[Rarebooks] FS: Superb Ambrose Bierce Letter mentioning his Civil War battles

[Charles Agvent]

BIERCE, Ambrose. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) Mentioning Civil War 
Battles He Participated In. Washington DC, 26 October 1907. A fine 
four-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED in full with a postscript initialed 
"A. B." to Col. Sargent at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, on four 5-1/2" x 9" 
sheets of paper folded to fit into the envelope which is present and 
addressed in Bierce's hand. Written from The Army & Navy Club, Bierce 
first notes that he had read about "the dispatch of two troops of the 
Second Cavalry from Fort Des Moines to quell the Ute outbreak and [was] 
wondering if yours was one of them." He then expresses his enjoyment of 
Sargent's book, CAMPAIGN OF SANTIAGO, which "was read to the last line, 
appendices and all, almost at a sitting-- or rather at a lying, for I do 
most of my reading in bed. It is a worthy successor to your other 
books.... My paragraph on it ... was omitted from the November number of 
THE COSMOPOLITAN ... for lack of room, I hope. It has been rewritten and 
sent back for the January number." Bierce discusses a mutual friend, 
Col. Pearson: "He is an interesting chap, and I like him -- possibly 
because he is so different from me. His gentleness is almost womanly, 
and his naivite pretty nearly childlike. He has not disclosed to me any 
very stubborn addiction to his own opinion in the few little arguments 
that we have had, mostly on philosophy and that sort of thing, but has 
been less dogmatic than I.... If you had remained in Texas I could see 
you as I expect to go pleasuring down there in a few days. Shall go to 
Galveston, and expect to take in some of my old battlefields, which I've 
not seen since the civil war-- Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Franklin, 
Murfreesboro, Nashville and perhaps Shiloh. Well, I hope something may 
bring you to Washington before I lay my bones in the Arlington campo 
santo." In a postscript, he remarks on an article and says, "I've been a 
free thinker ever since I began to think. A.B." With the original, 
holograph envelope. One of America's greatest satirists, Bierce's work 
was dark, a likely result of the carnage he saw during the Civil War. He 
is best known for his DEVIL'S DICTIONARY and the story "An Occurrence at 
Owl Creek Bridge." Six years after this letter was written, he set out 
to cover the Mexican revolution traveling with Pancho Villas' forces. He 
was never heard from again. His letters are scarce. Expected creases 
from mailing; ink dark and clear. About Fine. (#020640)        $2,000

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/020640/ambrose-bierce/autograph-letter-signed-als-mentioning-civil-war-battles-he-participated-in

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