The narrator and his friends form a Confederate company in Hannibal, Missouri in 1861 with no real experience of war. Led by Tom Lyman, their activities consist mainly of fleeing from frequent but false alarms of approaching Union soldiers. One night, nervous in a farmhouse, the narrator fires his gun at a stranger on horseback outside in the dark and believes he has killed him, though it is unclear. The incident shakes the narrator's view of war as something beyond their abilities as "just babies", meant for "hard men". He is haunted by dreams of the stranger and comes to see that war means killing those you don't know.

1. THE OTHER SIDE OF
WAR
BY Mark Twain
“There was never a good war, or
a bad peace.”
Benjamin Franklin

2. Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. Twain
died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut at the age
of 75.
He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer,
entrepreneur and inventor.
•http://www.biography.com/people/mark-twain-9512564

6. Th Confederates VERSUS
The SOUTH

7. The beginning...

8. Resistance was always
there...

9. Why did the war start?
• Republicans did not want slavery spread into
the country.
• Lincoln, a Republican, won the 1860 election
without any South State support.
• The South wanted slavery and felt
misrepresented. They wanted indepence.

11. Plot
• War and its reasons (p.6)
• IS war ever reasonable,
justifiable or worth it?

13. Plot
• Narrator: 1st person,
character
• 15 friends form the the
Hannibal confederate
Company

14. Characters
• Tom Lyman “...knew nothing about
fighting, but he became our leader”.
(p.7)
• Peterson Dunlap “Young, intelligent,
but didn’t know much – and full of
romantic ideas. He read books and
sang love songs. He was looking for
an interesting war with fine
uniforms, good weather, and
beautiful women waiting for us at
the end” (p.7)

15. Characters
• Ed Stevens“...handsome, as clean as a
cat, and smart as a college professor.
But his only goal was to have fun. We
had to watch for his practical jokes.
The Civil War was a big vacation for
him.” (p.7)
• Joe Smith “...wasn’t very smart, in fact
he was slow. But he had a warm heart,
and he worked hard. He was often
homesick, but he was serious about the
war. He stayed with the company, and
he was killed before the end.” (p. 7)

16. “We didn’t know anything about
war. Tom, Peterson, Ed and the
rest of us were just boys, really.
What could a group like us do?
Nothing. And that’s what we did.”
(p. 7)

17. Setting
• 1861:Hannibal, narrator’s
hometown (p.7)
• New London town, 15 km away ->
a farmhouse (p.7)
• General rall’s farm: an old
soldier from american-mexican
war ->warning (p.8)
• They Fled to Jeb Mason’s Farm ->
false alarm (p.8)

20. • The 24h guard resolution: at
night, nobody sticked to the
sunlight deal. (p.11)
• Constant messages of warning:
They ran away! (p.12)

21. • “We didn’t like fighting. When we
got these messages, we left. We
didn’t stay and fight. We ran away.
And, usually, the news wasn’t
true. Usually, there weren’t any
Union soldiers in the
neighborhood. Soon, we didn’t take
the messages seriously. One night
we didn’t fight or run away. Why
should we run? We sat back to
enjoy the evening. Then we became
nervous. One by one, we went to
the window. Were there soldiers
out there in the dark? Suddenly,
we heard a noise.”
(p.12)

22. “‘Is anyone out there?’ asked one of
the young boys.
‘I can hear a horse, maybe horses’,
said Tom Lyman.
‘I can see a man near the path. Can
you see him?’ Ed Stevens asked. ‘He’s
on a horse. I think there are other
men behind him.’
I picked my gun in the dark. I was
shaking with fear. Without thinking,
I held my gun up the window. Behind
me someone shouted, ‘Fire!’ I fired my
gun. The noise was terrible. Then the
man fell from his horse. ”
(p.12)

23. “ ‘I’m a murderer,’ I said. ‘I killed a
man. He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t
even know his name.’
(...)
There were six shots fired at the
same time. We were all murderers.
War was for hard men and we
were just babies. Maybe my gun
didn’t kill the man, but I tried to
kill him. I could never fire a gun
again.”
(p.12)

24. “ We learned little about the dead
man. HE wasn’t carrying a gun. He
wasn’t wearing a uniform. He
probably wasn’t a soldier. I
dreamed about the dead man. This
is what war meant. Soldiers killed
strangers. At other times, you
helped strangers and they helped
you. In a war, you shot them.”
(p.12,14)

26. The Costs of war
• 1 in 13 were amputees

27. More people died in this war than in
all the other USA wars combined.

28. The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the
population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds
by disease, and 50,000 civilians.[

29. If we don’t end
war, war will
end us.
H.G. Wells

30. References
• TWAIN, Mark. Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog
and Other Stories. Retold by Nancy Taylor. 2nd
edition. Essex, England: Penguin Readers, 2008.
• http://www.marktwainhouse.org
• www.wikipedia.com (pictures and Civil War)
• http://www.biography.com/people/mark-twain-
9512564