soldier's heights and weights

[cannonfodder]

Please bear with me- this is my 1st post!
While reading a book about the 44th Mass. the author describes the census he took of his company (F). The men were measured in their stockings, which accounts for the average being somewhat below standard. All men are set down as "drinking" who are not conscientiously opposed to the use of the ardent spirit in any form and under all circumstances.
Of 98 officers and privates, in politics, 65 were straight republicans, 14 conservative republicans, 3 radical republicans, 11 union, 3 democrats, 1 abolitionist and 1 undecided.
32 worship as unitarian, 21 are congregationalist, 19 methodist, 14 episcopal, 8 as baptist and 4 as universalist.
The average age of the company is 32 years 7 months. The youngest being 17 and the oldest is 40 years old.
The average height is 5 ft 7 in. The shortest man being 5 ft 3 in and the tallest is 6 ft 1 inch
The average weight is 137 lbs with the heaviest at 165 and the lightest at 115 lbs.
57 smoke and 44 do not. There are 6 married men and 3 widowed and 16 engaged.
Occupations are as follows- 37 merchants, 4 clergymen, 8 lawyers, 5 farmers, 4 literateurs, 2 physicians, 2 engineers, 2 printers, 2 cabinetmakers, 2 machinists, 2 musisians, and 1 of each of the the following- chemist, soldier, shoemaker, manufacturer, provision dealer, banker, stone mason,blacksmith, sailmaker, tea broker, baker, druggist, expressman, jeweler, salesman, bookkeeper, and 10 are undecided.
There are also 16 graduates and undergrads, all from Harvard.
Bear in mind, this was a 9 month regiment, mostly from Boston mustered in July 1862 and mustered out June 1863

[Hank Trent]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

The average age of the company is 32 years 7 months. The youngest being 17 and the oldest is 40 years old. The average height is 5 ft 7 in. The shortest man being 5 ft 3 in and the tallest is 6 ft 1 inch
The average weight is 137 lbs with the heaviest at 165 and the lightest at 115 lbs.
57 smoke and 44 do not. There are 6 married men and 3 widowed and 16 engaged.

Great set of statistics! Is the average age really 32? Not that that's surprising in itself if the recruiting was targeted at older men, but only nine of 98 were ever married? That seems reasonable for a usual average age in the low 20s since many would be below normal marrying age, but odd for so many thirty-somethings. Unless unmarried men tended to enlist and married men stayed home.

Concerning the weights, most of the men seem to be in occupations not requiring physical labor, so the excuse for not being overweight because "they did more hard physical work back then" doesn't seem to apply in this case, unless the weights were taken after they'd been in the army a while.

For what it's worth, the recently-posted photo of the 34th Mass here: http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...ead.php?t=9263 (different regiment, I know, but still) shows a group of men that look like they'd average about that weight for their height.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[cannonfodder]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

What I found surprising was the weight of the soldiers. These were well fed, semi-upper class citizens of Boston. The author had written this census 3 months after being mustered in. I wonder what some half starved confederate farmer from South Carolina weighed?
As far as age, My great-great-great uncle Pvt. John B. Newcomb ( KIA battle of Maryes Heights, May 3rd, 1863) was 19 when he enlisted with the Mass. 7th in 1861.(3 yr regiment) My great great grandfather Pvt. Otis Litchfield was 34 when he volunteered for the 43rd Mass. in 1862.(9 mo. regiment)
I guess alot of the gung ho kids got scooped up early in the war whereas the old men went with the 9 month units later.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Moderating Bonnet On:

Mr Fodder, please remember to configure your automatic signature file so your first and last names show up in your postings. If you need help with it, shoot me a private message and I'll be glad to assist.

Mod Bonnet OFF.

:)

Thanks for sharing a great set of information about a specific group of men!

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Hallo!

Just a set of "other numbers" form an old post:

