673.21 “cloud by day”] Deuteronomy 1:33.
679.18 Rosecrans] General William Starke Rosecrans (1819–1898), commander of the Army of the Cumberland.
679.23–24 Crittenden . . . McCook] General Thomas Leonidas Crittenden (1819–1893), commander of the XXI Corps; General George Henry Thomas (1816–1870), Rosecrans’s second in command and commander of the XIV Corps; Alexander McDowell McCook (1831–1903), commander of the XX Corps.
680.12 “day of danger” . . . “night of waking.”] See Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake (1810), 1.31: “Days of danger, nights of waking.”
680.33 Wood’s division] General Thomas John Wood (1823–1906), commander of the Ist Division, XXI Corps.
681.14 General Garfield] General James A. Garfield (1831–1881), Rosecrans’s chief of staff. He later became the twentieth president of the United States (1881).
681.22 General Negley] General James Scott Neagley (1826–1901), commander of the 2nd Division, XIV Corps.
684.14 General Howard] General Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909), commander of the IV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.
684.31 Schofield] General John McAllister Schofield (1831–1906), commander of the XXIII Corps (also called the Army of the Ohio) in the Atlanta campaign.
684.32 (Polk)] General Leonidas Polk (1806–1864), commander of a corps in the Army of Tennessee. He was killed by an artillery shell at Pine Mountain on June 14, 1864.
685.18 Stanley] General David Sloane Stanley (1828–1902), commander of the Ist Division, IV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland.
685.28 Chancellorsville . . . Stonewall Jackson] The Battle of Chancellorsville was a Confederate victory in Virginia, May 1–4, 1863. On May 2 General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson led a flank attack that routed the Union XI Corps, led by Oliver Otis Howard.
685.34 Hood] General John Bell Hood (1831–1879), commander of a corps in Johnston’s army.
686.22 Sheridan] General Philip Henry “Phil” Sheridan (1831–1888).
687.2 General Johnston] General Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807–1891), commander of the Army of Tennessee during the first part of the Atlanta campaign. The quotation is from his Narrative of Military Operations (New York: Appleton, 1874), 328–29.
687.5 Cleburne’s division . . . Hardee’s corps] General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (1828–1864), commander of one of the best fighting divisions in the Confederate Army; General William Joseph Hardee (1815–1873), commander of a corps in the Army of Tennessee in the Atlanta campaign.
687.7 General Hood . . . says:] The passage is quoted in Johnston’s Narrative of Military Operations, 587.
687.12 Major-General Wheeler] General Joseph Wheeler (1836–1906), commander of the cavalry corps of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
689.13–28 “The Fourth Corps . . . devotion.”] Johnston, Narrative, 329–31.
691.20–21 General Lowry] General Mark Perrin Lowrey (1828–1885), commander of a brigade in Hardee’s corps.
691.21 Colonel Baucum] George Franklin Baucum (1837–1905), commander of the 8th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.
692.7–10 “I witnessed . . . minute.”] William B. Hazen, A Narrative of Military Service (Boston: Ticknor, 1885), 261.
692.17–19 “The Federal . . . them.”] Johnston, Narrative, 331.
693.5 the fall of Atlanta] The Union army occupied Atlanta on September 2, 1864.
693.12 Colonel McConnell] Colonel Henry Kumler McConnell (d.1898), acting brigade commander in the 2nd Division, XV Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, now commanded by General William B. Hazen.
696.4 Andersonville] Confederate prison camp in south-central Georgia where 13,000 Union prisoners died from disease and malnutrition, 1864–65.
697.3 O ’Hara’s . . . dead,”] See note 61.28.
699.22 Jeff Gatewood] John P. Gatewood led a small band of guerrillas in eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia and Alabama who killed Union soldiers, southern unionists, and Confederate deserts, while sometime robbing and terrorizing local civilians. Gatewood survived the war and moved to Texas.
702.17 Forrest’s cavalry] General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), commander of a cavalry corps that fought with the Army of Tennessee at Franklin.
