Soldiers and sunburns.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
Joined
Aug 25, 2012
If a soldier from my hometown joined the Army during the winter months, went to Georga to join his regiment, how would they keep from getting sunburn? Ther was no sun screen back then. So was there another protection from sunburn?
 
Is there any evidence that they were concerned enough about sunburn to consider some form of sun screen? Recalling my summers on my Grandfather's farm, we didn't have much concern for sunburn.
 
Sunburn must have occured during the Civil War. It can be rather painful. I had soldiers that had to go get medical treatment for sunburn. People during the Civil War could have had blisters from sunburn.
 
Ideally, soldiers would deal with sunburn by not getting it. Traditional uniforms would include loose pants, long-sleeved shirts and hats, and soldiers would stay under shade if possible. When they inevitably did get sunburned, they could use a salve of some kind of grease (often "slush" from cooking pots) to help with the pain/blistering. Many no doubt just burned until they became deeply tanned, in the manner of some today.
 
I don't think sunburn was invented until 1920 or so.[/QUOT

Skin is skin. I do not see how sunburn did not happen well before the Civil War. I bet George Washington with his red hair had to use strong sun screen.
 
I would think the clothing of the day mostly kept them protected from the sun.

Even in the modern military I don't recall ever needing to wear sunscreen, and I was stationed in Hawaii where most days in garrison were spent out in sun in the tropics. The worst you had to worry about was a farmer's tan.
 
Yeah, what about that indeed. And what about needing sunglasses ? No wonder so many couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

I'm a lily white with no melanin and with eyes that are very sensitive to bright light. When I was a wee lad I burned frequently and remember actually once buying some "sun glasses" that were sort of like those 3-d things you'd get at the movies; paper frame with plastic lenses (my parents thought it was "cute"). I'd have burned to a crisp and been blind if I had to campaign. Maybe I could have worked in the quartermaster corps in some dark warehouse.
 
I had soldiers in the Saudi desert that had to use sun screen and still got sun burned if the stood in the sun for 16 hours. The worse was sunburned lips. If you use lip balm in the desert, you end up with sandpaper lips.
 
If you were blonde headed, blue eyed you were a prime target for severe sunburn. How do I know? Blisters the size of silver dollars on my back at Cape Hatteras about fifty years ago.
 
My dad had black hair, greenish eyes, and fair skin. He never tanned, he had two skin tones, ghost and lobster.
 
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