Comments on: Historian focuses on Civil War suicides

By: Logan

Logan — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:21:10 +0000

“That’s not an easy thing to make a case for because they started the war and the war was over slavery,”

She calls herself a Southern historian, and she says something like this?

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:53:14 +0000

The theory that loss of slaves caused suicide would have a very narrow population.
The vast majority of Confederate solders did not own a slave.
The emancipation was signed over 1 1/2 years into the war (9/1862).
The focus would be very specific, the few slave owners and the impact of the underground for escaping slavery and if the theory holds, one would expect a spike in slave owner suicide between September 1862 and January 1863, the date emancipation took affect.

By: David Ellis

David Ellis — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:13:13 +0000

My great great grandfather hung himself in 1908. He suffered many injuries in the civil war and fought in some of the bloodiest battles. It is my assumption that he may have killed himself or performed self-euthanasia due to being in pain both physically and mentally as an aging man in his 60s. He also had a brother in law / fellow vet that also killed himself a few years later. I do believe this research is very important. This man raised my great grandmother and she in turn raised my grandfather who died of tongue cancer from extreme alcoholism at the young age of 46. One might wonder if depression is taught through culture. I believe trauma and secrets can embed themselves in a family’s culture for generations.

By: Russ Martin

Russ Martin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:32:08 +0000

This work is sorely needed. It provides another dimension, and insights into the suffering of the people. I am from New York. We suspect that our ancestor may have committed suicide, though his death will remain a mystery. He died in 1865 at home, after being mustered out. There is no indication that he was sick as he had traveled out to Michigan and down to Dalton GA, to see his brother just prior.