702.25 Colonel P. Sidney Post] Colonel Philip Sidney Post (1833–1895) commanded the Second Brigade, Third Division of the IV Corps at Spring Hill.
703.25 Cheatham] General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham (1820–1886), commander of a Confederate corps at Spring Hill.
705.10 General Wagner] General George Day Wagner (1829–1869), commander of the Second Division of the IV Corps.
706.20 Opdycke] Colonel Emerson Opdycke (1830–1884), commander of the First Brigade, Second Division, IV Corps.
706.29 “more . . . desire.”] A paraphrase of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (1859), 99.4.
711.11–12 had . . . see.] Alfred Tennyson, “Lady Clara Vere de Vere” (1842), II. 31–32.
713.36–37 “enterprises . . . moment”] See Shakespeare, Hamlet, III.i.84.
720.7 Scott’s incomparable romance.] Sir Walter Scott, Kenilworth (1821).
720.13 James Mortimer] Mortimer (1833–1911) founded the London Figaro in 1870 as the official newspaper of Napoleon III’s government-in-exile. The emperor was captured in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and, after his release, lived at Chislehurst, in Kent, until his death. He had married Eugénie de Montijo (1826–1920) in 1853.
721.2–3 M. Rochefort’s famous journal, La Lanterne.] Henri Rochefort (Victor Henri, Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay, 1831–1913), French periodical writer and editor of La Lanterne (1868–69).
722.25 escaped from New Caledonia] Rochefort, who had publicly supported the Paris Commune, was arrested following its collapse in 1871 and deported to New Caledonia; he escaped to San Francisco on an American ship in 1874 and subsequently made his way to England.
726.2 John Bidwell] Bidwell (1819–1900) was the author of A Journey to California (1842), published six years before John W. Marshall discovered gold on the estate of John August Sutter in 1848.
726.29–30 Hardee’s tactics] Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics (1855), the standard military manual of the period, written by William Joseph Hardee (see note 691.5).
727.11 “ancient solitary reign”] Gray Elegy (1751), l. 12.
727.17–18 “reverend pile”] Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814), 8.461.
727.27–28 Mayne Reid’s romances] Thomas Mayne Reid (1818–1883), Irish-American author of The Rifle Rangers (1850), The Scalp Hunters (1851), and many other adventure novels. See “A Sole Survivor” in this volume.
727.32 “great rock in a weary land.”] Isaiah 32:2.
729.14–39 “The most . . . scalp.”] Cyrus Townsend Brady, Indian Fights and Fighters (New York: McClure, Phillips, 1904), 14–15.
731.9 Hans Breitmann] Hero of a series of ballads in German-American dialect written by Charles Godfrey Leland (1824–1903), collected in The Breitmann Ballads (1871) and other volumes.
735.27 “could not . . . were,”] See Shakespeare, Macbeth, IV.iii.222.
735.34–35 “vast . . . stone.”] Shelley, “Ozymandias” (1818), l. 2.
736.10–13 like stout . . . Darien,] Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816), ll. 11–14.
736.31 “I’ve done, i’ faith.”] See Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV, I.iii.259.
740.20 Jim Beckwourth] James Pierson Beckwourth (1798–1866), African American explorer of the American West. Bierce wrote a number of semi-fictional sketches about him in Fun, 1873–74.
740.21 “beated . . . antiquity.”] Shakespeare, sonnet 62, l. 10.
740.29–31 our . . . order,] Byron, Manfred (1817) III.iv.43–45.
741.1 “we . . . company”] Byron, The Siege of Corinth (1816), Prologue, l.3.
741.33 John Camden Hotten] Hotten (1832–1873) published Bierce’s first book, The Fiend’s Delight; upon his death, his publishing firm became Chatto & Windus, which published B
ierce’s second book, Nuggets and Dust (1873).
743.4–5 George Augustus Sala . . . Tom Hood, the younger] George Augustus Sala (1828–1896), British journalist; Henry Sampson (1841–1891), owner of Fun (1874–78); Thomas Hood the Younger (1835–1874), son of the poet Thomas Hood and editor of Fun and Tom Hood’s Comic Annual.
