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Ambrose Bierce was a writer and Civil War soldier who used the mountains of Western Virginia as settings for some of his most famous stories. The Ohio native joined the Union Army at age 18 and served in early battles in Randolph and Pocahontas counties.
His stories often focused on the horrors of war and death. One of his best-known works, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891), includes “Horseman in the Sky,” set in the Western Virginia mountains. In the story, a soldier unknowingly shoots his own father—a shocking and unusual twist, typical of Bierce's style.
In 1903, Bierce returned to the areas where he had fought and wrote A Bivouac of the Dead, about forgotten soldiers' graves. He once described the Allegheny Mountains as the “Delectable Mountains.”
Bierce mysteriously disappeared in Mexico around 1913 and was never seen again.
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