A Portrait of Ambrose Bierce:

Neale’s Ambrose Bierce
According to Neale, who knew Bierce personally, Bierce felt inferior his entire life, at least in terms of education and strove his entire life to transcend into a gentleman. However, in an attempt to become a gentleman Bierce usually ended up making a fool of himself because he talked as if he was an expert when he was not (Neale 41). Bierce grew up in Ohio on a farm, though his parents were "cultured," but moved away at the age of seventeen in his attempt to become a gentleman. Neale states that Bierce went to Elkhart, Indiana to further his education. In Indiana he signed up with the Indian volunteers and "labored as a lackey, mopping up vomit, cleaning out spittoons, [and] wiping off platters with a dirty apron (Neale 39). He did not become a gentleman in the saloon. At the outbreak of the Civil War Bierce joined the Union army and acted as a topographical engineer. When "the war ended, Bierce had neither the instincts nor the manners of a gentleman," so he moved to London, England (Neale 39). In London Bierce associated with "brutal, uncouth, immoral" men (Neale 39). A few years later Bierce, who still had not become a gentleman in his own eyes, moved to Washington, DC where he attempted to further his education. After many years of moving around, Neale states that Bierce possessed the best kind of education and the only kind: the kind that is self-acquired (48). This "self-acquired" education led Ambrose Bierce to become one of the best American authors.

Bierce recounts that the battle of Chickamauga as a psychological battle against everyone. Bierce states that a "day of danger succeeded a night of waking" (30) because the Confederates continued to attack through the night. At the same time the Union faced the possibility of being cut off from a retreat because the Confederate "continued to stretch his line northward in the hope to overlap us and put himself between us and Chattanooga" (Bierce 30). The Confederates frightened the Union by their tactics; thus they used psychological warfare on their enemies. On the second day of the battle, while searching for additional armaments, Bierce became dislocated from the rest of his battalion. While he was away the Confederates continued to attack, from the front, sides, and rear. Bierce discusses the despair that the Union soldiers felt as they watched their comrades die, surrounded by the sounds of battle. Bierce attempted to make this writing light and entertaining, but despite this, the reader gets the impression that this battle that raged for two days seemed like hell to the troops.

Web links providing additional information on Ambrose Bierce:

• The Ambrose Bierce Appreciation Society Provides an overview of Bierce’s life and death as well as a list of all of his works, and works about him. Provides links to other sites on the Internet about Bierce.
• Ambrose Bierce Provides a short history of Bierce’s life and links to versions of online texts written by Bierce. Also gives a list of other web sites that offer material on Ambrose Bierce.
• http://www.creative.net/~alang/lit/horror/bierce.sht Provides a detailed biography of Bierce’s life and works that he has written.
• http://www.erols.com/kfraser/ambrose.html A very short biography with no links to other Bierce sites.

• Child- A six-year-old deaf-mute.
• Mother- Mother of the child.
• Father- Father of the child, teaches him a little about war.
• Soldiers- Dying soldiers that cross the path of the innocent child.
• Rabbit- An innocent bunny that scares the child

Date of Publication: 1889

Genre: Short Story

Symbols:

Dying Soldiers- Symbolize the child’s loss of innocence.

Mother- symbolizes the heartlessness of war.

Picture books- Symbolizes the child’s view of reality, pretty, but not accurate.

The tale of a young six-year old that transcends from a nieve child playing innocently to a person with knowledge of the world’s cruelties. The child’s only perceptions of the outside world, especially war, comes from the picture books that his father shows him. Armed with the images from these books the child travels into the forest to experience the world for himself. In the forest, he comes into contact with a bunny, but does not realize that the bunny cannot hurt him and runs out of fear. The child eventually tires and finds a place to sleep. During the child’s nap, a battle begins around him. The boy awakens to find dying soldiers clawing their way forward, to the river to die. The child, unaware of what has happened, tries to play with the dying soldiers. However, they do not cooperate, so the child decides to lead them. As the child approaches his home, even though the sun has already set, the sky becomes the color of orange. The child does not note the brightness of the sky until he sees his home ablaze. On closer inspection the child sees his mother, lying dead with a hole in her head. The child lets out a cry, a cry like the sound of the devil. At this point Bierce informs the reader that the child is a deaf-mute.

