When and where was Ambrose Bierce born?
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on the 24th of June 1842 in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. He entered the world as the tenth child of Marcus Aurelius Bierce and Laura Sherwood Bierce.
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born on the 24th of June 1842 in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio. He entered the world as the tenth child of Marcus Aurelius Bierce and Laura Sherwood Bierce.
Ambrose Bierce enlisted in the Union Army's 9th Indiana Infantry during the American Civil War and participated in battles including Philippi, Shiloh, and Kennesaw Mountain. A traumatic brain injury sustained at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864 caused episodes of fainting that plagued him for the rest of his life.
Ambrose Bierce demanded one hundred thirty million dollars from Central Pacific executive Collis P. Huntington when asked for his price to stop the bill. This public stance aroused such wrath that Congress defeated the attempt to excuse companies from repaying loans amounting to $130 million.
Ambrose Bierce disappeared without a trace after writing his last known communication on the 26th of December 1913 while accompanying Pancho Villa's forces in Chihuahua. One theory suggests he went to a selected location in the Grand Canyon to die by suicide while another oral tradition states he was executed by a Huertista firing squad.
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians published in 1891 contains twenty-five grimly realistic war stories that are considered the greatest anti-war document in American literature. Stories like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, A Horseman in the Sky, One of the Missing, and Chickamauga highlight the inscrutability of the universe and the absurdity of death.