Did The Guys With Best Beards Win the Civil War?

The Movember Foundation is a global charity committed to men living happier, healthier, longer lives. Since 2003, millions have joined the men’s health movement, raising $650 million and funding over 1,000 programs focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity.

A website dedicated to Movember gives the back story http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2015/11/movember_grow_a_mustache.html
“Movember began as the idea of a somewhat drunken group of Australian mates who wanted to see if they could single-handedly propel the mustache back into fashion. To give their group dare some greater purpose, they eventually turned it into a charity to fight prostate cancer. Participants in Movember spend the month of November growing and sporting a mustache, which they shave off - typically to great fanfare - at the close of the month….At the very least, it's a conversation-starter - which is sort of the whole point.”
Now, from health to history with facial hair. Just in time for Movember, a new study in the Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science published part of its study on beards worn by commanders and soldiers in the Civil War.

Researchers found that the “beardiest” battle of the Civil War was the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s because it was a very small battle over a rail line between Virginia and Tennessee in 1864.

Popular Science says the Union won that fight, but it was a Confederate general who put the both sides of the battle over-the-top for having the “most combined facial hair of any pair of combatants in the entire war.” Confederate Brigadier General ALBERT G. JENKINS wore a beard that was almost three times the size of his face!

To figure out this burning bearded question, the study’s authors used Civil War photos of Union and Confederate commanders. They also found “an important difference between the North and South. Northern officers tended to have more high-maintenance beard styles, including short beards, muttonchops, and, to some extent, the Van Dyke (handlebar mustache and goatee.)

Next week, the researchers plan to release the relationship between beards and battle victory.