I have this work. Lent it to my brother to read and it became his favorite Civil War book. Bierce had schooled briefly as a lad at the Kentucky Military Institute, apprenticed to an abolitionist printer, and was one of the very early volunteers to the military, full of the patriotic and selfless fervor of these early volunteers on both sides. Initially a private, he soon received a commission once the regiment (9th Indiana) reenlisted, and for a good part of the war was on the staff of General William Hazen. His initial zeal to ultimate disillusionment over the course of the war is very well reflected in his dark probing stories. His stories show the idiocies, useless sacrifice, dark existential ironies, and grim faceless humor of one who has been there and seen these things- and he is a brilliant observer. There is not much hint of the glory of war in his writings. He recognizes the splendid bravery and sacrifices of the men, their honor and sense of duty, the fine leadership of their (but not nearly enough) officers and commanders, but all to what avail?, is his ultimate anguish. There is a fine sense of 'I'm trying my best to do my duty, and I'll die if I have to, but what I really want is to be the hell away from all this. And, my God, why o why must you taunt me??' He moves from numbness to howling outrage as one who has suffered beyond human endurance, hauntingly so.