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Ambrose Bierce (Magill Book Reviews)

Roy Morris, Jr., is the editor of the journal AMERICA’S CIVIL WAR and the author of SHERIDAN: THE LIFE AND WARS OF GENERAL PHIL SHERIDAN (1992). As a Civil War authority, Morris is well suited to unraveling how the war impacted Ambrose Bierce. Born on June 24, 1842, in Horse Cave Creek, Ohio, Bierce was the tenth child of Marcus Aurelius Bierce and Laura Sherwood Bierce. For some unknown reason, his father gave all of his children a first name beginning with the letter “A.” While Bierce was still a child, the family moved to Indiana. The family struggled to stay out of poverty. While the other children did their best to adjust to the harsh conditions, Bierce became withdrawn and sullen. Morris points out that as an adult, Bierce never had a kind word to say about his parents.

At the age of fifteen, Bierce left home for good. With the start of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the Ninth Indiana Volunteers. Morris is at his analytic best in his description of the war and the part the Bierce played in it as a Union Army soldier. He was a good soldier and by the end of the war had risen to the rank of first lieutenant. Bierce saw action in a number of major battles. On June 23, 1864, he was shot in the head while leading a skirmish line at Kennesaw Mountain. Morris drives home the point that Bierce physically recovered from his head wound, but that he did not ever fully recover psychologically from witnessing such horrendous carnage.

Although Bierce could have remained in the Army after the war, he chose to turn down the commission offered him. Disillusioned by his Civil War experiences, he spent the rest of his life as a man haunted by what he had seen. He became a working journalist in such places as London and San Francisco. Always the cynic, Bierce wrote many blistering articles without regard to whom they might offend. In the 1880’s, he finally turned his Civil War experiences into some powerful short stories, including the classic “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” His wartime writings would influence such writers as Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway. Bierce’s abrasive wit did not always endear him to the powers that be, and he found himself out of favor on more than one occasion. His unforgiving nature probably led to the break-up of his marriage and the loss of several friends. He also had to endure the deaths of two of his three children. In 1913, Bierce disappeared without a trace. It has been theorized that he died in Mexico, but there is no hard evidence to support that theory. Morris presents his own alternative theory, but it also is no more than conjecture. While Morris could have spent more time discussing Bierce’s early life and his marriage to Mary Ellen Day, AMBROSE BIERCE still remains an admirable biography.