John Birdsall (1840–1891)

John Birdsall (October 5, 1840 in Flatbush, Kings County, New York – April 15, 1891 in New York City) was an American merchant, Union Army officer, lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

He attended the grammar school in Brooklyn, and then engaged in mercantile pursuits, and later in farming. He had a law office at 39 Nassau Street in New York City, and lived at Glen Cove.

During the American Civil War he became a major of the 13th New York Cavalry, and after the war was commissioned as a captain of cavalry in the U.S. Army.

He was a member of the New York State Senate (1st D.) in 1880 and 1881.

Apparently due to financial troubles, he committed suicide on April 15, 1891, by inhaling gas, lying fully dressed on the bed in a room at the United States Hotel, on the corner of Pearl and Fulton streets, in Manhattan.

Sources

• Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York compiled by Edgar Albert Werner (1884; pg. 291)
• FOUND DEAD IN HIS BED; SUICIDE OF EX-STATE SENATOR JOHN BIRDSALL, OF GLEN COVE in NYT on April 16, 1891