Ambrose Bierce

His father was Marcus Aurelius Bierce (1799-1876) and his mother was Laura Sherwood who was a descendant of William Bradford. He was the tenth of thirteen children, all of them had names beginning with the letter "A". In the order that they were born, the children’s names were: Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Almeda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia, and Aurelia.

In 1857, Ambrose worked as a printer’s assistant for The Northern Indianian in Warsaw. In 1859, he attended the Kentucky Military Institute for one year. He worked in a brickyard in 1860. At the start of the Civil War, Ambrose enlisted as a private in Company C of the Ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers. He saw his first military action in June of 1861. On July 10, 1861, he heroically saves a mortally wounded soldier while under heavy Confedrate fire. He re-enlists with the rank of sergeant in August of 1861. In 1862, Ambrose fought in several battles including Shiloh and was promoted to lieutenant. He re-enlisted for a third tour in 1864 and was wounded in the head by a sniper, and promoted to brevet captain. He mustered out of the military in 1865 and was given the honorary title of brevet major for his distinguished service and began his first serious writing.

Ambrose moved to San Francisco and published his first poem in 1867. It was followed with non-fiction articles in the Californian. In 1868, he joined the staff of the News-Letter and soon became the editor. He published his first short story in 1871 and married Mary Ellen (Mollie) Day. They move to England in 1872 where their first son, Day was born and he Published his first book, The Fiend's Delight under the pseudonym of Dod Grile. Over the next three years he published two more books, his second son and daughter were born and they moved back to San Francisco.

Ambrose tried his hand at mining in 1880, but returned to journalism in 1881. In 1887 he was hired by William Randolph Hearst as columnist and editor for the San Francisco Examiner at which time he began publishing his Civil War stories. He separated from Mollie in 1888. In 1889, his son Day, who was 17 at the time, died when he shot and killed his rival in a love triangle and then himself. Between 1890 and 1899 Ambrose published many more works and moved to Washington DC. In 1901, his second son, Leigh died of pneumonia. In 1904 Mollie filed for divorce, she died the following year. In 1906 he published his most famous work, The Devil’s Dictionary which makes interesting reinterpretations of the English language, while hypocrisy and political rhetoric are lampooned. In 1909 publication of his Collected Works, in 12 volumes, began.

Ambrose Bierce resigned from his writing posts and traveled the country. In 1913 he was attracted by the Mexican revolution and decided to get involved at the age of seventy-one. In Ciudad Juárez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer, and witnessed the battle of Tierra Blanca. Bierce accompanied Villa's army as far as Chihuahua, Chihuahua. He sent a last letter to a close friend from there on December 26, 1913, then he vanished without a trace. He became one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history.

In one of his last letters, Bierce wrote the following to his niece, Lora:

"Good-bye — if you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that 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!"

The disappearance of Ambrose Bierce was investigated by the US government and separately by his daughter Helen to no avail. Theories and unsubstantiated rumors abounded, but nothing was ever learned and his disappearance and death remain a mystery today. The year of his death is put as 1914, but no one really knows when he died.