Bierce
benefited a great deal from his father's farmhouse library, and
late in life declared it to be his most important early educational
influence.
Another
early influence on Bierce was his uncle, General Lucius Verus Bierce
of Akron, Ohio. Ambrose observed carefully the man's idealism,
oratorical skills, public service, and social activism. All his
life, Bierce held up the career of his uncle as a model for his
own.
When
about seventeen, Bierce enrolled at the Kentucky Military Institute.
There he learned about military subjects and appears to have studied
topographical engineering. He adapted well to military life and
discipline. He
left the Institute on the eve of the Civil War, returning to Indiana
in 1860.
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