Philip St. George Cocke, Confederate general and veteran of Bull Run, shoots himself dead at his home in Virginia

Philip St. George Cocke, a handsome West Point graduate, president of the board of trustees of the Virginia Military Institute, and one the wealthiest planters in Virginia, had commanded a brigade at the battle of Bull Run at Manassas in July 1861.  After eight months of service, however, though physically fit, he returned home to his plantation "Belmead," in Powhatan County, Virginia with clear emotional problems and shot himself in the head there the day after Christmas.  He was fifty-two years old. (By John Osborne)