Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett

1842 - Bierce was born in a rural area of Meigs County, Ohio on 24th of June.

1862 - Bierce enlisted in the Ninth Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, as part of the Union Army.

         - He was commissioned as a first lieutenant and served on the staff of Gen.

         - Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh in April.

1864 - In June, he received a serious head wound at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

1866 - Resumed his military career.

         - In the summer, he rejoined Gen. Hazen as part of the latter's expedition to inspect military.

1887-1906 - Bierce became one of the first regular columnists and editorialists to be employed on William Randolph Hearst's newspaper.

1899 - He moved to Washington, D.C., but continued his association with the Hearst Newspapers until 1906.

1913 - The septuagenarian Bierce departed Washington on a tour to revisit his old Civil War battlefields.

         - By December, he had proceeded on through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico

         - In Ciudad Juárez, he joined the army of Pancho Villa as an observe

         - On 26th of December he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most famous disappearances in American literary history.

• "Genius - To know without having learned; to draw just conclusions from unknown premises; to discern the soul of things."
• "History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."
• "Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessed unworthy."
• "Abstainer. A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure."
• "There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy."