behind AotW

Apparently suffering from depression and otherwise ill as well, Major Francis John Bell killed himself in Washington, DC in 1894, not quite 58 years old. Here’s an announcement in the Bolivar Breeze (Allegany County, NY).

He enrolled as First Lieutenant of Company I of the “Bucktails” – the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves – in May 1861, was wounded at Antietam in 1862 and Gettysburg in 1863, losing his leg, and transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. He was honored by a brevet to Major and mustered out in June 1866. After the war he studied the law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Washington DC. He left a widow and 5 children.