Somewhat Lighter Historical Debate

[UGADawgs]

Anybody who has seen documentaries or illustrated histories of the Civil War has to have remarked on the facial hair that generals sported during the war. I don't know how Ambrose Burnside had the time to cultivate his strange chops, although the maintenance required might explain the shoddy work by him at Fredericksburg and Petersburg.

So, what is everyone's favorite beard or moustache from the Civil War. Besides Ambrose's, I have to say that W.T. Sherman was astute in coming up with the Miami Vice stubble beard 120 years before the show, JEB Stuart could have been a department store Santa, and PGT Beauregard must have been a musician because of his soul patch.

[Brochgale]

Anybody who has seen documentaries or illustrated histories of the Civil War has to have remarked on the facial hair that generals sported during the war. I don't know how Ambrose Burnside had the time to cultivate his strange chops, although the maintenance required might explain the shoddy work by him at Fredericksburg and Petersburg.

So, what is everyone's favorite beard or moustache from the Civil War. Besides Ambrose's, I have to say that W.T. Sherman was astute in coming up with the Miami Vice stubble beard 120 years before the show, JEB Stuart could have been a department store Santa, and PGT Beauregard must have been a musician because of his soul patch.

Maybe the women of the day liked the men to have a bit of hair on the face? When it comes to personal grooming it is usually the women who are the determiners of what we do? Women being the drivers of fashion?
Indeed I know of countries where women dont like any kind of hair on a man - facial or otherwise?

[TeMagic]

I for one think G T Beauregard had the most appealing looks of all the civil war generals. He actually looked like a little Napoleon

I guess you had to sport a beard in those days to have the respect of the soldiers, and of course, as many of the generals were rather young, a nice beard, I suppose, did a good job in making those men look older than they were.

[Jabberwock]

George Crook. Whoever drew the first picture of Yosemite Sam was using George for a model.

[arsan]

Hey! i hadn't noticed this thread before!
Great idea, but it needs some pictures i think
There are a lot of "freaks" to chose from in the ACW. Really is incredible to see how was the fashion back then.
For example, i like Breckenridge's mustache. It's so bad its good!
Specially the one he had after the war (check the second picture )

[Mickey3D]

Want some nice pictures of ACW generals ? Have a look at this site to choose your favorite one : http://www.generalsandbrevets.com

Don't miss young Custer .

[Banks6060]

all this talk about facial hair and not a single mention of Longstreet or Pemberton. I know their face forrests were rather generic, but heck...that takes some serious time and committment to grow somethin' like that!

[Bo Rearguard]

As much as I deeply love the movie Gettysburg, I always thought C. Thomas Howell deserved a special award for least convincing facial hair. (He did attempt to grow his own beard before filming but time ran out.)

[anarchyintheuk]

I prefer the Longstreet/ZZ Top look for Civil War generals.

[Barker]

Patrick Theodore Moore - He had that Burnside Meade thing going...It just doesn't work.

He reminds me of Uncle Daddy who was cousins with Grammy Momma ....

[Zebedee]

The benefits of a good moustache and set of sideburns in this period can only be attested to by the memoirs of one Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE (5 May 1822 – 1915).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flashmancover.jpg

[TheDoctorKing]

The benefits of a good moustache and set of sideburns in this period can only be attested to by the memoirs of one Brigadier-General Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE (5 May 1822 – 1915).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flashmancover.jpg

And now we're never going to know what Flashman was doing during the ACW (sob!) Every single book seemed to refer in some way to his service for both the Union and Confederate armies during the war, but that "packet of the memoirs" will never be opened...

[Mangudai]

Women go crazy for neck hair.



P.S. Would you follow this guy to the gates of hell?

[Mangudai]

How about him?

[Beaumanoir]

I've always found it interesting that these big bushy beards were only fashionable for a relatively short period of time. Rare to see a photo or portrait before the war with a monster beard...and they disappeared from the photographic record pretty quickly afterward, well before the end of the 19th century.

Robust moustaches remained a little bit longer, and the beard lingered on a bit in the west. But all in all, large amounts of facial hair as a dominant fashion was only around for 2 or 3 decades out of USA's 238-year history...and that short time period seems to have begun around 1860-61, tapered off some just after the war, and disappeared altogether as Civil War-age men retired & passed away.

It's almost as if they said "Hey, a war! We're way too busy to shave now! Throw all the razors away!"