# Lieutenant Price — In the Midst of Life character guide

> Lieutenant Price in In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0036-one-officer-one-man

## Snapshot

A dark-faced young officer who dares to question a battery commander's orders mid-battle, then testifies with a candor that quietly destroys another man's world.

## Who they are

Price belongs to that unlucky class of subordinate whose conscience outruns his rank: during the engagement he recognized the battery was firing on its own people and urged the commander to cease, only to be insulted and sent back to his post. Summoned before the general, he answers precisely and without malice, refusing to soften what he saw or to claim knowledge of orders he never received. His plain testimony turns a comrade's honor into a matter of life and death, making him the quiet hinge on which the story's moral catastrophe swings.

## In the story

### [Of the Uses of Civility](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters/i-of-the-uses-of-civility)

An officer of Ransome's battery who overhears the exchange and confirms the general's meaning before moving to his post.

### [V: How Sounds Can Fight Shadows](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters/v-how-sounds-can-fight-shadows)

Approaches Captain Ransome during the fight, gesticulates and shouts in protest, but is rebuked and sent back to his post.

### [Why, Being Affronted by A, It Is Not Best to Affront B](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters/vi-why-being-affronted-by-a-it-is-not-best-to-affront-b)

Testifies that he warned Ransome about the friendly fire and was insulted and ordered back to his post.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/characters/lieutenant_price
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/characters