Critic's Corner

The Devilish Lieutenant Bierce

By Stephen Davis · Originally published February 2018 · p. 34

BRIDE, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her. INFIDEL, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does. TOMB, n. The House of Indifference. A number of CWN readers may be more familiar with Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary (1906) than with his short story, “The Crime at Pickett’s Mill” (1888). I’ve quoted, above, a few gems of the former work; my intent in this column is to quote a few from the latter. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born in southeast Ohio in June 1842, one of ten children. He left his family’s farm at fifteen, lived for a while with his uncle in Akron, and worked at different jobs. When the war came, he was living in Warsaw, Ind. On April 19, 1861, he enlisted in the 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was eventually assigned to William B. Hazen’s Brigade in Gen. Buell’s Army of the Ohio. The 9th fought at Shiloh, Perryville, and Stones River. During this time Bierce was promoted to sergeant, sergeant-major, and second lieutenant. He was commissioned first lieutenant on April 25, 1863, and in a few months was acting as Brig. Gen. Hazen’s topographical engineer. Bierce was at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. He continued to serve under Hazen during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign until June 23, 1864, when he was seriously wounded in the head near Kennesaw Mountain. He returned to his old brigade three months later, but recurring pain in his left temporal bone led to his resignation in January 1865. After the war he settled in California, found work writing for newspapers, and got married. He wrote short stories of humor and satire in the 1870’s, turning eventually to the war and his experiences in it. After he joined the staff of William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner in February 1887, he wrote “Killed at Resaca,” which the paper published several months later. The story showcases Bierce’s trademark cynicism. Lt. Herman Brayle, from Ohio, had a habit in battle of not taking cover. Like Bierce, he served on General

Hazen’s staff, carrying orders to other commands. During the battle of Resaca, Ga., in mid-May 1864, Hazen sent Brayle off with a message. He set out on horseback in a route that by his choosing brought him under enemy fire. “Successive scores of rifles spat at him viciously as he came within range,” Bierce writes, but Brayle did not cower. Of course a bullet struck and killed him. Federals managed to retrieve his body. On it Bierce found a letter from the lieutenant’s sweetheart, in which she admonished him not to act as a coward. So this was why Brayle was so heedless of danger, Bierce reckoned. After the war, Bierce looked up the lady, one Marian Mendenhall, to return her letter. “I intended, also, to tell her what she had done,” meaning, indirectly causing Herman Brayle’s death. Instead, appalled by her shocking indifference to the brave man’s fate, when Marian asked, he denied her the satisfaction of knowing how he died. “He was bitten by a snake,” I replied. “The Crime at Pickett’s Mill” was published in the Examiner issue of May 27, 1888. The story reflects Bierce’s vivid recollections, two decades after the war, of the battle fought northwest of Atlanta in late May 1864. Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, commanding the Federal IV Corps, had been ordered by Sherman on May 27 to probe around the enemy’s right flank and launch an attack. Howard got his men marching that morning, but had trouble fixing the Rebels’ position. Finally, around 4:30 pm, Howard informed Thomas, “I…am now turning the enemy’s right flank, I think.” Thomas paid no heed to the I think part, but reminded Howard that Gen. Sherman wanted an attack. Howard may not have known where the Rebels were, but the men in the ranks knew. Johnston had extended his right (Hindman’s division of Hood’s corps), but more importantly also sent Pat Cleburne’s division to Hindman’s right, toward a little creek and the mill owned by the Widow Pickett. Thus when the orders came down to Brig. Gen. Thomas Wood’s division to make the advance, the Confederates were right in their front, expecting the attack. Nevertheless, Wood told Howard, “We will put in Hazen and see what success he has.” Hazen’s brigade thus had the bad luck to be chosen for the assault. As a staff officer for Hazen, Bierce knew the situation. Hazen also heard Wood and saw Howard nod, but he said nothing. “He uttered never a word, rode to the head of his feeble brigade and patiently awaited the command,” writes Bierce. “Only by a look which I knew how to read did he betray his sense of the criminal blunder.” The criminal blunder led 1,500 Northern soldiers “to march a quarter-mile up hill through almost impassable tangles of underwood, along and across precipitous ravines,” Bierce explains, “and attack breastworks constructed at leisure and manned with two division of troops as good as themselves.” Of course Hazen’s brigade was repulsed, and suffered heavy casualties. Bierce quotes the general’s memoir: “they went in at a run, and as organizations were broken in less than a minute.” I remember once touring Pickett’s Mill battlefield, and how my companions knew of Bierce’s story about the criminal blunder. To show the ubiquity of the famed cynic’s work, as I write this article I see in tonight’s Jeopardy that Alex Trebek asked what 1960’s television series featured a show centered around Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Answer: The Twilight Zone (the episode aired in February 1964). I remember watching that one, about the hanging of a Confederate spy, as a fifteen-year-old Civil War buff in the making. …which leads us back to Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary: WAR. n. A by-product of the arts of peace.

For further reading: S.T. Joshi, ed., The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, & Memoirs. Library of America, 2011. The best collection of Bierce’s writings. Roy Morris, Jr. Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company. Crown Publishers, 1995. A sound biography by the editor of America’s Civil War. S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, eds. A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography. University of Tennessee Press, 1998. All of Bierce’s autobiographical writings (thirteen stories pertain to the Civil War), plus his last letters. Bierce disappeared into Mexico in 1913 and is thought to have died there. Brian M. Thomsen, ed. Shadows of Blue & Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce. Forge, 2002. Thirty-five stories, including “Four Days in Dixie,” in which Bierce mentions his head wound at Kennesaw Mountain. Ambrose Bierce: Civil War Stories. Kelly’s Cove Press, 2011. “Pickett’s Mill” is not among the eleven stories. The Devil’s Dictionary. Dover

Publications, 1993. A thrifty paperback. Donald T. Blume. Ambrose Bierce’s Civilians and Soldiers in Context: A Critical Study. Kent State University Press, 2004. Scholarship by a professor of English. Donald T. Blume, ed. Ambrose Bierce: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Kent State University Press, 2004. Reprints nineteen of Bierce’s short stories, including “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Killed at Resaca,” but not “The Crime at Pickett’s Mill.” Michael W. Schaefer. Just What War Is: The Civil War Writings of De Forest and Bierce. University of Tennessee Press, 1997. Another scholarly study, by a professor who at the time of publication was teaching at the University of Central Arkansas. Like Bierce, John W. De Forest (1826–1906) was a Union officer and postwar writer. Steve Davis of Atlanta is a regular contributor to Civil War News and is the Book Review Editor. His book, A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River May 5–July 18, 1864, was published as part of Savas Beatie’s Emerging Civil War paperback series. The companion volume, All The Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign From Peachtree Creek To The City’s Surrender, July 18–September 2, 1864, was published Spring 2017.