n Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Question

by Ambrose Bierce

A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. It was attached to a stout cross-timber above his head and the slack fell to the level of his knees. Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners — two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff. At a short remove upon the same temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank, armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as “support,” that is to say, vertical in front of the left shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight across the chest — a formal and unnatural position, enforcing an erect carriage of the body. It did not appear to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge; they merely blockaded the two ends of the foot planking that traversed it.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce

Question
Use the passage to answer the question.

What detail does the author leave uncertain in the passage?

(1 point)
Responses

The reason for the man’s execution.
The reason for the man’s execution.

How the man is being executed.
How the man is being executed.

Where the events are taking place.
Where the events are taking place.

The army that the soldiers are with.

Answer 1

The detail that the author leaves uncertain in the passage is:

The reason for the man’s execution.