Otto's Nightmare...

[Private Watkins]

Otto's final discourse from the 1993 movie "Stalingrad" made me wonder about suicide in the Civil War...

"For two years I prayed every night to be killed in action.
I used to dream about being hit by a shell;
The flesh melts from my bones, and flows like warm milk to the rocks.
You know what happens then...?
I put myself together one piece at a time, every night...
And so none of you can kill me... no one...!"
[Extended laughter... followed by Otto placing his Luger in his mouth and pulling the trigger...]
Warning - video contains graphic content:

Question: Were there known accounts of suicide in the Civil War...? Not so much the instances where perhaps excessive bravery & recklessness were later thought to be in-substance suicide, but actual direct suicides like Otto's, driven by raw hopelessness & despair, and the pure insanity & madness of prolonged combat...?

I'm not familiar with any such cases, and wondering if the socio-cultural norms of the day were so powerful that soldier-suicides were rare (if done at all), or did it happen but was just not widely reported or acknowledged...?

Thanks in advance for any insights... (and apologies if this topic has already been covered elsewhere).

 

[1stMN]

My inclination would be to think it wouldn't necessarily be documented as "suicide" in the record but maybe under something like "battle shock" or something similar. In that time, suicide was something pretty taboo but I'm sure it happened.

 

[Miles Krisman]

The following occurred during the Battle of the Wilderness:

"There was a steady stream of stragglers and wounded men coming out of a dense pine thicket in front of Battle's Alabama Brigade, where the fighting was raging. At this juncture, General Battle, thinking that the stragglers were Jones' Virginians giving way, ordered his brigade forward. They went forward at the double quick, in a perfect line. As they were moving forward, they came across an unfortunate Yankee who was wounded in the bowels and was suffering intensely. He begged to be killed, as there was no chance that he would live. Private Henry Childress of Company D, stepped out of line and offered him his canteen. This was a noble and unselfish act, as he did not know whether he would be in the same condition in a few minutes. When the line reached a point where they could see the Virginia Brigade, instead of finding them on the hill, they found them scarcely thirty steps beyond the stream. The men continued forward up to Jones' Brigade, however, while crossing the branch the line became broken and scattered.

The Confederates eventually drove the Federals back in great confusion, capturing many prisoners and arms. By 3:30 that afternoon, the fighting had all but finished in Saunders Field and the men spent the rest of the day strengthening their works. That night, some of the men of the 5th Alabama went back to see what had become of the poor Yankee they had passed earlier during the battle. Soldiers often filed teeth of a case knife and made little saws. This poor Yankee had one, and when they found him, he was dead. He had sawed his throat until he had cut the large artery, and he had bled to death. He held the saw in his hand and the teeth of it were covered with flesh. General Rodes had him buried and pine straw strewed over the grave for fear the enemy might find the grave and think that our soldiers had killed him in such a way."[1]


[1] "Company D, At the Battle of the Wilderness, Sketches of the Greensboro Guards, Co. D, Fifth Alabama, C.S.A. by One of Them, One of a Series of Articles by J. W. Williams" The Record, continued from Issue of July 2nd

 

[huskerblitz]

There are some reported cases referenced at this site:
http://civilwarmed.blogspot.com/2011/08/medical-department-41-soldier-suicides.html?m=1

 

[dlofting]

This recent thread about casualties contains a link which details causes of death (primarily in the Union army). It shows 391 deaths as suicides.

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/other-causes.120392/#post-1251594

 

[PeterT]

All quite sad really. The suicides probably continued long after the war had finished too.