[The following describes common hygiene conditions for the average infantry soldier in the American Civil War.]
What clothes they did have swarmed with lice – one soldier described standing over a fire and hearing them pop like corn. Men tried turning their shirts inside out, which they called “executing a flank movement.”
Source:
Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “The Hounds.” The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy. Anchor Books, 2010. 126. Print.
Having lice is like a mental illness on the outside.