Snowball's ambush

When the human beings—Mr. Jones and his men, reinforced by half a dozen others from Foxwood and Pinchfield—entered the five-barred gate early in October, Snowball, who had studied an old book of Julius Caesar's campaigns, was ready. He launched a three-stage ambush. First, thirty-five pigeons flew over the men's heads and muted on them, while geese hidden behind the hedge rushed out and pecked at their legs. This was a light skirmish to create disorder. When the men drove the geese off, Snowball sent in a second line: Muriel, Benjamin, and all the sheep, with Snowball at their head, prodded and butted the men, while Benjamin lashed out with his small hoofs. Again the men repelled them with sticks and boots. Then, at a squeal from Snowball, the animals turned and fled through the gateway into the yard. The men, shouting triumph, rushed after them in disorder—exactly as Snowball had intended. As soon as the men were inside the yard, the three horses, three cows, and the rest of the pigs, who had been lying in ambush in the cow-shed, emerged in their rear, cutting off retreat. Snowball gave the signal for the charge. He dashed straight for Jones, who fired his gun, scoring bloody streaks along Snowball's back and killing a sheep. Without halting, Snowball flung his fifteen stone against Jones's legs, hurling Jones into a pile of dung and knocking the gun from his hands. The most terrifying sight was Boxer, rearing up on his hind legs and striking out with his great iron-shod hoofs like a stallion; his first blow took a stable-lad from Foxwood on the skull and stretched him lifeless in the mud. Panic overtook the men, and within five minutes they were in ignominious retreat down the cart-track, pursued by the animals.

The victory was celebrated immediately. The flag was run up, Beasts of England was sung several times, and the dead sheep was given a solemn funeral. Snowball made a speech at the graveside, emphasizing the need for all animals to be ready to die for Animal Farm. The animals unanimously created a military decoration, "Animal Hero, First Class," conferred on Snowball and Boxer, and "Animal Hero, Second Class," posthumously on the dead sheep. The battle was named the Battle of the Cowshed, after the site of the ambush. Jones's gun was set up at the foot of the flagstaff and fired twice a year—on October the twelfth, the anniversary of the battle, and on Midsummer Day, the anniversary of the Rebellion. Snowball's ambush had secured the farm's independence and established his reputation as a military strategist.

After Napoleon's consolidation of power, the memory of Snowball's ambush was systematically distorted. Squealer began to downplay Snowball's role, declaring that "bravery is not enough" and that loyalty and obedience were more important. Later, Squealer alleged that Snowball had been Jones's secret agent from the very start, that his wounds were only a graze from Jones's shot as part of the arrangement, and that at the critical moment he had turned to flee, leading many animals with him. "Do you not remember," Squealer exclaimed, "that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to Humanity!' and sank his teeth in Jones's leg?" Boxer, who had actually seen Snowball charge, initially resisted: "I do not believe that. Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed. I saw him myself." But when Squealer insisted that Napoleon had stated categorically that Snowball was Jones's agent, Boxer capitulated: "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." The ambush that had once been the animals' greatest triumph was thus rewritten as a near-disaster from which Napoleon alone saved them.