I suspect that there was more to John Hart's suicide than is generally told. Are there any psychologists/psychiartrists/MDs out there who would be willing to put in there two cents worth on my theory?

Just over a month before he blew his brains out, John Hart was involved in a serious gunboat battle in the Red River in front of Fort DeRussy. He was leading the Albatross, Estrella, and Arizona up the river toward Alexandria, and when he rounded the sharp bend in front of the fort, he found two Confederate gunboats there. There was a wooden raft stretched across the river that prevented him from closing with the CS steamers, but he immediately opened fire. He would fire one battery, then turn to fire from the other side of the boat. With all the maneuvering, he was getting tangled in the current and would hang up first on one bank, then the other. Both CS boats were firing into Albatross, and she was firing back. In addition, CS cavalry on the bank were shooting into the Yankee boats. Hart kept calling for Arizona and Estrella to come up and join in, but in the narrow river, and with Albatross turning to and fro in front of them, there was no way they could. After a while, Albatross and the two CS boats were both shot to pieces and ready to disengage. Hart got Albatross turned around, and as he passed Arizona and Estrella those captains requested permission to move up and engage the Confederates. Hart was infuriated that they had not come up when he needed them, and ordered them to follow him downriver. The captains of those two boats were ticked off that Hart would not let them go up and get in the action, and were also insulted by the charges of cowardice Hart was pouring on them. Hart did accuse the two captains of cowardice, and Farragut filed charges. The courtmartial was held in July, after the fall of Port Hudson.

I suspect that by mid-June Hart had been made aware of the facts that the two other captains would testify to at the trial, ie, that Hart had charged in recklessly without any sort of plan, that his maneuvering prevented anyone from coming to his assistance, and that the loss of the battle was actually Hart's fault. The two captains knew they were charged, and they were really ticked at Hart. He had to know this, and had to know that the courtmartials, when they occurred, were going to make him look really bad. He would not have been a popular man with the other gunboat captains, and I suspect that this pressure, along with his fever, may have been a heavily contributing factor in his suicide.

My question to any professional or amateur shrinks, as well as you MD's: would yellow fever alone cause one to commit suicide, or would there need to be some other sort of trigger mechanism to set the sick man off?

Any opinions will be appreciated.

PS One man was awarded a Medal of Honor for actions aboard the Albatross during the battle. Although the Yankees fled downriver, resulting in a Confederate victory, the Rebs also thought they'd been whipped, but were shot up so badly that they could not run upriver. By the time they got their boats patched up, they realized they had won. C'est la guerre!