The Artilleryman in The War of the Worlds

Who is The Artilleryman?

The Artilleryman is a British artillery driver first found by the Narrator after the Martians’ initial assault; he has crawled from the wreckage around Woking and reports the devastation he has witnessed. He wants to survive and to see humanity endure, and he acts by guiding and partnering with the Narrator as they move through the ruined landscape. Practical, talkative, and quick to assess military events, he describes the Heat-Ray, the collapse of troops, and the spreading fires, and he helps the Narrator travel toward Leatherhead and the Thames. In a prolonged encounter on Putney Hill he lays out a concrete—if bleak—strategy: collect able-bodied survivors, live and breed underground in sewers, vaults, and drains, conserve knowledge and tools, and bide time until humans can learn the Martians’ machines and strike back. He leaves intermittently (planning to rejoin his battery) and appears in the course of the flight from the Heat-Ray, offering calm reports and practical leadership amid panic.

In the book: We first meet him as a surviving British soldier knocked out of his battery near Woking, scrambling through the chaos after the Martians unleash the heat‑ray. He’s practical and cool‑headed in a pinch, quick to share what he’s seen and to help the narrator keep moving, already talking in brisk, confident tones about how humans might endure and strike back.

Personality

Practical

He calmly recounts how he hid under a dead horse, crawled to safety, and plans to rejoin his battery and later to organize subterranean survival.

Confident

On Putney Hill he speaks briskly and assertively, outlining a large-scale scheme to salvage knowledge and live underground until retaliation is possible.

Resourceful

He helps the Narrator slip through scorched woods, hide supplies, and navigate toward ferries at the Wey and Thames junction near Shepperton.

Pessimistic/Realist

He judges many survivors as useless and advocates abandoning traditional society in favor of a brutal, utilitarian underground community.

Companionable

He shares cigars, champagne, and card games with the Narrator while sheltering, providing human company amid catastrophe.

Character arc

The Artilleryman first appears as a shaken but composed soldier who has survived the Heat-Ray’s initial onslaught; his immediate goal is to reach his battery, and he serves as an informed eyewitness who steadies the Narrator. As they travel together toward Leatherhead and the Thames, he repeatedly stresses practical assessments of the enemy’s methods and the futility of romantic resistance. On Putney Hill his character crystallizes into a planner and visionary of a grim sort: he moves from reactive survival to active social proposal, sketching a long-term subterranean survival strategy that rejects current institutions and elevates utility and reproduction. He refuses sentimental notions of a heroic mass counterattack and instead insists on stealth, knowledge-preservation, and patient learning. Though the Narrator is both appalled and partly persuaded, the Artilleryman ultimately parts—planning to rejoin fighting units—and his scheme remains an unresolved possibility rather than realized fact. Over his appearances he therefore shifts from immediate survivor to ideological architect of a harsh human survivalism, remaining consistent in his practicality but more explicit and doctrinaire about the form human endurance should take.

Relationships

• The Narrator Companion and confidant; he shelters, talks, and shares plans with the Narrator while traveling and hiding.
• The Martians Immediate and existential enemy; his observations of their Heat-Ray and methods shape his survival plan.
• 8th Hussars Encountered by him and the Narrator as they report Martian activity and move toward Leatherhead.
• Stent Fellow survivor in the general milieu of refugees and collapse, part of the broader social world the Artilleryman assesses (indirectly referenced).
• The Curate Contrasts with the Artilleryman’s outlook; while they do not directly form the same plans, the Curate’s despair highlights the Artilleryman’s hard practicality.

Quotes by The Artilleryman

““They wiped us out—simply wiped us out,” he repeated again and again.”

Chapter 11The artilleryman's repeated phrase conveys his shock and the utter, indiscriminate devastation wrought by the Martian attack.

““It’s no kindness to the right sort of wife,””

XIIHe dissuades the narrator from striking across country alone, arguing for a safer plan to protect a wife.

““Get under water!””

XIIShouted instinctively as the Heat-Ray strikes, this conveys the narrator’s quick decision to seek temporary refuge in the river.

“God have mercy upon us!”

I. UNDER FOOT.The Curate’s terrified response after they discover they are buried and in imminent danger.

Why The Artilleryman matters

The Artilleryman embodies the novel’s exploration of human survival instinct, practicality, and the darker side of social Darwinism under catastrophe. His underground scheme forces readers to confront difficult questions: who counts as useful in survival, what moral sacrifices are acceptable, and how societies might be reorganized when normal institutions collapse. He contrasts with despairing or sentimental figures, offering a coldly rational response that illuminates themes of adaptation, the reordering of values, and the uneasy mix of hope and resignation that pervades human reaction to an overwhelming, alien threat.

Chapters with The Artilleryman

• Chapter 11
• XII
• XVII
• I. UNDER FOOT.
• VII. THE MAN ON PUTNEY HILL.
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• 10. THE EPILOGUE.

More The War of the Worlds characters

• The NarratorNarrator
• The MartiansAntagonist
• The Narrator's WifeMajor character
• OgilvyMajor character
• The CurateMajor character
• HendersonMinor character
• StentMajor character
• The Narrator's BrotherMajor character