Who had the best civil war facial hair?

[fluter]

Excluding full beards, I'd nominate two sentimental favorites: Raphael Semmes (CSS Alabama) and Joshua Chamberlain (20th Maine).

For reasons you may deduce, I'm biased toward full beards, in which category Grant and Lee were not too shabby. Jackson, Hood, and J. E. B. Stuart have long been sentimental favorites, with Stuart leading by a nose. then we have A. P. Hill and James Longstreet, two more classic beards! Richard Ewell had a well-cultivated chin growth, if I recall correctly.

Across the field, John F. Reynolds, George Sykes, John Sedgewick, and Oliver Howard are worthy contributors, but John Lorimer Worden and George Crook are outstanding!

Short answer: there are too many world-class beards to choose one. Lee or Longstreet? Stuart or Reynolds? Run in circles, scream and shout.




OK, JEB Stuart, but mostly because this fellow is named for him:

Stuart at rest by arcturus1997, on Flickr

[macwilkin]

One individual that was not included was Capt. William W. Cooke, who died with Custer at the Little Bighorn:



Cooke, a Canadian, enlisted in the 24th New York Cavalry and served at the Siege of Petersburg and Sayler's Creek.

T.

[Mike_Oettle]

My vote went to the unidentified soldier.
As for Mr Wilcox, if mine ever got that long I would have to have a special pocket made for it in my sporran!

Regards,
Mike

[Burly Brute]

Good lord... How would you keep that thing clean?

I would imagine by rolling it up and tucking it into one's shirt. But, that's just a guess!

[ShaunMaxwell]

Some of the guys on the Smithsonian list are pikers by comparison to other unmentioned, but well known combatants.

I'm with Woodsheal on John Bell Hood (does this guy look like a lion or what?), and another worthy was William Mahone.


Hood


Mahone

SM

[Chukta]

I'd have to cast my vote for Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart. That's a pretty impressive beard

[Chukta]

John Bell Hood runs a close second to Stuart

[tripleblessed]

The many astonishing and worthy candidates from both sides make it an extremely tough call. Although I've always thought any portrait of Lee simply the very definition of the word dignity, I think I have to go with Stuart. The
light and intelligence pouring off that face, paired with that beard, elevate him
ever so slightly above the rest.

Although for me, an honorable mention would have to go to Orrin Soper, my
great-grandfather, serving in a Pennsylvania unit in Grant's Overland campaign, I think. A Minie ball got tangled in his beard and ripped a strip of it out, making it a rather unique example of facial hair. He said it felt like his head was being torn off. As my grandmother was born in 1891, it was a very near miss and close shave for me.