From: Fox’s Regimental Losses

The muster-rolls are provided with a column in which is entered the age of each recruit. From the figures in this column it appears that the mean age of all the soldiers was 25 years. When classed by ages, the largest class is that of 18 years, from which the classes decrease regularly to that of 45 years, beyond which age no enlistment was received. Of 1,012,273 recorded ages taken from the rolls, there were 133,475 at 18 years; 90,215 at 19 years, and so on. The number at 25 years of age was 46,626; and, at 44 years, 16,070.
The muster-rolls also state the nativities of the men; from which it appears that, in round numbers, out of 2,000,000 men, three-fourths were native Americans. Of the 500,000 soldiers of foreign birth, Germany furnished 175,000; Ireland, 150,000; England, 50,000; British America, 50,000; other countries, 75,000.
The average height of the American soldiers, as shown by the records of the recruiting officers, was 5 feet 8 1/4 inches. The men from Maine, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky, were slightly above this figure. The West Virginians averaged 5 feet 9 inches in height. The general average would have been greater had it not included the measurements of recruits from 17 to 20 years of age, who evidently had not attained their full stature when their measurement was recorded. Out of about 1,000,000 recorded heights of soldiers there were 3,613 who were over 6 feet 3 inches, and among them were some who were over 7 feet.(+)By selecting from the whole Army, there could have been formed regiments and brigades of tall men which would have surpassed the famous giant-guards of Frederick the Great.
But tall men proved to be poor material for a long, toilsome campaign. When, after a hard, forced march, the captain looked over his company at nightfall to see how many men he had with him, the "ponies" who trudged along at the tail of the company were generally all there; it was the head end of the company that was thinned out.
The records of the weights of the soldiers are incomplete; but, such as they are, they indicate that the average weight was 143 1/2 pounds.
The descriptive lists show also the color of hair, from which it appears that 13 per cent. of the soldiers had black hair; 25 per cent. had dark hair; 30 per cent., brown hair; 24 per cent., light; 4 per cent., sandy; 3 per cent., red; and 1 per cent., gray hair.
Also, that as to color of their eyes, 45 per cent. were blue; 24 per cent. were gray; 13 per cent. were hazel; 10 per cent were dark; and 8 per cent were black.
Also, that in complexion, 60 per cent. were light; 33 per cent. were dark; and 7 per cent. were medium.
From statements as to occupation, it appears that 48 per cent. were farmers; 24 per cent. were mechanics; 16 per cent. were laborers; 5 per cent. were in commercial pursuits; 3 per cent. were professional men; 4 per cent. were of miscellaneous vocations.

Yes, a key point is that one WILL find regional, national, ethnic type differences then as now.
And there are also some somewhat unique "regimental" differences sometimes found. Such as the qages found in Hiram Berdan's 1st U.S.S.S. were a little older than what would be expected which some believed was due to more older (read as 30's and 40's) men being more "settled" and "established" to have time to devote to marksmanship, target shooting, and practice in order to better meet the Sharpshooters shooting performance entrance "test."

Curt

[Annette Bethke]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

I just found an interesting quote regarding the Second Texas as they mustered out of Austin Texas. All the Days of My Life, by Amelia E Barr, 1913, page 228.

What a sight it was! Not one man in it weighted under one hundred and eighty pounds, and the majority made the scale beam kick at two hundred pounds. They were all very tall, wiry men, with not one ounce of superfluous flesh on their big frames...

[Matt Woodburn]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

OK, then based on the two posts above that cite height and weight averages (not the Texans), we find the average weight per inch of height to be 2.04 and 2.10 which yeilds and average of 2.07 pounds per inch of height. Let's see what that looks like:

5' 4" (64") 132.5 lbs.
5' 5" 134.6
5' 6" 136.6
5' 7" 138.7
5' 8" 140.8
5' 9" 142.8
5' 10" 144.9
5' 11" 147.0
6' 0" 149.0
6' 1" 151.1
6' 2" 153.2
6' 3" 155.3
6' 4" 157.3
6' 5" 159.4

OK, unless you're a Texan, if you weigh more than 160 pounds, you're a fatass by Civil War soldier standards. And I thought getting my weight to 155 at 5' 9" was going to be good. Humph! There was a post on the AC years ago, prior to one of the crashes, that had height and weight averages out of a hospital in the south that yielded 2.25 pounds per inch of height. See all of you out jogging!

[Stef5735]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Though no data on weights, this info follows up on Cannonfodder's stats for a nine month unit from Boston for the period July 1862 to June 1863. Here are stats from my ancestor's nine month unit from Baltimore, also a port town; the unit was formed in November 1862 of draftees:

84 soldiers' places of birth with 1 no data given:
61% of unit born Maryland, 30% born Baltimore Co./City
7 counties in Maryland, with Baltimore County/ City one category and the most soldiers represented
6 states: Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
7 countries: US, Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, New Foundland

Occupations:
1 Not Given, hatter 1, powder maker 1, wheelwright 4, laborer 13, butcher 1, hardware merchant 1, jewelry maker 1, merchant 1, machinist 1, carpenter 6, blacksmith 7, tinner 2, clerk 4, painter 1, bricklayer 2, paper maker 2, tanner 1, varnisher 1, farmer 19, shoemaker 2, brickmaker 1, stonemason 4, weaver 2, barber 1, druggist 2, sailor 1, and millwright 1.

My ancestor was age 22 and 5 feet 8 3/4 inches tall. He was a shoemaker born in Maryland; the other shoemaker in the above data was age 21 and born in Ireland (he later deserted). Later, a third shoemaker age 45 and born in Germany joined the unit. Since shoe wear and tear was significant, I picture my ancestor and these two other men sitting in camp mending shoes.

Later, my ancestor enlisted in a 3 month company that was also formed in Baltimore. The captain was a German-born saloon keeper who prior to the war made wooden venetian blinds. Also in the company were box makers.

