Ambrose bierce biography video on george washington s presidency

Ambrose Bierce (–?) was an American

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce June 24, — was an American editorialist, journalist , short-story writer , and satirist, today best known for his Devil's Dictionary, which lampooned, among other things, religion and politics. Bierce's lucid, unsentimental style has kept him popular when many of his contemporaries have been consigned to oblivion. His dark, sardonic views and vehemence as a critic earned him the nickname , "Bitter Bierce.

Such was his reputation that it was said his judgment on any piece of prose or poetry could make or break a writer's career. Among the younger writers whom he encouraged were the poet George Sterling and the fiction writer W. Bierce was born in rural Meigs County, Ohio, and grew up in Kosciusko County, Indiana, attending high school at the county seat of Warsaw.

He was the tenth of 13 children, whose father, Marcus Aurelius Bierce , gave all of them names beginning with the letter "A. His mother, Laura Sherwood, was a descendant of William Bradford. In February , he was commissioned first lieutenant, and served on the staff of General William Babcock Hazen as a topographical engineer , making maps of likely battlefields.

Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh April , a terrifying experience that became a source for several later short stories and the memoir, What I Saw of Shiloh. He continued fighting in the Western theater, at one point receiving newspaper attention for his daring rescue, under fire, of a gravely wounded comrade at the Battle of Rich Mountain, West Virginia.

In June , he sustained a serious head wound at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and spent the rest of the summer on furlough, returning to active duty in September. He was discharged from the army in January His military career resumed, however, when in the summer of he rejoined General Hazen as part of the latter's expedition to inspect military outposts across the Great Plains.

The expedition proceeded by horseback and wagon from Omaha, Nebraska, arriving toward year's end in San Francisco, California. They had three children, Day , Leigh , and Helen Both of Bierce's sons predeceased him: Day was shot in a brawl over a woman, and Leigh died of pneumonia related to alcoholism.