To Beard Or Not To Beard? By Daniel Morgan

[paulcalloway]

A Mathematical Analysis of Instances of Facial Hair with Respect to the Civil War Fighting Soldier in the Field or To Beard Or Not To Beard?

By Daniel Morgan

A year ago my friend and I were talking about beards during the Civil War. At that time he decided to shave off his beard and leave his mustache. I asked him why he shaved it off since I thought it suited him well. He replied "For personal reasons, and besides most soldiers did not have facial hair." I thought for a moment and replied, "Are you sure?"

Well, I went home and while paging through a copy of Time Life Civil War, I came across a photograph of a group of musicians. There were at least 30 individuals in the image, and I began sorting the number of men wearing facial hair from the clean-shaven men. I came up with a number of 52% clean-shaven and 48% having some facial hair. I presented these figures to my friend and implored him to grow back his beard. He successfully dodged the request by replying, "Ah, that’s the thing, they are all musicians and not fighting soldiers." I agreed with him and left it at that.

A year passed and between stripping the paint off my World War I pick mattock and aging the baseball and bat for our 1840’s ball game for a Ft. Scott event, I found I had extra time on my hands. I pulled out my books on the Civil War and went to work sorting out the pictures of fighting men.

When I started I broke up the soldiers into two major classes: Soldiers in the eastern theater and soldiers in the western theater. When I was through, I found no appreciable difference between the two and decided to lump the two together. I did not break down the soldiers into groups of Confederates and Federals as the proportions were also equal. I then broke the major classes down into two sub classes: those who were fighting enlisted soldiers whose image was taken during the war and saw action, and those who were officers whose image was taken during the war and saw action. I decided to use images of soldiers who saw action as soldiers. Soldiers who garrison do not experience the rigors of a campaign and are not necessarily affected by the harsh environment. Men who appeared under the age of 18 were excluded for obvious reasons.

The sub-classes were broken down even further into sub-sub classes: Clean-shaven,Mustache, Partial Beard, and Full Beard. Clean-shaven was designated as having no facial hair and not having sideburns extending past the cheek bone. Mustache was designated a shaving facial hair on the upper lip. It may lengthen to the lower jaw so long as it does not extend under the lower lip. I classified a partial beard as one in which the hair extends past the cheek bone or resides on the lower jaw. I classified a full beard having facial hair that extends past the cheek bone and continues to the lower lip and chin with a mustache.

A sample of 451 images was taken. Here is the breakdown:

Breakdown Of Enlisted Men

Clean-shaven 45%
Mustache 10%
Partial Beard 10%
Full Beard 35%

Breakdown Of Officers
Clean-shaven 13%
Mustache 23%
Partial Beard 26%
Full Beard 38%

For enlisted men the numbers between men who are clean-shaven (45%) and those with facial hair (55%) is almost even, with a 3.5:1 preference for full beards. The officers case is different. The numbers between officers who are clean shaven (13%) and those with facial hair (87%) is a ratio of 6.7:1 with the full beard having a slight lead over a mustache and partial beard. I wondered what might have accounted this marked difference between the enlisted men and officers.

An officer’s fare was better than that of the average soldier and the upkeep of a full face of hair would have been easier. While viewing the images of the officers, I found that the officers who were clean-shaven often had a boyish look about them. Officers might have grown a beard in order to look older and more distinguished; to help gain the respect of the men, although this is just the opinion of the author.

It is worthy to note that Zouaves seemed to be fond of wearing goatees, while negro troops and seamen almost always seemed to have a preference for being clean-shaven,with a few exceptions. To sum up in short: if you are an enlisted man, wear facial hair if you are inclined to do so. Look at the men in your group. Are they bearded? If not, by all means grow one. In a group of 100 enlisted men, on the average 55 would have had some sort of facial hair. If you are an officer, chances are you would have had some sort of beard or mustache. Ina group of 100 officers, on the average 87 would have had some sort of facial hair. Good luck growing the beard. I know I’m still trying.

Edit. This article was originally posted on the Bully Boys website and is hosted here with their permission. - PC