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Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to submit for your approval a study I recently undertook a study of trends in Civilian facial hair during the war.
An excellent study was made by John E. Tobey of soldier’s appearances, entitled “‘You Folks Would Hardly Recognize Me…’ The Personal Appearance of Civil War Soldiers,” published in the Columbia Rifles Research Compendium, which included a detailed section on the facial hair of federal soldiers. Tobey’s evidence for facial hair trends among Union soldiers was based in large part on the Harewood Hospital photographs of wounded soldiers.
My desire here is to analyze the facial hair of civilians, particularly civilians who are involved with the military as these are the civilian gentlemen most often represented by civilian reenactors. Additionally these men were working closely with the military and as such their facial hair styles might have been influenced by the members of the military they were closely working with.
To accomplish this study I looked at nine photographs (included at the bottom of this post) of civilians in the employee or working with the federal army. Two of these photographs were of Quartermaster Department employees in the District of Columbia taken in 1865. Two were of commissary clerks in the field in 1862. A single photograph was taken of wheelwrights working in the military wheelwright shop in the District of Columbia. One is a photograph of scouts and guides taken outside Brandy station. Two photographs were taken of members of non-Government organizations, one of the United States Christian Commission, another of photographers in the field. The final photograph shows a group of four men in camp near Yorktown Virginia in 1862. Three of these men are dressed in civilian attire while the forth in an infantry first lieutenant. All in all the facial hair styles of 167 individuals were catalogued.
The largest group were individuals with no facial hair, although they only accounted for 27% of the sample pool, indicating that 73% of those observed had at least some form of facial hair. The full beard accounted for 22% of the total sample. The goatee, in this case either with or without a mustache, was next most common with 17%. The mustache by itself was next with 16% of the sample. Surprisingly the chin beard, both with and without the sideburns, was only 11%. The remaining 7% of individuals had sideburns. Of the twelve individuals with sideburns only 4 had a mustache connected with the sideburns. The study also should that the majority of the individuals with sideburns were much older than their co-workers, indicating that this particular facial hair style may no longer have been in vogue.
I would like to submit for your approval a study I recently undertook a study of trends in Civilian facial hair during the war.
An excellent study was made by John E. Tobey of soldier’s appearances, entitled “‘You Folks Would Hardly Recognize Me…’ The Personal Appearance of Civil War Soldiers,” published in the Columbia Rifles Research Compendium, which included a detailed section on the facial hair of federal soldiers. Tobey’s evidence for facial hair trends among Union soldiers was based in large part on the Harewood Hospital photographs of wounded soldiers.
My desire here is to analyze the facial hair of civilians, particularly civilians who are involved with the military as these are the civilian gentlemen most often represented by civilian reenactors. Additionally these men were working closely with the military and as such their facial hair styles might have been influenced by the members of the military they were closely working with.
To accomplish this study I looked at nine photographs (included at the bottom of this post) of civilians in the employee or working with the federal army. Two of these photographs were of Quartermaster Department employees in the District of Columbia taken in 1865. Two were of commissary clerks in the field in 1862. A single photograph was taken of wheelwrights working in the military wheelwright shop in the District of Columbia. One is a photograph of scouts and guides taken outside Brandy station. Two photographs were taken of members of non-Government organizations, one of the United States Christian Commission, another of photographers in the field. The final photograph shows a group of four men in camp near Yorktown Virginia in 1862. Three of these men are dressed in civilian attire while the forth in an infantry first lieutenant. All in all the facial hair styles of 167 individuals were catalogued.
The largest group were individuals with no facial hair, although they only accounted for 27% of the sample pool, indicating that 73% of those observed had at least some form of facial hair. The full beard accounted for 22% of the total sample. The goatee, in this case either with or without a mustache, was next most common with 17%. The mustache by itself was next with 16% of the sample. Surprisingly the chin beard, both with and without the sideburns, was only 11%. The remaining 7% of individuals had sideburns. Of the twelve individuals with sideburns only 4 had a mustache connected with the sideburns. The study also should that the majority of the individuals with sideburns were much older than their co-workers, indicating that this particular facial hair style may no longer have been in vogue.
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