The second part of this story provides the expository, or background, information that we need to understand who Peyton Farquhar is and why he is being hanged. We learn of his background and beliefs, that he's a staunch secessionist (meaning that he wanted the southern states to leave the Union around the time of the Civil War) and that he is "ardently devoted to the Southern cause," i.e. willing to do whatever he can to...
The second part of this story provides the expository, or background, information that we need to understand who Peyton Farquhar is and why he is being hanged. We learn of his background and beliefs, that he's a staunch secessionist (meaning that he wanted the southern states to leave the Union around the time of the Civil War) and that he is "ardently devoted to the Southern cause," i.e. willing to do whatever he can to help the Confederacy win the war against the North.
The narrator tells a story about a Federal scout, dressed as a Confederate soldier, who stopped at Farquhar's plantation and visited with him and his wife. The soldier tells Farquhar that the Yankees are punishing anyone who interferes with railways or bridges severely, and such a fact conveys to Farquhar just how damaging an attack on these would be. The soldier further entices him to attempt such an attack with a description of all the wood that had been pushed up against the Owl Creek Bridge during a recent flood, and how quickly that wood would burn. We can now understand that this is the crime for which Farquhar is being hanged.
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