Davidson provides an overview of the entire story, including a few nuggets of intellectual thought. However, she discusses one subject and then switches to another one, providing mostly details of the plot. The first subject she discusses deals with the narration of the story. She discusses how the reader experiences both the truth of the situation, the dying men, from the narrator and the boy’s point of view. She sites how the blood-streaked faces of the dying men remind the child of clowns from the circus. By doing this, Davidson tries to persuade the reader to believe that Ambrose Bierce tries to create a dichotomy in his story. The dichotomy exists between the narrator’s omnipotentance and the innocence of the young child. The second subject that she discusses deals with the boy’s distorted perception of the world and that the perception the boy posses of war come from picture books. She discusses how the child has war in his veins, inherited from his European ancestors who fought in wars and participated in world conquest. Davidson ends her discussion of "Chickamauga" with the double epiphany at the end of the story. She believes that Bierce wants the reader to realize that the child has a handicap before the end. However if the reader does not realize the child’s handicap, and does not question, but instead takes the book at face value, then the reader and the boy posses the same intelligence, or that the reader shows ignorance.

Morris first relates to his readers Bierce’s own experiences concerning the battle of "Chickamauga," then continues on to give a basic plot summary of the short story with his interpretations of the symbolism. Morris relates the child in "Chickamauga" to the Union general Rosecrans in the actual battle of Chickamauga. While discussing the scene in the short story where the boy chases his invisible foe across a stream which he himself cannot pass, Morris states that "this is a perfect synopsis of Rosecrans’s blunder at Chickamauga" (62). However, Morris does not reveal to the reader what blunder Rosecrans administered, not in the critique or the pages preceding the critique in which he discuses the battle.

Ambrose Bierce wrote many stories, either dealing with war or dark humor, because of his environment. Likewise, in Africa they write short stories because "they have to live from day to day . . . you cannot budget for six months in order to write a novel" (Lindfors 50). In Bierce’s short story "Chickamauga," Bierce narrates the hardships of a young disabled child as his parents die at the hands of war. Bierce can do this because he experienced the misery of war. Bierce’s unique writing style and the topics he writes about derives from his own experiences with war. Because of Bierce’s environment Bierce’s writing style changed, and he began teaching about the horror of war, challenging his readers to understand war, and through these lessons, encouraging peace.

Bierce experienced war first hand, and the horrors of war, so he wrote about it. Since a writer can only write what he knows, Bierce’s works were usually constrained to war. However, in Bierce’s war stories he does not just teach a story, but he also educates the reader on the horrors of war. By providing the imagery of the dying soldiers, Bierce creates a picture inside the minds of his readers. For example, Bierce writes that by the burning house "lay the dead body of a woman-the white face turned upward, the hands thrown out and clutched full of grass, the clothing deranged, the long dark hair in tangles and full of clotted blood. The greater part of the forehead was torn away, and from the jagged hole the brain protruded, overflowing the temple" (264-265). By providing this detailed visual, Bierce makes his readers physically sick, and most probably steers them away from war. The battles that Bierce experienced allowed him to write such a descriptive story, and to teach a moral at the same time.

By teaching lessons and providing intellectual thoughts that are greater than the story itself, Bierce challenges the reader to consider the full meaning of war. "Chickamauga" can be taken at face value, as an entertaining, yet sad war story of a young child who losses his parents, or as a story that teaches about the horrors of war. By making the child a "deaf-mute," Bierce persuades the reader to consider the effects of war on the innocent (265). Bierce knows the full meaning of war because he experienced it. However, Bierce tries to allow his readers who have never fought in a war to experience it. Any humane person will feel sympathy for the child at the end of "Chickamauga," because not only does the child have no parents, he also suffers from a disability. The child represents that everything innocent becomes destroyed at the hands of war. Who else could teach such a lesson, but somebody who experiences war and death?

Because Bierce encouraged his readers to understand war and war’s horror’s, he actually encouraged peace. Bierce’s stories did not encourage war; in fact they discouraged it. Why else would Bierce write such graphic stories in which the innocent suffer? When Bierce makes the main character of his story a deaf-mute, he demonstrates that war does not show prejudice, racism, or mercy. Everybody suffers. The point that Bierce puts forward to his readers consists of the ultimate question-why should men make war when they can make love? Our society has done enough killing; enough young men have died. Why? Maybe for a greater ideal and maybe for no reason at all.

This page states that the battle of "Chickamauga" was fought on September 18-20, 1963 (1). The Union leader, Rosecrans desired to force the Confederates out of land surrounding Chattanooga, however, the Confederate leader, Bragg, "was determined to reoccupy Chattanooga" (1). On the first day of the battle Bragg’s men attacked the Unions line along the road leading to Chattanooga, but to no avail because they could not break the line. The next day, Bragg continued his assault on the Union line and in late morning, when informed of a break in the line, he forced one third of the line, including Rosecrans, to retreat to Chattanooga. George Thomas regathered the Union forces and withheld the Confederates until dusk despite continuing attacks from the Confederates. At nightfall, what remained of the Union army, retreated to Chattanooga.

