FORT BRAGG, N.C. — During the final weeks of his life, Pvt. Danny Chen, the Chinese-American soldier from Lower Manhattan who killed himself last year while on duty in Afghanistan, was withdrawn and shy, struggling to find his place on a small military outpost in a violent region of the country, several of his fellow soldiers said Wednesday.

Adding to his discomfort and isolation, the soldiers said, Private Chen was ill prepared and ill suited to life in a war zone, making frequent mistakes for which he was routinely punished.

Those accounts — the first public statements by soldiers who served overseas with Private Chen since his death on Oct. 3 — came on the second day of the court-martial of Sgt. Adam M. Holcomb, one of eight soldiers facing charges in connection with the death.

During a cross-examination of a witness, one of Sergeant Holcomb’s defense lawyers, Capt. Anthony Osborne, asked about Private Chen’s readiness for Afghanistan. “Was he prepared to fight?” Captain Osborne asked the witness, Staff Sgt. Darren Holt.