Lieutenant for the Army in San Francisco, where he remained for many years, eventually becoming famous as a contributor and editor for a number of local newspapers and periodicals.

Bierce became one of the most influential writers on the West Coast, working for Hearst's The San Francisco Examiner, starting in 1887 when he published his column called "The Prattle," a searing criticism that embroiled the newspaper in several controversies that Hearst had to smooth over.

Bierce's short stories are based on the terrible things he had seen during war time, particularly The Boarded Window, Killed at Resaca, and Chickamauga.

Along with war and ghost stories, Bierce published several volumes of poetry. Favoring the ironic style of the grotesque, Fantastic Fables was followed by his more famous work, drawn from occasional newspaper items, The Devil's Dictionary, a satirical book of definitions published in 1906. This was the entire seventh volume of his twelve volume set, Collected Works, published in 1909.

At least three films have been made based on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The Bridge, a silent film in 1929, and two versions of Twilight Zone episodes in 1964, one in French, the other American. Most recently, the ABC television series Lost episode entitled "The Long Con" is based on this Bierce story.