Bierce narrates that the battle of Chickamauga began as the Union soldiers headed to Chattanooga. As the Union army progressed, they found a larger Confederate army to the left of them. Shortly thereafter the Confederate army began engaging the Union army, with heavy losses to both sides because, as Bierce states "the forest was so dense that the hostile lines came almost into contact before fighting was possible" (30). The sheer numbers of the Confederates drove the Union army to retreat and defend their artillery.

The fighting did not stop at dusk, for the Confederates continued to attack the Union encampment, but the Union was able to "thrown up rude intrenchments" (30). The following morning, Bierce’s commander sent him to find additional artillery because the supplies were running low. During Bierce’s absence, Wood’s battalion disengaged, because of misinformation, as the Confederate army was making an assault. This led to the Union becoming divided into two armies. Half fled to Chattanooga, while the other half, mostly surrounded, attempted to hold off the Confederate soldiers. As the day progressed, reinforcements arrived for the Union army. However, this did not help the Union, for at dusk they fled. The Union received heavy losses to the Confederates in this battle.
 

A map of the terrain where the battle of Chickamauga was fought:

Explanation of the Map:

The Union’s intrenchments were to the left of the red line, while the Confederates attacked first from the left. Eventually the Confederates circled around and also began attacking the union army from the north. As the Union defenses broke the Confederates seized the opportunity and spewed through the gap. This allowed the northern part of the army to flee to Chattanooga, while the southern part of the Union army had to fight the greater force of the confederates. The entire battle was found along the road shown on the map above because the union army was trying to advance to Chattanooga.

Links to sites providing additional information on the battle of Chickamauga:

• http://civilwarhome.com/chickama.htm A site which provides not only information on the battle itself, but the whole campaign. Provides information on every general involved on both sides of the campaign.
• http://www.civil-war.net/battles.html Contains a list of links for every Civil War battle. The Chickamauga links provide information on the gray trail (the road on which the battle of Chickamauga was fought), as well as a description of the battle of Chickamauga. A very good site.

The years that Bierce fought in the Civil War taught him the horrors of war and had a great influence on his later writings. According to Davidson, some of Bierce’s works "could well be an ancestor to similar modern works such as Joseph Heller’s Catch-22" because of the "black humor" that these authors utilize (72). The black humor that Bierce incorporates into some of his writings came from the years he fought in the Civil War. The Civil War effects Bierce’s short story, "Chickamauga," because of the vivid imagery that Bierce utilizes, the lack of mercy and anonymity of the soldiers, and the lesson of peace that Bierce tries to teach the reader.

The visual imagery of the dying soldiers in "Chickamauga" demonstrate images that Bierce saw in his years of fighting. Bierce writes in "Chickamauga" that a dying soldier "then turned upon him a face that lacked a lower jaw-from the upper teeth to the throat was a great red gap fringed with hanging shreds of flesh and splinters of bone" (263). To use imagery such as this would suggest that a person would have to see it, because even the human imagination cannot create such a dismal and graphic scene. Morris states that [Bierce’s] experiences . . . had left him with an irreducible core of vivid sensory images imprinted on his mind’s eye in much the same way that it was once believed a killer’s face was imprinted on the frozen pupils of his victim. And in both cases, those eyes were open to the horror" (63). A human mind must have some sickness to create such horrific images without actually experiencing it for themselves. And the people who have seen these images in reality must receive pity, because who can lock out of their mind such horrible things. To view such awful things must leave a mark on the psyche of an individual, for Bierce the civil war left these images.

The soldiers in "Chickamauga" symbolize a complete lack of mercy focused onto a group. The soldiers move towards the river lacking lower jaws, legs, arms, and the ability of conscious thought. Bierce states that "they did . . . nothing alike, save only to advance foot by foot in the same direction" (262). Bierce treats the soldiers as one, one individual group who has been murdered and injured by the hands of an enemy with no mercy. This group does not think, they only advance on some instinct to flee from the horror of the battle which they have become the focus. Davidson states that "the reiteration of the pronoun ‘they’ emphasis the anonymity of these dying men" (38). They slowly advance staggered, into the direction of the river, for no reason but to die because nobody cares about them.

A reader of Bierce receives the impression that Bierce has grown sick of war, and that the time of peace has arrived. Morris quotes Bierce as saying "to those of us who have survived the attacks of both Bragg and time, and who keep in memory the dear dead comrades who we left upon the that fateful field, the place means much" (64). The place symbolizes the horror of war, a horror that took many young men before their time. Bierce continues on to say that "God’s great angels stood invisible among the heroes in blue and the heroes in gray, sleeping their last sleep in the woods of ‘Chickamauga’" (64). Heroes or not, the soldiers still will not live again. Does the purpose of a war offset the amount of young men that die? I believe that Bierce does not think so, because he devoted his life to writing about the horrors of war and because he saw first hand the deaths of his comrades and enemies.

