Ambrose Bierce didn't just write about the Civil War, he lived through it—on the front lines, across the battlefields, and over the graves—and in so doing gave birth to a literary chronicle of men at war previously unseen in the American literary canon. The fact that some of these stories verge on the supernatural, others on factual reporting, and others on the fine line between humor and morbidity in no way detracts from their resonance to both the history of the war between the states and the imaginative historical literature of America begun by Washington Irving. Shadows of Blue & Gray collects all of Bierce's Civil War stories and also includes six excerpts from his memoirs recalling his experiences on the front lines. —front flap Chickamauga A Horseman in the Sky Parker Adderson, Philosopher An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Two Military Executions The Mocking-Bird A Tough Tussle The Major's Tale A Son of the Gods A Man with Two Lives One of the Missing The Coup de Grace Killed at Resaca The Affair at Coulter's Notch An Affair of Outposts One Kind of Officer One Officer, One Man George Thurston Three and One Are One A Baffled Ambuscade A Resumed Identity A Jug of Sirup Jupiter Doke, Brigadier-General The Other Lodgers The Spook House On a Mountain What I Saw of Shiloh A Little of Chickamauga The Crime at Pickett's Mill Four Days in Dixie What Occurred at Franklin 'Way Down in Alabam' A Sole Survivor A Bivouac of the Dead
Author
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842-1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and his satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. The sardonic view of human nature that informed his work – along with his vehemence as a critic, with his motto "nothing matters" – earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce." Despite his reputation as a searing critic, however, Bierce was known to encourage younger writers, including poet George Sterling and fiction writer W. C. Morrow. Bierce employed a distinctive style of writing, especially in his stories. This style often embraces an abrupt beginning, dark imagery, vague references to time, limited descriptions, the theme of war, and impossible events. Bierce disappeared in December 1913 at the age of 71. He is believed to have traveled to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on that country's ongoing revolution. Despite an abundance of theories, Bierce's ultimate fate remains a mystery. He wrote in one of his final letters: "Good-bye. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think it is 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!"
