Daily puzzle

Put Chickamauga back in order

Seven beats from our edition of Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce, shuffled. Drag them, or use the arrows, until the story runs straight. No account, no streak to lose.

  1. Off to war A planter's small son, raised on stories of soldiers, leaves home with a wooden sword to play at conquest in the woods.
  2. Imagined battles The boy pretends to vanquish enemies among the trees, acting out the martial fantasies his lineage and picture books have given him.
  3. The rabbit Startled by a rabbit, the boy panics and runs deeper into the forest, becoming lost as evening comes on.
  4. Exhausted slumber He cries himself to sleep in the woods while, unheard by him, a real battle rages nearby.
  5. The crawling men He wakes at dusk to a procession of maimed soldiers crawling from the battlefield, which he mistakes for a strange game.
  6. Leading his army Delighted, the boy rides a wounded man, waves his sword, and leads the broken column toward a distant glow.
  7. Home in flames He reaches his burning house and his dead mother, and the final lines reveal he is a deaf-mute who never heard the war that destroyed his world.