Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce was the tenth of thirteen children born to a pair of poor but literary parents who encouraged his love of books and writing. Bierce attended school in Indiana and, at the age of 15, he became an apprentice at a small abolitionist newspaper, The Northern Indianan. He briefly attended the Kentucky Military Institute before it burned down. In April 1861, just three weeks after the Civil War began, Bierce enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 19. Originally, he enlisted for three months’ service, but he ended up reenlisting for three years and participating in several major battles, including Shiloh and Chickamauga. After a traumatic brain injury at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Bierce was discharged from the army in January 1865. He experienced lifelong complications from his war wounds. Several of Bierce’s works of fiction, including “Chickamauga,” appear to have been influenced by his real-life experiences in battle. Bierce married Mary Ellen Day in 1871, and they had three children together. Two of these children died before Bierce did (one by suicide, and one by pneumonia). Bierce and his wife separated in 1888 after he discovered a compromising letter from an admirer of hers, and they divorced in 1904. Bierce had a career in journalism and, during his lifetime, was better-known for his journalism than for his fiction. Many of his most famous stories were written between 1888 and 1891, and many were influenced by his experience as a soldier. He is now well-known for both his war stories and his horror stories. In December 1913, Bierce traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, where the Mexican Revolution was taking place. He was rumored to have been traveling with rebel troops, but he was never seen again.