# Civil war soldier hygiene **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 9, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931 "2013-12-09T23:38:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/1 "2013-12-09T23:38:11Z")
Anyone know a book I could read that goes over this sanitary conditions of the average soldier? How often they were able to bathe, did they have access to soap, how often did they get to shampoo their hair, etc? Seeing photos shows that many soldiers grew beards, which had to be disgusting and full of vermin if not washed regularly… Not to mention the greasy feel that hair can get in a couple of days for most people… Add to that the amazing sweat that they all had poring from their bodies in those wool uniforms and kepis and i imagine they were a foul smelling bunch, but i have no feel for it other than what i’ve imagined. The one book that really got me thinking about this was the “Retreat from Gettysburg”, which focuses in the Confederate army moving out of Gettysburg and back into Virginia. Three days of 90+ degree heat in Pennsylvania humidity, fighting, and then marching back in rain, heat, and god-awful conditions… Not to mention Union calvary shooting at them along the way. There was no time to bathe, yet alone change clothes for over a month for many of the rank and file soldiers. The key word is rank. Anyone know from their Civil War reading anything they can share, or point me to a book or two covering this topic? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/2 "2013-12-09T23:46:23Z")
Username/post combo. Two thumbs up. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/3 "2013-12-10T00:19:04Z")
Not specific to the Civil War but I have heard this book is a good one. [Foul Bodies](http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300171556) by Kathleen Brown. Here is [link](https://www.sas.upenn.edu/series/frontiers/when-we-were-gross) to some videos of the author. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/4 "2013-12-10T01:07:45Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > how often did they get to shampoo their hair I’ll await someone with more knowledge, but this strikes me as similar to asking “How often were they allowed to check email?”. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/5 "2013-12-10T01:25:54Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > I’ll await someone with more knowledge, but this strikes me as similar to asking “How often were they allowed to check email?”. Yeah, I don’t know when the word ‘shampoo’ was even invented. Regardless, unless you were royalty you kind of never washed your hair. I’ve seen hygiene films from the 1950s that talk about only girls washing their hair, and only once a week! As gross as it sounds greasy hair waterproofed it and sort of helped keep it ‘clean’-ish. And until only VERY recently everyone everywhere stank constantly their whole lives, so your nose didn’t notice it like we do now. Good times… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/6 "2013-12-10T01:35:38Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > And until only VERY recently everyone everywhere stank constantly their whole lives, so your nose didn’t notice it like we do now. > > Good times… 😃 It reminds me of farmers, I remember as a kid visiting a farm for a school field trip and most of the kids were saying ‘this place stinks’ but the kids who grew up on farms and the farmers couldn’t smell anything. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/7 "2013-12-10T03:01:53Z")
**Hail Ants** is dead wrong. While different formulation for shampoo was unknown at the time, people definitely used soap on their hair and generally cleaned it. Certainly cleanliness wasn’t something the average Civil War soldier got to spend a great amount of time upon. However, it probably wasn’t by choice. Bathing wasn’t exactly a frightening mystery to Americans, although few enjoyed hot baths daily. However, people would wash up regularly in civilian life and would have a regular bath. During the war… it didn’t happen. There were no bathing facilities for soldiers unless it was warm enough and there happened to be a halfway clean stream nearby. Men went for months without a decent wash at times. Of course, soldiers who got a bit too ripe and refused to clean up generally got a thorough and unpleasant wash (and a half-drowning) when their fellow threw them in the nearest pond. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/8 "2013-12-10T03:09:20Z")
I tried to google the price of soap in 1860 and couldn’t find anything. Civil war soldiers made $10-20/month, so if a bar of soap was a nickel I’m sure a lot would have them. If it was closer to a dollar, I’m sure it would be a lot more rare. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/9 "2013-12-10T03:13:06Z")
E. L. Doctorow’s [The March](http://www.amazon.com/The-March-Novel-E-L-Doctorow/dp/0812976150) is a novel, but written with stunning descriptiveness of fine detail. It contains long scenes of, well, marches, with the soldiers stumbling on and on and on, without even time to break stride to let down their pants for necessities. Hey, the enlisted men were known as the “rank” and file, weren’t they? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/10 "2013-12-10T03:30:18Z")
They were worried about things like trench foot, trench mouth, scabies, and gingivitis. Gurgle with good wine or eat citrus (just like the sailors.) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/11 "2013-12-10T03:46:05Z")
