Ambrose Gwinett Bierce (1842-1862), the talented author of many highly original stories, lived for 21 years.
His stories illustrate in a vivid and disturbing detail, a period of American history, specifically, The American Civil War. It is clear that Bierce's participation in the Civil War was a defining episode of his life, and one that inspired his fiction. Bierce was a topographical engineer, who fought in many different battles: this first-hand exposure to the war can be felt in each of his stories: indeed, each story describes vividly the fate of a combatant who is involved in a specific moment of the war.Each of the characters in the stories studied, 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' 'A Baffled Ambuscade,' and 'Three and One are One,' reflect the horror of the war Bierce experienced.
Bierce clearly portrays the characters as figures whose lives are wholly changed by the time in which they lived, and their involvement in the war. In 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', Peyton Farquar, the central character, a southerner, is clearly a victim of the war, and one whom we sympathise with.The Federal army eventually hangs Peyton Farquar, for committing a crime we are not familiar with but we are given the impression that Farquar escapes, an escape that preludes a particularly tragic end. In contrast with Peyton Farquar, Major Seidel, the main character in 'A Baffled Ambuscade' does not meet his fate during the Civil War. He leads a night-time expedition against the Confederate allies but tragically suffers the loss of one of his troopers. Seidel is presented in a vivid manner.
We learn he is tough, gallant and a skillful leader. He is keen to keep his dignity despite the obvious danger he faces.Like Peyton Farquar, Major Seidel, in a strange way, is also portrayed sympathetically suffering the loss of one of his men in an extraordinary circumstance. The third figure, Barr Lassiter, again caught up in this Civil War is the central figure in 'Three and One are One'. Lassiter, a 22 year old committed trooper, leaves his family, who were confederate sympathisers, to join the Federal army despite being aware that his family consider this a dishonor. His parents did not give him a chance of farewell when he left to fight in the war, and, tragically Lassiter never spoke to them again.
Barr Lassiter attempt to reunite with his family (when he returns to beg for forgiveness after a 2-year absence) is thwarted. However, although Bierce creates characters who are clearly participants in a defining moment in American history, there are distinctive characteristics which place's them in the readers mind as exceptional and extraordinary individuals. Each of the three stories present characters that face situations that isolate them and which lead them to face the unnatural in the form of 'ghosts'.For example, Barr Lassiter sees his ghost family, Major Seidel talks to the ghost of his trooper, Dunning, and Peyton Farquar appears to live out a wholly supernatural experience, leading to a 'reunion' with his wife. This is true for Barr Lassiter in 'Three and One are One'. He faces a peculiar situation: he goes off to the war, thus engendering a dispute with his family and is thereby isolated from them- an isolation made more emphatic by the fact that he adopts the Federal cause contrary to his family's sympathies.
After he returns 2 years later anxious to reunite with his family, he is again ignored, and not welcomed in a manner expected. Lassiter tries to communicate with his family, 'Father! Cried the young man, springing forward with outstretched hand - Father! ' The father then stands motionless and goes back into the house. 'Bitterly disappointed, humiliated, inexpressibly hurt and altogether unnerved, the soldier dropped upon a rustic in deep dejection'. The reader deeply sympathises with Lassiter, as his family did not provide him with the recognition wanted.However, what further distinguishes Barr Lassiter is his realisation that the next day, on a second visit his family was dead: 'Lassiter's astonishment was extreme,' and as he saw 'fire-blackened foundations of stone,' instead of his house, his only words were, 'And my family-where are they? ' It is only at this moment that Lassiter realises that the encounter with his family the day before was spectral: in fact, the whole episode empahasis to Lassiter the awful extent of hi loss. Lassiter is not the only figure who goes through such an occult and disturbing experience.
After Major Seidel (in A Baffled Ambuscade) learns that his trooper, Dunning, has gone by himself to face the enemy, he is forced to follow him out of duty as leader of the expedition. Going ahead of the expedition he leads, galloping down the forest, he suddenly sees a figure standing 'motionless' in the dark. Thinking it is an enemy Seidel draws his sword: 'With the instinct of the true cavalryman and a particular indisposition to the discharge of firearms, he drew his saber,' this also suggests to readers how brave Major Seidel can appear to be.However it is not an enemy, the figure appears to be his trooper, Dunning; moreover, he is giving Seidel a message that he should retreat as there is danger ahead. Seidel follows the advice, but later is shocked to find out that Dunning has been dead for a long time: 'In the little open space off the road they found the fallen horse. At a right angle across the animal's neck face upward, a bullet in the brain, lay the body of Trooper Dunning, stiff as a statue, hours dead,' a ghost saved Seidel.
This situation is an 'imitation' of the experience Lassiter endures, as he too comes to terms with the fact that his family have been dead for some time. Both suffer the same shocking reaction that they have been engaging with ghosts. Bierce treats the third character Peyton Farquar (in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge) in a supernatural way. In contrast to Lassiter and Seidel, Farquar himself appears to participate in the after life.
The story begins with his hanging: 'The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord.A rope closely encircled his neck'. However Farquar escapes, and so begins an extraordinary moment in his life. Bierce describes him, firstly, struggling in the river desperate to save himself: ' He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight; his chest expanded convulsively, and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great draught of air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek! ' This emphasizes his will to live.He then finally makes it out of the river where he escapes his death and walk down a long path in the woods that was imaginary. This path led him to his wife and as he got closer to her, suddenly 'he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck.
' What Bierce then reveals is that the escape was imagined, a deep psychological rendering of a dying man's need to see his wife. By these supernatural encounters Bierce also transforms his characters to show us how complex they are, and how deeply affected each is by the war.Barr Lassiter is forced to look in the eye toll the war takes on his family when he revisits them as ghostly apparition. A reader is made to see and appreciate the extent to which each of the character in Bierce's stories suffer.
Death plays an important role in all three characters' lives, and without the supernatural encounter they all go through, Bierce could not show the depth t which these characters are traumatised by the war.For example, Farquar experience an urgent desire to go on living and loving, which is denied in his death. Barr Lassiter has forced upon him his family's rejection in his spectral visit to his home, where he encounters them as ghosts. It is seeing the ghost of one of his troopers, whom he was suppose to protect, that traumatised Major Seidel. The supernatural element emphasis the tragedy - and enlarge our sense of who these individuals are.
And it is that, that makes a Bierce's story, a Bierce's story.
