A Son of the Gods and A Horseman in the Sky

The collection that holds An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Chickamauga and A Horseman in the Sky, written by a writer who fought at Shiloh. Its soldier stories show the war without glory, and its civilian tales, like The Boarded Window, turn quietly to horror.

Ambrose Bierce

A Confederate planter stands on a railroad bridge with a rope around his neck, and then the rope breaks. Bierce's most famous story takes 20 minutes to read and has one of the great twist endings in fiction.

Ambrose Bierce

A small boy wanders into the woods playing soldier and meets a line of wounded men crawling away from the battle. A short, brutal story about one of the bloodiest fights of the Civil War, seen through the eyes of a child.

Ambrose Bierce

Bierce's own memories of the war, from What I Saw of Shiloh to A Little of Chickamauga and The Crime at Pickett's Mill. Read it next to his stories and you'll see how much of his fiction he lived first.

Ambrose Bierce