Back to That Facial Hair Thing...Again-- Part 2: Big Beard Vs. Little Beard

Then, the question arises, Does the commander with the larger beard/face ratio win more battles.

Using the data, there were 226 battles where bear/face ratio could be determines.  Of them, the commander with the bigger beard won 114, a winning ratio of 50.4%,  Just two more than the smaller beard.

So, obviously, it did not make much difference.

--Old Beardless Secesh

Back to That Facial Hair Thing...Again-- Part 1: The Beards of War

Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science "Beards of War: Relationship  between facial hair coverage and battle outcome in the U.S. Civil War" by Matt Michel.

I wrote about this last month (hit the facial hair label).

Using the Facial Hair Database from the previous post/paper and Battle Database from the National Park Service of the 383 battles and classifying the outcome as a Union Victory, Confederate Victory or Inconclusive and the 196 battles which have casualties listed, these stats became evident:

Long Bearded commanders were involved in the most battles: 54 for Union, 108 Confederate
Short Beards:  101 Union, 57 Confederate
Van Dykes:  39 Union, 46 Confederate
Mustaches:  32 Union, 20 Confederate
French Cuts:  20 Union, 31 Confederate
Clean Shaven:  12 Union, 25 Confederate
Friendly Muttonchop:  21 Union, 3 Confederate
Muttonchop:  6 Union, 11 Confederate
Chin Curtain:  11 Union, 3 Confederate
Muttonchop with mustache:  4 Union, 5 Confederate
Goatee:  0 Union, 7 Confederate

--Old Secesh

"Groomed" for War-- Part 3

Northern officers tended to sport styles that required some amount of trimming and/or design, like the short beard, the different type of mutton chops and the Van Dyke.

The second part of the study will focus on the relativity of facial hair and victory.


--Old Secesh

"Groomed: for War: What Was the Beardiest Battle of the Civil War?-- Part 2

The Confederacy led the Union generals in every category.

"Civil War generals are as known for their beards as they are for their tactical ineptitude."

The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain in 1864 in Virginia/Tennessee takes the win for "Beardiest Battle."  This primarily because of Confederate General  Albert G. Jenkins whose beard was 3 times the length of his face.  The Union General George W, Crook had a trim mustache and an untrained short beard.

Researchers looked at 124 Union commanders and 95 Confederate.

Some styles were fairly evenly split like long beard and mustache, but some had a big difference like short beard (29 Union, 12 Confederate), clean shaven (5 Union, 14 Confederate) and mutton chop derivatives ( 14 Union, 4 Confederate).

Too Much Work With Facial Hair.  --OldHairyFace

"Groomed" for War: The Beardiest Battle of the Civil War-- Part 1: Friendly Muttonchops

From the October 30, 2015, Popular Science "Groomed For War: What Was the Beardiest Battle of the Civil War?  Researchers Compare the Facial hair of Union and Confederate Officers" by Kelsey D. Atherton.

This is taken from the Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science.

The article had a bar graph showing the breakdown by the following categories:  (For those of you wondering what some of the categories are, they show what the facial hair would look like.)  The numbers are for the number of commanders sporting the facial hair.

Long Beard  54
Short Beard  41
Mustache  36
French Cut  24
Van Dyke  23
Clean Shaven  19
Chin Curtain  14
Friendly Muttonchops  10
Muttonchops  5
Muttonchops and Mustache  4
Goatees  3

More to Come.  --Old Secesh

Mr. Lincoln's Beard

From the Nov. 8, 2012, Yahoo! Movies "The endearing reason why Lincoln grew his beard."

I am anziously awaiting the new Steven Spielberg bio-pic "Lincoln" starring Daniel Day-Lewis, which has limited release this weekend.  From what I've seen of the trailers, it is going to be a great one.

When you think Lincoln, you think long, lanky and beard, but he did not always have that beard.  Actually, it came about from a suggestion of an 11-year-old girl, Grace Bedell,  who had seen a campaign poster of him and wrote a letter which read in part:

"I have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin.  All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you."

Lincoln wrote back saying,  " As to the whiskers have never worn any do you not think people would call it a silly affection if I were to begin now?"

He, however, took the advise and by the time of his November 1860 election had a full beard.

Several months after the letters were exchanged, the two met in Westfield, New York.  Grave remembered, "He climbed down and sat with me on the edge of the platform. 'Grace, look at my whiskers.  I've been growing them for you.'  Then he kissed me.  I never saw him again."

Was the beard for better or worse?  Did it help get him elected?

One publication from back then called him, "the leanest, lankest, most ungainly mass of legs, arms and hatchet-face ever strung upon a single frame."

But, Mary Loved Him.  --Old Secesh