Literature, as opposed to simple pulp fiction, should at it's best seek to deliver a message. At it's worst, the story should be entertaining. I am with AJ that I tend to not wish to read horrifying accounts about children. I went on to agree with, and was intrigued by AJ's notion that Chickamauga had a contemporary theme, one of zombies...... 


AJ's blog
"A terrific horrifying story about the scarring of a childs life that I don't want to hear/read, and a Zombie apocalypse storyline. The reason why I bring the zombie theme up is because in a way this is very similar to that theme. Bierce is technically describing the end of this childs world as well as the one thing that could make a deaf mute make any form of noise what so ever."


Right on. Reflecting back on the story, there are strong images of grisly mute men crawling through the forest, faces half torn off, some missing even tongues.  Come to think about it, there is not a whole lot of dialog in the story now is there?


Besides the emotionally evocative imagery there is that underlying apocalyptic theme. The end of the world. Rather, the end of innocence or of the world as the little boy knew it. The boy I was interpreting as a general metaphor for The South. Well, this region, as well as it's sisters The North and The West would just have to grow up, rebuild and learn to communicate. 

http://community.imaginefx.com/forums/thread/74940.aspx