They bathed when they could, which was not often. Here’s a [photo](http://www.old88thpvi.com/uploads/1/3/1/3/13131904/4473875_orig.jpg)of some Union troops taking a chance to bathe in the North Anna River during Grant’s Overland Campaign in May 1864. (I had seen the photo before doing research on my great-great-grandfather, who participated in the battle on another part of the river.) This [blog](http://dailyapple.blogspot.com/2011/08/apple-543-bathing-for-soldiers.html) contains accounts of bathing by soldiers, including during the Civil War. > [@](#): > > During the Civil War, the Massachusetts volunteer infantry camped along the James River. Officers reported that “several hundreds” of enlisted men were bathing in the river "at all hours of the day and in large numbers. So many of them were bathing all the time that the order was given that the enlisted men were not allowed to bathe during daylight. > > Even after this order was given, two officers sneaked off to wash in the river. But the place where the went happened to be in front of the cottage where the General had made his quarters. He waited until they had stripped and then he had the Sergeant of the Guard arrest them and bring them naked to his quarters. By this time, other soldiers had found out what was happening, so several of them watched, laughing, as the two young officers were brought naked to the General. He told them, “If you choose to bathe naked and expect to be recognized as officers, pray have your shoulder-straps buttoned on to you. Go to your quarters.” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/12 "2013-12-10T07:46:32Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It reminds me of farmers, I remember as a kid visiting a farm for a school field trip and most of the kids were saying ‘this place stinks’ but the kids who grew up on farms and the farmers couldn’t smell anything. Or, the farm kids, visiting the Big City, thought it stunk. Actually, maybe the Big City just smelled _diff’rent_ but to the farm nose unaccustomed to it, that stunk. _A skunk sat on a stump. The stump thunk the skunk stunk. The skunk thunk the stump stunk._ ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/13 "2013-12-10T08:03:57Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Seeing photos shows that many soldiers grew beards, which had to be disgusting and full of vermin if not washed regularly… Not to mention the greasy feel that hair can get in a couple of days for most people… Add to that the amazing sweat that they all had poring from their bodies in those wool uniforms and kepis and i imagine they were a foul smelling bunch, but i have no feel for it other than what i’ve imagined. Stop, you’re turning me on. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/14 "2013-12-10T21:33:50Z")
Based on my experience hiking in the New Mexico mountains in the summer, your personal stench levels out after about 4-5 days of sweating and not bathing. So they were rank, but probably not as rank as we think. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/15 "2013-12-10T21:38:02Z")
Ever passed by a really smelly homeless person? That’s what they smelled like. ---
**Author:** ![Khendrask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@Khendrask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khendrask)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/16 "2013-12-13T07:23:04Z")
For some truly horrible conditions, read about some of the Civil War prison camps… [Andersonville](http://www.amazon.com/Andersonville-Last-Depot-Civil-America/dp/0807821527/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386919289&sr=1-3&keywords=andersonville) for example. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/17 "2013-12-13T21:45:00Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Based on my experience hiking in the New Mexico mountains in the summer, your personal stench levels out after about 4-5 days of sweating and not bathing. > > So they were rank, but probably not as rank as we think. Seconding **bump** - stench does not accumulate like us affluent Westerners think, based on how we smell after a good sweat and some extrapolation. I know semi-primitive folks who dress in historical-style wool clothing and, with no running water, rarely wash up in the winter, and never wash their hair. They have an odor about them that’s kinda hard to categorize, but they most certainly don’t stink anything as bad as potent BO, halitosis etc. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/18 "2013-12-13T21:59:42Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Seconding **bump** - stench does not accumulate like us affluent Westerners think, based on how we smell after a good sweat and some extrapolation. I know semi-primitive folks who dress in historical-style wool clothing and, with no running water, rarely wash up in the winter, and never wash their hair. They have an odor about them that’s kinda hard to categorize, but they most certainly don’t stink anything as bad as potent BO, halitosis etc. I don’t know. There have been some _really_ nasty smelling rank homeless people that could clear out a subway car in seconds and leave people gagging. It’s probably the worst smell I can remember. It’s way worse than simply sweating and not bathing for 5 days. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/19 "2013-12-13T22:24:02Z")
Many decades ago I worked in a store that sold clothing. It was next to the kind of bar that had people drinking in it before we opened up in the morning. One day one of the regulars there came in to buy pants. He stank so badly we could not get within feet of him. We absolutely refused to have anything to do with him, so the owner had to take over the transaction. I’m hoping he just gave the guy pants that fit because nothing he tried on would ever be sellable to someone else. There’s no comparison to working up a sweat. This is a palpable odor that cannot be handled by people whose noses still work. How and why they let him into the bar left me baffled. We never went in there for any reason. I’ll bet those semi-primitive types still cleaned themselves well after going to the bathroom. If you stop doing that, any level of awfulness is possible. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931/20 "2013-12-13T22:31:04Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > It’s way worse than simply sweating and not bathing for 5 days. This is correct. That doomful stench does not come from merely sweating and not bathing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-soldier-hygiene/675931.md?page=2)