Serving as a union soldier in the Civil War, learned of war' s savageness, and how stupid and degrading it was. His writing style can be contributed to his war time experiences. His works are blunt, brutally realistic, and his attacks on others in the San Francisco Examiner, (American Authors 1600-1900 76) were nowhere near politically correct. 's short stories "often hinge on an ironic surprising conclusion" (Contemporary Authors 48), as in one of his better known works "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", were the sudden death o ....