The majority of the research conducted involves the depression or trauma that a child suffers from the loss of one or both of their parents. Usually the research deals with divorce or separation. However, research does exist concerning the death of a child’s parents and some research exists about children’s reaction to a violent death of a parent or a parent lost in war. Also, many papers deal with the problems and trauma that orphan’s face. Despite all of this research, little research exists for the effect of parental loss on disabled children. Some research does exist for the trauma faced by the parents of a disabled child.

The young child in "Chickamauga" suffers from unspeakable horrors, the worst being the loss of his mother. Payton and Krocker believe that "violence and the witnessing of it may intensify the impact and further complicate the resolution of the parental loss for the child" (565). The child will already have psychological problems because of the loss of his mother, however, seeing his mother lay dead, from a violent death will only complicate matters. To make matters still worse the child has a disability, making it nearly impossible for him to recover psychologically. The child will never fully heal psychologically because he lost a mother to a violent death and because he suffers from being deaf and dumb.

The child not only comes to death for the first time when he sees his dead mother, but the death of his mother was gruesome. In fact he sees his mother with the top of her head missing and her brain protruding (Bierce 264). To see a death of a parent violently leads to a greater psychosis of the child. Payton and Krocker believe that with the violent death of a parent a child has an "increased risk for anxious and withdrawn behaviors" (563). Since this child did not act normal to become with, after witnessing his mother’s death the child will have increased psychological problems.

To complicate matters further for the child, not only does he witness his mother’s violent death, but also he suffers from a disability. This disability kept the child ignorant of many things, including death. The child only has sight and feel to navigate his way. The child feels his mother’s death, allowing him to understand death to it’s fullest. This sudden understanding causes the boy serious trauma. Davis states that "people who live disabilities experience grief differently; sometimes their experience is described as chronic sorrow" (352). This means that they never fully recover emotionally from their trauma. They do not mourn like normal people do. Unfortunately, for the child, he may never recover from the death that he saw.

The boy will never heal from his disability or the emotional scaring he has received from the violent death of his mother. If he was normal then he might heal, but because he has a handicap, he probably won’t. In fact, he will suffer from depression for the rest of his life because he does no fully understand what happened. The poor child must learn to deal with his handicap without his mother.

• Links to sites concerning the loss of a parent:
• http://www.faytech.cc.nc.us/~holgates/psy141-001/Canin05/tsld001.htm Discusses (with the help of slides) how the loss of a parent effects a child.
• http://www.seasonscentre.com/scration.htm A web site created by the Seasons Centre to provide help with people who have lost a parent.
• http://wj.richmond.edu/psychology/earlyloss/main.html Discusses different types of losses, and they also experience these losses in many different ways. Also discusses how children deal with these losses, and links for places that will help children.

Bierce, A. Ambrose Bierce: A Sole Survivor. Ed. Joshi, S. & Schultz, D. Knoxville: U of Tennessee, 1998.  29-33.

Bierce describes his experiences during the battle of "Chickamauga." He reviews the entire battle as well as his role within it. A reader gets the impression that Bierce has grown tired of war and death. Bierce states that he wants this part of his autobiography to be light and not depressing. However, any reader knows this cannot be the case as Bierce describes how people died.

Compares the case studies of children who enter the hospital because of depression. Caplan and Douglas found that the majority of the depressed children either had at least one of their parent’s die or were separated from their parents for at least six months. They urge for more research on children’s psychology after a parental loss. The evidence supports that a relationship exists between parental loss and depression.

Discusses the problems that a mother of a disabled child face when confronted by death. Davis states that society expects them to mourn, and they have to, but not for very long because they have to care for the disabled child. Their inability to mourn fully leads the mothers to a chronic state of depression.

See literature section for a summary of this source.

See literature section for a summary of this source.

This article discusses twenty-one children who have lost their parents either to violent murders or violent suicides. The study concludes that children who witnessed the violent death of their parent have a greater tendency to have major psychological problems. These children usually cannot overcome the trauma for some time and cannot cope with the loss.

Neale discusses his friend, Ambrose Bierce, and his background. First he tells the reader of what Bierce told him and then he discusses Bierce’s true background. He tells of Bierce’s transcending from a farm boy to a gentleman. He lays out Bierce’s quest to be scholarly and the troubles that Bierce faced along the way.