743.8 Sir Boyle Roche] See note 643.19.
743.21 Lord Brougham] Henry, Lord Brougham (1778–1868), British politician and man of letters.
743.38 Boone May] Daniel Boone May (1852–1878), American gunfighter and a shotgun messenger for several Western express companies.
SELECTED STORIES
754.6 Macaulay’s “Naseby Fight”] “The Battle of Naseby” (1824) by Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), a poem about the English Civil War.
754.21 Kinglake’s “Crimean War,”] The Invasion of the Crimea (8 volumes, 1863–87) by Alexander William Kinglake (1809–1891).
754.22 trial of Warren Hastings] Warren Hastings (1732–1818), governor-general of India, was impeached and tried (1788–95) on grounds of corruption and cruelty; he was ultimately acquitted. The Minutes of Evidence of the trial were published in eleven volumes (1788). Macaulay wrote a lengthy biographical essay on him (1841).
762.15 in a story before that] Bierce refers to an earlier story of his, “The Captain of the Camel,” first published as “A Nautical Novelty” in Tom Hood’s Comic Annual for 1875 (1875).
762.26 the Mudlark] “A Shipwreckollection” (first published as “The Cruise of the Mudlark,” Fun, July 4, 1874).
764.2 the Secretary of War] Simon Cameron (1799–1889) served as secretary of war from March II, 1861 to January 15, 1862, when he was replaced by Edwin M. Stanton (1814–1869).
768.35–36 “moving . . . field”] Shakespeare, Othello, I.iii.135.
770.20–21 the Confederate Secretary of War] Judah P. Benjamin (1811–84) served as Confederate secretary of war from September 17, 1861 to March 23, 1862.
781.3 Ahkoond of Citrusia] The title “Ahkoond” became popular when in 1878 American poet George Thomas Lanigan (1845–86) wrote a comic poem, “A Threnody” (1878), on the “Akhoond of Swat”—i.e., Abdul Ghafur (1794– 1877), the Akhund (or Akhond) of Swat, a region in northwestern India (now Pakistan). “Citrusia” refers to California, with its abundant crops of citrus fruits.
782.37–38 dragons . . . in their slime.] See note 161.34.
786.24 Smugwumps] A play on “mugwump,” a term coined in the 1830s from an Algonquin word, mugquomp, meaning “great man, chief, captain, leader”; used in 1884 for Republicans who refused to support their presidential candidate, James G. Blaine.
791.10 Nigger Head] Fictitious; but in the first publication (San Francisco Examiner, September 16, 1888), the reading was “Nigger Tent,” a way station in the Sierra Turnpike in Sierra County in central California.
791.11 road agency] A “road agent” is a slang term for a highway robber.
792.21 Knights of Murder] A parody of the Knights of Labor, a union initially organized by garment workers in Philadelphia. Bierce was generally hostile to labor unions.
797.10–11 fond . . . view] See Samuel Woodworth, “The Old Oaken Bucket” (1817), ll. 1–2: “How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, / When fond recollection presents them to view!”
797.21–22 Professor Davidson] George Davidson (1825–1911), professor of geology at the University of California and author of many papers on the history and geology of California and on astronomy.
798.19 Ol. can.] Not oleum cannabis (oil of hemp; a greenish oil used as a demulcent and protective), but oleum canis.
803.1–2 lets . . . all!] Alexander Pope, The Dunciad (rev. ed. 1742–43), 4.655–56.
806.40 Richard A. Proctor] Richard Anthony Proctor (1837–1888), British writer on mathematics, astronomy, and other subjects. Bierce may be referring to his book, Chance and Luck: A Discussion of the Laws of Luck, Coincidences, Wagers, Lotteries, and the Fallacies of Gambling (1887).
