Ambrose Bierce's Civil War

[LincolnMan]

Allen C. Guelzo in an article "Bierce's Civil War" from the Civil War Times had this to say about him: "Ambrose Bierce would probably have been happier if he had never been born. Failing that, he would certainly have been more happy if he had not survived the Civil War; or, if he had, he would have been far happier if he had never left the army at war's end. Instead, almost against his will, he went on to become one of the sharpest American humorists who ever put pen to page, and today Bierce ranks second only to Samuel Clemens as a sarcastic chronicler of the quaint, the ridiculous, and downright idiotic in American life...his recollections of the war turned up full of routine stupidities, wasted braveries, and empty illusions."