Peter Snapp, Inmate

Confederate veteran Peter Snapp seemed to love life in the Kentucky Confederate Home. Born in Germany in 1834, Snapp had enlisted in Company E, Second Kentucky Infantry in September 1861 and served until discharged in April 1865. He came to the Kentucky Confederate Home from Owensboro in November 1902.

Shortly after his arrival at the Home, Snapp received $75 as proceeds from his brother’s estate.

“He took $25 for his own and insisted that he wanted to give $50 for the Home, as the Home was his best friend,” marveled the Home’s treasurer. “This is the first offering of gratitude we have had, and it is pleasing to have it come in this shape.”

Two years later, however, a despondent Snapp attempted suicide. He was shipped off to the Central Asylum for the Insane where he died in April 1905 of his self-inflicted wounds.

(See Paducah (Ky.) Sun, April 24, 1905.)