807.14 Keeley] Apparently a reference to a charlatan named John Ernst Worrell Keely (1827–1898), who proposed to build a motor powered “from intermolecular vibrations of ether” and fraudulently sold many shares of stock to fund the Keely Motor Company.
811.10–33 “Wealth . . . food.”] From Thomas Carlyle’s “Characteristics” (1831); quoted by Bierce in “Prattle” (San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 1890).
811.38–39 That . . . great.] The lines are by Bierce.
817.25 Hohokus] Actually Ho-Ho-Kus, a town in northeastern New Jersey.
825.29–30 “the voice . . . God.”] Vox populi vox Dei. The earliest recorded expression of the utterance occurs in Alcuin’s letter to Charlemagne (c. 800 C.E.).
834.33–34 “Against . . . powerless.”] “Mit die Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.” From Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1801), act 3, scene 6, by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805).
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA SERIES
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA, a nonprofit publisher, is dedicated to publishing, and keeping in print, authoritative editions of America’s best and most significant writing. Each year the Library adds new volumes to its collection of essential works by America’s foremost novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and statesmen.
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1. Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi
2. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches
3. Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose
4. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Three Novels
5. Mark Twain: Mississippi Writings
6. Jack London: Novels and Stories
7. Jack London: Novels and Social Writings
8. William Dean Howells: Novels 1875–1886
9. Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick
10. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels
11. Francis Parkman: France and England in North America, vol. I
12. Francis Parkman: France and England in North America, vol. II
13. Henry James: Novels 1871–1880
14. Henry Adams: Novels, Mont Saint Michel, The Education
15. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures
16. Washington Irving: History, Tales and Sketches
17. Thomas Jefferson: Writings
18. Stephen Crane: Prose and Poetry
19. Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales
20. Edgar Allan Poe: Essays and Reviews
21. Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It
22. Henry James: Literary Criticism: Essays, American & English Writers
23. Henry James: Literary Criticism: European Writers & The Prefaces
24. Herman Melville: Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, Tales & Billy Budd
25. William Faulkner: Novels 1930–1938
26. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. I
27. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II
28. Henry David Thoreau: A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod
29. Henry James: Novels 1881–1886
30. Edith Wharton: Novels
31. Henry Adams: History of the U.S. during the Administrations of Jefferson
32. Henry Adams: History of the U.S. during the Administrations of Madison
33. Frank Norris: Novels and Essays
34. W.E.B. Du Bois: Writings
35. Willa Cather: Early Novels and Stories
36. Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie, Jennie Gerhardt, Twelve Men
37a. Benjamin Franklin: Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, & Early Writings
37b. Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Ric
hard, & Later Writings
38. William James: Writings 1902–1910
39. Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works
40. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1913–1920
41. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1920–1931
42. Eugene O’Neill: Complete Plays 1932–1943
43. Henry James: Novels 1886–1890
44. William Dean Howells: Novels 1886–1888
45. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832–1858
46. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859–1865
47. Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings
48. William Faulkner: Novels 1936–1940
49. Willa Cather: Later Novels
50. Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters
51. William Tecumseh Sherman: Memoirs
52. Washington Irving: Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra
53. Francis Parkman: The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac
54. James Fenimore Cooper: Sea Tales: The Pilot, The Red Rover
55. Richard Wright: Early Works
56. Richard Wright: Later Works
57. Willa Cather: Stories, Poems, and Other Writings
58. William James: Writings 1878–1899
59. Sinclair Lewis: Main Street & Babbitt
60. Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays 1852–1890
61. Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays 1891–1910
62. The Debate on the Constitution: Part One
63. The Debate on the Constitution: Part Two
64. Henry James: Collected Travel Writings: Great Britain & America
65. Henry James: Collected Travel Writings: The Continent
66. American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 1
67. American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 2
68. Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies
69. Sarah Orne Jewett: Novels and Stories
70. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Collected Poems and Translations
71. Mark Twain: Historical Romances
72. John Steinbeck: Novels and Stories 1932–1937
73. William Faulkner: Novels 1942–1954
The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs Page 92