My husband's ancestor and his brother also enlisted in a port town-- Mobile, AL. Though I don't have comprehensive stats on their unit, it included foreign-born soldiers.

Still off the topic of weights, I thought it was interesting how Cannonfodder's original set of data indicates what portion of the unit smoked.

[Lone Guard]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

OK, then based on the two posts above that cite height and weight averages (not the Texans), we find the average weight per inch of height to be 2.04 and 2.10 which yeilds and average of 2.07 pounds per inch of height. Let's see what that looks like:


6' 2" 153.2

OK, unless you're a Texan, if you weigh more than 160 pounds, you're a fatass by Civil War soldier standards. And I thought getting my weight to 155 at 5' 9" was going to be good. Humph! There was a post on the AC years ago, prior to one of the crashes, that had height and weight averages out of a hospital in the south that yielded 2.25 pounds per inch of height. See all of you out jogging!

Uh oh..... :(

[Hank Trent]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Let's see what that looks like:

To try to put those weights in perspective... In the middle part of the range, those are normal weights, not underweight, according to modern online calculators like this one http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/av.htm

However, according to that page, a 5'7" man weighing 139 lbs. would be smaller than 73% of modern 20-somethings, and smaller than 91% of modern 40-somethings. So a person of that weight today would indeed look thin, compared to average, even if he wasn't, health-wise.

For a visual picture, Matt, remember "Fitz" at Immortal 600? That was my size.

For the higher heights, those weights start getting underweight, but if we go by the original post and assume the tallest man at 6'1" was also the heaviest at 165 lbs., he's still within normal range on that calculator, though 75% of modern Americans in their 20s would weigh more than him.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[rdykes]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

I know this thread is old but I'm new to the forum and have been trying to read up on alot of previously discussed topics. I'm 6'2" and weigh 225 which means I'm huge and need to lose some weight. Any good civil war diets out there besides eating hardtack and marching 20 miles a day?

[Auld Pelty]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

I know this thread is old but I'm new to the forum and have been trying to read up on alot of previously discussed topics. I'm 6'2" and weigh 225 which means I'm huge and need to lose some weight. Any good civil war diets out there besides eating hardtack and marching 20 miles a day?

Not for the first 6 weeks. ;)

[sf46]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

To try to put those weights in perspective... In the middle part of the range, those are normal weights, not underweight, according to modern online calculators like this one http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/av.htm

However, according to that page, a 5'7" man weighing 139 lbs. would be smaller than 73% of modern 20-somethings, and smaller than 91% of modern 40-somethings. So a person of that weight today would indeed look thin, compared to average, even if he wasn't, health-wise.

For a visual picture, Matt, remember "Fitz" at Immortal 600? That was my size.

For the higher heights, those weights start getting underweight, but if we go by the original post and assume the tallest man at 6'1" was also the heaviest at 165 lbs., he's still within normal range on that calculator, though 75% of modern Americans in their 20s would weigh more than him.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Do you think some of this could be attributed to diet? Now I'm not saying that the average American these days is exactly healthy in trms of diet, but a lot of those height/weights from the unit surveys seem under weight and unhealthy. I think the average American these days cold be healthier because of better access to healthier diets, than the average man's access to those same foods back in the day.

[Clsinclair]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

Following are the ages of my ancestors when they entered service:

John Sinclair ggg - 54 and 58 when paroled
James Sinclair gg- 21 (son of John)
John Smith Crenshaw ggg - 43 - Killed at age of 46
Burrell Hancock ggg - 35 paroled at age of 39
Henry Hancock gg - 15 - (son of Burrell and in company of 16 year olds)
Albert Stack ggg - 42 - Killed at the age of 45, height was 5'10"
William Walker ggg - 45
William Copeland ggg - 41 - Killed at age of 43
John Prescott ggg - 44 - Killed at age of 47

It only makes sense that these men were fit and weigh much less than we do. Everything was manual and and they did physical labor every day. Of my ancestors that survived the war all lived to be in their 80's.

[Sgt Scotti]

Re: soldier's heights and weights

I think there is something else to think about; diet wise, if your trying to lose some weight or justify our ancestors' skinniness. I believe this is pretty easy to accomplish but thats just me. Whether these men were at home on the farm or campaigning through the many wildernesses of the south what was their fluid intake like? Im pretty sure they didnt have freshly squeezed tropicana, or V8, or a "Diet" Coke with their morning cigarette. Water was about it. Maybe a fresh glass of milk here and there, and a cup of coffee in the morning, and I dont mean a quadruple mocha choco late. Try going for about 2 weeks doing nothing but drinking water, even a cup of black coffee in the morning. Just watch the weight you will drop and keep off if you stay with this routine.
Obviously there is exceptions to every rule; liquor, juices, etc were available. But to the average male from the country or small towns I wouldnt think it was that big.