Civil War Stories

DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: STANLEY APPELBAUM
EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: CANDACE WARD

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 1994, is a new selection of sixteen stories from The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volumes I and II, first published in 1909 by The Neale Publishing Company, New York. The stories are printed here unabridged, with a new introductory Note specially prepared for this edition.

Copyright

Copyright © 1994 by Dover Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bierce, Ambrose, 1842—1914?
[Collected works of Ambrose Bierce. Selections]
Civil War stories / Ambrose Bierce.
p. cm. — (Dover thrift editions)
“A new selection of sixteen stories from The collected works of Ambrose Bierce,
volumes I and II, first published in 1909 by The Neale Publishing Company, New
York” — T.p. verso.

9780486111568

1. United States — History — Civil War, 1861—1865 — Fiction. 2. War stories,
American. I. Title. II. Series.
PS 1097.A6 1994
813’.4 — dc20 93—46121
CIP

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
28038116
www.doverpubtications.com

Note

AMBROSE GWINNETT BIERCE (1842-1914?) was born in Meigs County, Ohio, the youngest son of poor farmers. In 1861, after one year in a military academy, he enlisted in the 9th Indiana Volunteers. He participated in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including Chickamauga, where 34,000 men died. Twice Bierce risked his life to rescue fallen comrades, and in 1864 at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, he was himself seriously wounded.

Several years after the war, Bierce joined his brother Albert in San Francisco, where he began contributing to various periodicals. In 1868 he became editor of the News Letter and in 1871, his first short story, “The Haunted Valley,” was published in the Overland Monthly. From 1872 to 1876, Bierce lived in England, writing for such magazines as Fun, Figaro and Hood’s Comic Annual. There his biting sense of humor earned him the nickname “Bitter Bierce,” and the two books he published in 1872 — The Fiend’s Delight and Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California — confirmed his reputation for vitriolic wit.

The Civil War stories collected here are some of the finest examples of Bierce’s fiction. Relying heavily on his own experiences of the War, he describes the darker side of human nature in grim, unflinching narratives. In the characters, we see glimpses of Bierce’s own personality: alienation, sardonic wit and fatalism.

In 1913, Bierce went to Mexico to meet the revolutionary leader Pancho Villa and to observe first-hand the Civil War there. By this time Bierce had become increasingly disenchanted with his own life. He had been divorced from his wife in 1891; in 1889 his older son had died in a fight over a girl; and in 1901 his other son had died of alcoholism. His best work was behind him. “Goodbye,” he wrote in a farewell letter, “if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down the cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico — ah, that is euthanasia!”

Nothing more was heard of Bierce, and the circumstances of his death remain a mystery. It is assumed that he died in the siege of Ojinaga in January 1914.

Table of Contents

 

Title Page
Bibliographical Note
Copyright Page
Note
What I Saw of Shiloh
Four Days in Dixie
A Horseman in the Sky
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Chickamauga
A Son of the Gods - A STUDY IN THE PRESENT TENSE
One of the Missing
Killed at Resaca
The Affair at Coulter’s Notch
The Coup de Grace
Parker Adderson, Philosopher
An Affair of Outposts
The Story of a Conscience
One Kind of Officer
George Thurston - THREE INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A MAN
The Mocking-bird
DOVER • THRIFT • EDITIONS

What I Saw of Shiloh

I

THIS IS A SIMPLE story of a battle; such a tale as may be told by a soldier who is no writer to a reader who is no soldier.

The morning of Sunday, the sixth day of April, 1862, was bright and warm. Reveille had been sounded rather late, for the troops, wearied with long marching, were to have a day of rest.