Discuss the representations of the American Civil War in
the stories of Ambrose Bierce.
Is there truth in the stories?
How do the stories affect their audience?
What representations of the Civil War does Bierce present? How does this affect the current audience?
How do the stories affect their audience?
What representations of the Civil War does Bierce present? How does this affect the current audience?
Ambrose Bierce was an American journalist and short-story
writer who was born on 24th of June 1842. He disappeared in late 1913 or early
1914 after visiting some of the battlefields he fought at in his youth. He
later wrote fictional stories detailing the experiences of war. These stories
convey actions prevalent in the American Civil War amongst the narrative they
are weaved into.
Ambrose Bierce's stories convey truth mixed with fiction.
For example, One of the Missing uses
the name of Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman (General Sherman) and
depicts the "Confederate retreat"[1]
through the fictional character of Private Jerome Searing, who is an
"orderly"[2]
for Sherman's army. The story also depicts the "miles of trenchlines"[3]
which it appears Bierce described as "A line of earthworks"[4]
and "little banks of earth scooped out of the slight depression"[5].
Of course, this would only be true if Union soldiers had taken over the
Confederate trenches. It seems likely. It appears that the Atlanta Campaign is
presented as a sort of building site as well as a battlefield.
Amongst One of the
Missing, Bierce refers to his own injury which occurred on the 23rd of June
1864 at Kennesaw Mountain[6]
in this sentence: "A smart wrap to the head from a flying fragment of the
splintered post, incurred simultaneously with the frightfully sudden shock to
the nervous system."[7]
Bierce, however, was hit by a bullet, not a splinter of wood. Through this, he
gives his audience an idea of what it would be like to be shot or injured
whilst at war.
Likewise, in his recount of the Battle of Shiloh in What I Saw of Shiloh, he gives a dismal
description of what battle was like. "Here in 1862 were some fields and a
house or two; now there are a national cemetery and other improvements"[8]
somewhat humorously give an indication of the loses which occurred at Shiloh. According
to Roy Morris Jr., the casualties were "more than had died in the
Revolutionary War, the war of 1812, and the Mexican War put together."[9]
He also goes on to say that "The sights and sounds of Shiloh would stay
with Bierce for the rest of his life, occasioning some of his finest writing
and foreshadowing and directly influencing an entire generation of American
writers, men whose own take on war owed a great deal to his seminal
works."[10]
[1] Geologic
Origins of Kennesaw Mountain - ?
[2] Ambrose
Gwinnett Bierce, One of the Missing, http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html
[3]Angela
Tooley, The Dallas Road Community and the
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, National Park Service U.S. Department of the
Interior Kennesaw Mountain National
Battlefield Park, Experience Your America™
[4] One
of the Missing
[5] One
of the Missing
[6] The
Ambrose Bierce Project, http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html, Copyright
2005-2012, Craig A. Warren, last visited 16.08.2012
[7] One
of the Missing
[8] Ambrose
Gwinnett Bierce, What I Saw of Shiloh, http://www.ambrosebierce.org/main.html
[9] Roy
Morris Jr., Ambrose Bierce Alone in Bad Company
[10] Alone
in Bad Company
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