Urban Myths of Living History, Part 1 - Height
In debates about authenticity it has often been argued -- as a last ditch defense of farbism that we can never really duplicate the 'look' of Civil War soldiers, because the great majority of us are too tall. I have laboured under this hurtful thought for many a month, but now I am beginning to wonder.
Last week I received the Union Service record of my Gr-Gr Grandfather's brother Joseph Doreck. These records included a copy of his second enlistment papers (1863), which I include here for your interest. The shocker for me is that he was my exact same height 6' 1/2." This, incidentally is the same height as two of my uncles descended down the same line. This made me think that genetics, all things being equal, has the same role to play as nutrition. To further test this idea that the 'height-phobics' have been to some extent 'pulling our leg', I checked a complete muster roll for the Confederate 8th Missouri Infantry (in Banasik 1999, Serving with Honor. Camp Pope Press). This is a fairly rare Confederate roll in that original enlistees gave their height. They are distributed as follows (total sample 692 men; I excluded from consideration all those on the roll giving their age as less than 18):
6'9" 1
6'8" 1
6'6" 6
6'5" 2
6'4" 1
6'3" 8
6'2" 9
6'1" 14
6' 74
5'11" 47
5'10" 110
5'9" 73
5'8" 121
5'7" 65
5'6" 89
5'5" 32
5'4" 15
5'3" 6
5'2" 1
5'1" 9
5' 7
4'11" 1
From this exercise we may conclude that the average Civil War soldier from Missouri was between 5'6" and 6' in height, with some more exceptional heights going up and down from this range by around 6". I just barely pip 6', and I usually find myself at the far right of a height ordered line. So is their really a 19th - 21st century height gap? The answer is: not really. We lack many of the shorter extremes (less than 5'6"), but heights over 6'2" remain fairly rare. Bear all this in mind the next time someone tries the height 'cop-out' with you...
Source: http://www.lazyjacks.org.uk/height.htm
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