Born in 1842, Ambrose Bierce was undoubtedly shaped by his experiences growing up as one of ten surviving children in a strictly religious family, but it was his service as a Civil War soldier that honed his singular vision of human nature.
An Eyewitness to War
Bierce joined the Ninth Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and trained as a topographical engineer. Assigned to draw accurate battlefield maps, he learned the importance of geographical features. When Bierce later wrote short stories based on his Civil War experience, they were filled with vivid physical detail.
Bierce not only developed an eye for the landscape; he also witnessed horrific carnage in battles at Shiloh, Chickamauga and Kennesaw Mountain. Scenes of suffering and death were seared into his consciousness. Unforgettable, often macabre, images abound in his stories: a horseman falling from the sky; a soldier whose upper jaw has been blown away; a marauding herd of swine eating the flesh of dead and wounded soldiers.
Bierce was also struck by the seeming absurdity of who lived or died, as well as the role of chance in bringing two opposing soldiers to the exact place and time where one would kill the other. Had just one event changed in the course of either of their lives, might they never have met on the battlefield? Or were they fated to meet, their destiny pre-ordained?
A Master Storyteller
In A Horseman in the Sky, Bierce distills the entire conflict that pitted brother against brother and father against son into several pages. Through the use of telling details, he deftly sketches a Virginia family whose members choose to follow their respective allegiances. Bierce swiftly moves to the climactic encounter between a scout and a horseman. As the identity of the horseman is revealed, the pieces of the story suddenly, startlingly snap into place.
Bierce often reveals war’s brutality through the eyes of a common soldier or innocent civilian. In Chickamauga, a small boy wanders from his family’s farm into a group of retreating Confederate forces. Too young to comprehend that the crawling figures are actually maimed and dying men, the boy is fascinated rather than frightened. He follows this strange procession for hours until he sees a burning farmhouse. He realizes in horror it is his own home.
Bierce’s mastery of the story-ending twist culminates in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Bierce describes the final moments of a hanged man’s consciousness so convincingly that the reader believes the man has survived. Discovering that the character’s escape and poignant reunion with his family were merely his last, longing, dying wish shocks many readers. The widespread popularity of the tale, including several film adaptations, pays tribute to Bierce’s powerful storytelling technique.
A Prolific Career
In addition to his Civil War stories, Bierce wrote for newspapers including the Wasp and the San Francisco Examiner and produced numerous essays, poems, short stories and novels. In 1906, he published what many critics consider his most important work -- the sardonic compendium of alternative definitions known as The Devil’s Dictionary.
And in a turn of events uncannily reminiscent of his stories, Bierce disappeared in Mexico. His last letter was dated December 26, 1913. He was never heard from again.
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