotesque

The clinical description of the probe through the skull and the corpse's unnatural posture evoke a grotesque and unsettling image.

### Violence and Mortality

The chapter is set amidst the aftermath of a brutal battle, with dead soldiers lying unburied and the living expecting death the next day.

## Character check-ins

### Hugh Morgan

The unnamed Federal sergeant whose body is found with a bullet through the forehead; his corpse mysteriously changes position overnight.

## Key lines

> The body lay on its back, its chin in the air, and with straightened limbs, as rigid as steel; frost on its white face and in its beard and hair.

The corpse was supine, chin pointing upward, limbs stiff and straight like steel, with frost covering its pale face, beard, and hair.

_Describes the initial position of the sergeant's body._

> The sergeant's body lay in the same place, two yards away. But not in the same attitude. It was upon its right side. The knees were drawn up nearly to the breast, both hands thrust to the wrist between the buttons of the jacket, the collar of which was turned up, concealing the ears.

The sergeant's body was still two yards away, but had shifted onto its right side with knees pulled up to its chest, hands shoved into its jacket, and collar raised to cover the ears.

_Describes the changed posture of the corpse at dawn._

## Links

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