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Baseball and the
Blue and Gray
LETTER FROM THE
EDITOR
Email:
Michael
Aubrecht Website:
Pinstripe
Press
THIS
MONTH, we've decided to
take our "Yankee" affiliation
literally to focus on the origins
of the modern game and it's
evolution during the Civil War.
As you can probably tell, I've
always been a huge "history buff"
and have spent just as many hours
on battlefields as I have on
baseball fields. Raised just a
few hours from Gettysburg, PA, I
later moved to Fredericksburg, VA
(Spotsylvania County) where I
reside to this day. Our area of
Central VA is located in the
middle of four major
battlefields, and my neighborhood
is just down the road "aways"
from where General Thomas
"Stonewall" Jackson breathed his
last. It's hard not to feel the
presence of "ghosts" living in a
tourist town that is populated by
reenactors and all sorts of
monuments, plaques and cannons.
Recently, I completed a new
section for Baseball-Almanac
(some of which is previewed here)
called "Baseball and the Blue and
the Gray" and it was during my
research that I was able to renew
my interest in this part of
American history. It somehow
seems fitting to me that our
"National Pastime" gained its
popularity during our "Nation's
Greatest Conflict". We hope you
enjoy our look not only baseball,
but also the historical time that
gave birth to this game.
The
Civil War Home Page
WEBSITE
SPOTLIGHT
Dedicated to the
participants, both North and
South, in the great American
Civil War 1861-1865
http://www.civil-war.net
THE
CIVIL WAR Home Page is one
of the largest and most
comprehensive collections of
Civil War related material
available on the Internet. It
contains thousands of pages of
Civil War material including
Photos, Battle Accounts,
Documents, Southern Historical
Papers, Troop Statistics, Letters
& Diaries, Census of 1860,
Maps, Official Records, Message
Board, Dyer's Compendium, Fox's
Regimental Losses, Regimental
Histories, Genealogy,
Biographical Information,
Reenacting and Unit Information.
Beyond mere baseball history,
this site has something for
everyone interested in the War
Between the States.
"Modern baseball
had been born in the brain of an
American soldier. It received its
baptism in the bloody days of our
Nation's direst danger. It had
its early evolution when
soldiers, North and South, were
striving to forget their foes by
cultivating, through this grand
game, fraternal friendship with
comrades in
arms."
Albert
Spalding
Abner
Doubleday
PROFILE
Source: Baseball
and the Blue and the Gray
(Pinstripe Press)
Born: June 26, 1819 Ballston Spa,
New York
Died: January 1893 Mendham, New
Jersey
GENERAL DOUBLEDAY
was
an 1842 graduate of West Point
(graduating with A.P. Stewart,
D.H. Hill, Earl Van Dorn and
James Longstreet) and served in
both the Mexican and Seminole
wars. In 1861, he was stationed
at the garrison in Charleston
Harbor. It is said that it was
Doubleday, an artillery officer,
who aimed the first Fort Sumter
guns in response to the
Confederate bombardment that
initiated the war. Later he
served in the Shenandoah region
as a brigadier of volunteers and
was assigned to a brigade of
Irwin McDowell's corps during the
campaign of Second Manassas. He
also commanded a division of the
I Corps at Sharpsburg and
Fredericksburg as well at
Gettysburg where he assumed the
command of I Corps after the fall
of Gen. John F. Reynolds, helping
to repel the infamous "Pickett's
Charge." Strangely, his
outstanding military service has
been all but forgotten yet his
controversial baseball legacy
still lives on. Regardless of
being (or not being) the actual
"inventor" of the modern version,
Doubleday did apparently
organized several exhibitions
between Union divisions and was
an apparent student and fan of
the game. Many of these contests
were attended by thousands of
spectators and often made
front-page news equal to the war
reports from the field.
Did
you know… Serious baseball
historians still reject the
notion that Doubleday designed
the first baseball diamond and
drew up the modern rules of the
game, supposedly as a military
cadet in 1839. Regardless, the
City of Cooperstown, NY dedicated
Doubleday Field in 1920 as the
birthplace of the game.
Yankees
Trivia
ANSWER IN NEXT
ISSUE
Have a trivia question? Email it
to us and maybe we'll use it.
Who
was the last surviving full rank
Civil War General (who lived to
witness the days of Babe Ruth and
Lou Gehrig)?
Fast
Facts
HISTORY 101
AT
LEAST
618,000 Americans died in the
Civil War, and some experts say
the toll reached 700,000. The
number that is most often quoted
is 620,000. At any rate, these
casualties exceed the nation's
loss in all its other wars, from
the Revolution through Vietnam.
The Union armies had from
2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. The
Confederate strength, known less
accurately because of missing
records, was from 750,000 to
1,250,000.
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2002-2003-2004 Pinstripe Press.
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