Collection Guide
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Bierce (Ambrose) Foster family collection of materials
M2146
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Foster family collection of Ambrose Bierce materials
source:
Elkhart County Historical Society
Identifier/Call Number: M2146
Physical Description:
3.0 Linear Feet
: 2 boxes, 1 half-box, 1 flat box
Date (inclusive): 1858-1986
The collection consists of correspondence (including one letter from Ambrose Bierce to a family member), photographs, maps,
field notes, receipts, dispatches, telegrams, and printed material, chiefly relating to the Civil War career of Bierce as
a surveyor as well as his extended family in Indiana, especially sister Almeda Sophia Bierce Pittenger (the original source
of this collection), father Marcus Aurelius and brothers Albert and Addison Bierce.
Of particular note to Civil War historians are the series of maps produced by the Union army's Army of the Cumberland on the
Chattanooga Campaign, reflecting the borders between Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Of the paper and linen printed maps,
some have annotations, and most credit Captain William Emery Merrill. A few note that they were created from information from
"captured rebel engineers." There are also maps drawn by Bierce himself. Note that Stanford's Ambrose Bierce Papers also contain
material concerning the Civil War, including the sketchbook Bierce kept while serving as a Union topographer with the staff
of General Hazen.
D.W. "Jim" Strauss originally loaned this collection to the Elkhart County Historical Society in Bristol, Indiana on behalf
of his late wife Betty Ann, who had inherited it from her mother Grace Juanita Bussing Foster, Almeda's daughter. After Strauss's
death, their daughters Cindra Heston and Debra Van Dyke decided to donate the Bierce collection to Stanford.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
[identification of item], Foster family collection of Ambrose Bierce materials (M2146). Dept. of Special Collections and University
Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Cindra Heston and Debra Van Dyke, 2016. Accession MSS 2016-175.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio on June 24, 1842, the tenth child of Marcus Aurelius and Laura Sherwood
Bierce. Little is known of his childhood; he became a printer's apprentice in Kosciusko County, Indiana, before entering the
Kentucky Military Institute in 1859. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, Bierce was a laborer and waiter in Elkhart,
Indiana. Bierce enlisted in the 9th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers following Lincoln's call for volunteers and served for
nearly the duration. Bierce was one of the few war veteran writers to have such front-lines experience, surviving some the
war's most bloody battles, including Shiloh, Missionary Ridge, and Chickamauga. Bierce progressed in rank from private to
lieutenant and became the acting topographical engineer on Gen. W. B. Hazen's staff. At the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Bierce
sustained a near-fatal head wound from which it took months to recover. It is clear that his war experiences did much to inform
his "Bitter Bierce" persona.
Following the war, Bierce became an aid to Treasury Department agents collecting abandoned Southern property. He joined Hazen's
surveying expedition to the Far West in 1866 and stayed on in San Francisco working for the U.S. Mint. In San Francisco Bierce
began to pursue his literary interests. In 1868, he succeeded his friend James T. Watkins as the editor of News-Letter. Bierce
married Mary Ellen Day on Christmas Day, 1871, and eventually had three children, Day, Leigh, and Helen.
From 1872 to 1874, Bierce was in England writing for Tom Hood's Fun and James Mortimer's Figaro. He returned to San Francisco
in September of 1875. He edited several magazines for the next years, including Argonaut and the Wasp; he also wrote his Prattle
and The Dance of Death. Bierce became a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner in 1887 and continued to produce his own
books and stories. He was sent in 1896 by the Examiner to Washington, D.C. to cover the Railroad Funding Bill controversy.
He stayed on in Washington as a political reporter for many years, all the while publishing his own literary work.
In late 1913, Bierce took a trip through the Southwest into Mexico where he mysteriously disappeared. It is likely that he
became involved with the Mexican Revolution, traveling south with Pancho Villa and his troops, and met his fate at the hands
of Federal soldiers near Chihuahua City.
Stanford Special Collections also holds the Ambrose Bierce Papers (M0080)
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4082973
Letters to or from Bierce are also contained in the papers of David Starr Jordan, George Sterling, Eugene T. Sawyer, and Stephen
Mallory White.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Authors, American.
Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914?
Elkhart County Historical Society
Bierce family