Background
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 – 1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist. His short
stories are held among the best of the 19th century. He wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the Civil
War in such stories as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Killed at Resaca", and "Chickamauga". In 1913, Bierce traveled
to Mexico to gain a firsthand perspective on that country's ongoing revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, the elderly
writer disappeared without a trace.