The Man with the Massive Moustache

Today I had the opportunity to pick a nice bunch of cdv's from my friend Marti Jones, who works at the VA Hospital in Manchester, NH. Most of the time I take my work and study of our past seriously, but for anyone who knows me well, injecting some humor into life is never a bad thing. When I looked at this photo, I couldn't help but find it a bit entertaining. This is certainly one of the biggest moustaches I have ever seen in my life! As someone who has also had facial hair for a while, this guy must have experienced some problems eating and getting bits of all sorts of debris in his monumental stache. He must have had to comb it regularly. If he was married, he must not have been too easy or pleasant to give him a kiss either! His black silk cravat (or bow tie) was also tied rather clumsily too for this very early cdv, probably taken at the beginning of the Civil War.


Less humorous is the location where this image was taken, which is Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, indicated on the back of the image. This small city in central PA was affected perhaps more than any other Northern town during the Civil War, other than its neighbor Gettysburg. On October 10, 1862, Confederate General Jeb Stuart led nearly 2000 cavalrymen on a raid into the town, destroying railroads and reeking havoc. The town was occupied by Southern troops a second time less than a year later just before the Battle of Gettysburg in June 1863. Finally, and most devastating, was the third raid on Chambersburg in 1864 by Confederate forces who burned much of the town to the ground after its loyal citizens refused to pay a ransom of $500,000, an outrageous sum at the time. This older man, if he was a resident of Chambersburg, likely bore witness to these destructive events and hopefully lived to tell the tale.