Ozzie Sollien

Suicide by Army Life. Ozzie Sollien

From a review on Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, the largest genealogy blog in the United States: "Sollien is a solid and dogged researcher.......who spent decades researching the life and times of Olaus Hansen......a study of an unsuccessful man's life enduring battles of the Civil War and serving through the West's dusty summers and brutal winters riding with George A. Custer's 7th Cavalry as they fought the Sioux Wars. He presents some interesting theories about how the consumption of the biscuit hardtack may contribute to the oppressive effects of battle carnage, together with alcohol consumption. An admirably-researched biography - sometimes a non-American author offers us a unique perspective on our own history". This is the second of three books about a small group of Norwegian immigrants arriving in America in 1861 and their diverging life patterns in the years following the Civil War. While Olaus Hansen ended up under a tombstone in an unvisited grave inscribed with an alias on the windblown prairie of Dakota Territory, his brother Hans and a friend, Ole Iver Berg, became two of the founders of the village of Lake Park, Minnesota. This book handles Olaus' life and the reasons behind his spiraling descent into personal disaster and suicide, reasons as valid today as they were 150 years ago: Battle carnage, disease, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, alcohol and drug abuse. Also watch for book number 1 and 3: "From the Hornets' Nest to the Custer Fight" and "Minnesota Pioneers 1871".