Pinky Rings???

[Tiger_rifles]

I was looking at a Non-ACW site and was reading comments about a Union re-enactor photogrphed wearing a pinky ring. I then was looking at closeup pictures of the three Rebs captured at G-burg,(we all know the picture I am talking about!), and Two of those fellows have pinky rings! It also seems that the third has a wedding band on, but it is on the right hand. Now we all know this picture was taken many days after G-burg was over and done, so were these men on grave digger duty?
So how common was this? I did do a search before asking but really could not find anything.
Thanks,

[Jim Mayo]

Pinky rings while not common are sometimes seen in period photos of Union soldiers. Can't remember if I have seen any on CS soldiers.

[1 Yellowhammer]

Period freemasons sometimes wore Masonic pinky rings... Pat Craddock over on the AC makes them based off some originals...

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Ellsworth's avenger, Francis Brownell, had one on the left hand:

[Rob Weaver]

To this day, Russians wear wedding rings on the right hand. This practice may have been in Eastern Europe in the mid-19th c.

[Elaine Kessinger]

Many Germanic-based countries wear the wedding ring on the right hand.

Also remember that in this era, wedding rings weren't always the "plain gold band" that we think of today. ...so the "plain gold band" we see in photos may be "just another ring" too. Kinda hard to tell without other factors for context.

[tenfed1861]

It's possible that they were not just Masonic rings,but also fraternal rings in general.If you look close at the example above,you can almost make out a cross in the ring.So either fraternal or religious.Hope this helps.

[LibertyHallVols]

Marc,

Not to get off-topic, but...
The cuff of his sleeve is way down at his knuckles, a trait more commonly associated with early century fashions. Is he wearing a poorly-fitted coat, or is it cut this way?

Thanks!

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

From a number of articles, including one from the "Columbia Rifles Research Compendium" and from years of looking at originals images of soldiers and citizens, pinky rings were indeed more common than most think. the CRRC article noted a survey of original images which indicated the percentage of pinky rings versus other fingers and it seems to be much higher than the modern ratio today. I've seen dozens of original images myself showing this to be true, which led me to incorporate pinky rings into many of my impressions. Originals I've viewed come in a variety of styles from plain gold or silver bands, gutta percha and/or India rubber, rose gold, Fraternal and military rings with everything from eagles to corps badges. One of my favorite period ads from Harper's Weekly and other newspapers includes classified ads looking for agents to sell corps badge rings to soldiers, most of which appear to be pinky rings. My research into this question led me to talk to some of the old-school relic hunters, and sure enough, severeal of them noted that rings that they've recovered from camps and battlefields all seem to be under a modern size 7, usually in the 5 or 6 range, which seem to be a pinky size.

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

John -

Hard to say! In another view, he looks to have thrust his wrist well through the sleeve, so as to allow excess material, of which there seems to be a good amount, to ride up:



So, it may have been an anomaly with his jacket. Another Fire Zouave doesn't have that problem:


In a completely unscientific, not-to-scale comparison, there seems to be a bigger difference between the sleeve and the jacket body on Brownell's jacket than on a sample New York State uniform jacket:


The 11th's first uniforms were ordered, manufactured, and issued with incredible speed, so a design flaw may very well have been there. It certainly wouldn't have been the only flaw.