Since we are studying the Civil War in 8th grade social studies, my team of teachers decided to play a few games of "Town Ball" with the students for a new educational experience. Yesterday afternoon was the day, and the weather was perfect for a game of baseball. We all had a fun afternoon, and the experience got me to thinking more about the history of baseball, so I turned to Google.
Here is what Michael Aubrecht had to say on the topic:
"It is considered America's National Pastime. Far more than just a mere sporting event, baseball has become a major part of the American culture and has often been responsible for bringing people together in times of crisis. During war, following natural disaster and in the midst of economic hardship, the game has always provided an emotional escape for people from every race, religion and background who can collectively find solace at the ballpark. Therefore, it somehow seems fitting that the origins of modern baseball can be traced back to a divided America when the country was in the midst of a great Civil War. Despite the political and social grievances that resulted in the separation of the North and South, both sides shared some common interests such as playing baseball.
Although baseball was somewhat popular in larger communities on both sides of the Mason Dixon line, it did not achieve widespread popularity until after the war had started. The mass concentration of young men in army camps and prisons eventually converted the sport formerly reserved for "gentlemen" into a recreational pastime that could be enjoyed by people from all backgrounds. For instance, both officers and enlisted men played side by side and soldiers earned their places on the team because of their athletic talents, not their military rank or social standing. Both Union and Confederate officers endorsed baseball as a much-needed morale builder that also provided physical conditioning. After long details at camp, it eased the boredom and created team spirit among the men. Often, the teamwork displayed on the baseball diamond often translated into teamwork on the battlefield. Many times, soldiers would write of these games in letters home as they were much more pleasant to recall than the hardship of battle.
Private Alpheris B. Parker of the 10th Massachusetts wrote:
The parade ground has been a busy place for a week or so past, ball-playing having become a mania in camp. Officer and men forget, for a time, the differences in rank and indulge in the invigorating sport with a schoolboy's ardor.
Another Private, writing home from Virginia recalled:
It is astonishing how indifferent a person can become to danger. The report of musketry is heard but a very little distance from us...yet over there on the other side of the road most of our company, playing bat ball and perhaps in less than half an hour, they may be called to play a Ball game of a more serious nature.
Sometimes, games would be interrupted by the call of battle. George Putnam, a Union soldier humorously wrote of a game that was "called-early" due to the surprise attack on their camp by Confederate infantry:
Suddenly there was a scattering of fire, which three outfielders caught the brunt; the centerfield was hit and was captured, left and right field managed to get back to our lines. The attack...was repelled without serious difficulty, but we had lost not only our centerfield, but...the only baseball in Alexandria, Texas.
It has been disputed for decades whether Union General Abner Doubleday was in fact the "father of the modern game". Many baseball historians still reject the notion that Doubleday designed the first baseball diamond and drew up the modern rules. Nothing in his personal writings corroborates this story, which was originally put forward by an elderly Civil War veteran, Abner Graves, who served under him. Still, the City of Cooperstown, NY dedicated Doubleday Field in 1920 as the "official" birthplace of the organized baseball. Later Cooperstown became the home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
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 really 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.
In 1861 at the start of the war, an amateur team made up of members of the 71st New York Regiment defeated the Washington Nationals baseball club by a score of 41 to 13. When the 71st New York later returned to the man the defenses of Washington in 1862, the teams played a rematch, which the Nationals won 28 to 13. Unfortunately, the victory came in part because some of the 71st's best athletes had been killed at Bull Run only weeks after their first game. One of the biggest attended sporting events of the nineteenth century occurred on Christmas in 1862 when the 165th New York Volunteer Regiment (Zouaves) played at Hilton Head, South Carolina with more than 40,000 troops looking on. The Zouaves' opponent was a team composed of men selected from other Union regiments. Interestingly, A.G. Mills, who would later become the president of the National League, participated in the game.
After the war ended, many men from both sides returned home to share the game that they had learned near the battlefield. Eventually organized baseball grew in popularity abroad and helped bring together a country that had been torn apart for so many years. Coincidentally, another Civil War icon, General George Armstrong Custer, was killed along with two hundred and sixty-four Union Calvary troopers after engaging the Sioux tribe at Little Big Horn the same year the first National League was established. Custer had fought at the first battle of Bull Run, distinguished himself in both the Peninsular campaign as well as Gettysburg and was selected as the Union officer to receive the Confederate flag of truce at Appomattox Courthouse. It has been reported that many members of the U.S. Calvary, most of them veterans of the Civil War, also engaged in baseball games to pass the time while protecting the western territories.
Today, over a century later, baseball is still a popular American institution and remains a testament to both "Billy Yank" AND "Johnny Reb" who laid down their muskets to pick up a ball and help establish a National Pastime.
War Games
Although early forms of baseball had already become High Society's pastime years before the first shots of the Civil War erupted at Fort Sumter, it was the mass participation of everyday soldiers that helped spread the game's popularity across the nation.
During the War Between the States, countless baseball games, originally known as "townball", were organized in Army Camps and prisons on both sides of the Mason Dixon Line. Very little documentation exists on these games and most information has been derived from letters written by both officers and enlisted men to their families on the home front. For the hundreds of pictures taken during the Civil War by photography pioneer Matthew Brady, there is only one photo in the National Archives that clearly captured a baseball game underway in the background. Several newspaper artists also depicted primitive ballgames and other forms of recreation devised to help boost troop morale and maintain physical fitness. Regardless of the lack of "media coverage", military historians have proved that baseball was a common ground in a country divided, and helped both Union and Confederate soldiers temporarily escape the horror of war.
The following table represents a few of the games that had been recorded for historical significance either by participants or observers. (For simplicity, all forms of the game including "townball" and "roundball" will be referred to as baseball.)
| DATE | CAUSE | PARTICIPANTS | NOTABLES |
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| 1862 | Union | Trainees from 13th Massachusetts and 51st Pennsylvania vs. themselves | Games were played evenings on the drilling field in many training camps prior to deployment. |
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| 1862 | Union | 165th New York Infantry (Second Duryea’s Zouaves) vs. NY Regiment All-Star nine | Perhaps one of the most famous of all Civil War games, this one was witnessed by 40,000 troops. |
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| 1862 | Union | The “Irish Brigade” vs. themselves | Confederate sentries stationed across the Cickahominy River watched Union games played during General McClellan’s march to Richmond. |
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| 1862 | Union | 57th New York vs. 69th New York | Incoming Confederate cannon fire ended this game abruptly. |
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| 1862 | Union | 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of the Potomac vs. selected members of the “Honey Run Club” team | Members of both the brigade and the 1859 champions practiced regularly throughout the war. |
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| 1863 | Confederate | 24th Alabama vs. themselves | Rebels, played daily while stationed in wait of the advancing Federal Army led by General William Tecumseh Sherman. |
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| 1863 | Union | 26th Pennsylvania vs. 22nd Massachusetts vs. 13th New York and 62nd NY Volunteers | All four regiments met for games, but disputed the differences between the MA and NY rules. |
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| 1863 | Union | 13th Massachusetts and 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery vs. misc. Army | Both teams had recorded so many victories; many felt that they were capable of beating any professional team of the late 1800’s. |
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| 1863 | Union | 1st New Jersey Artillery, Battery B vs. themselves | First printed drawing published of a baseball game played before the Battle of Chancellorsville. |
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| 1863 | Union | Union soldiers encamped in Alexandria, Texas | During this game, the camp was attacked, resulting in the loss of the center fielder and the ball. |
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| 1864 | Union | 2nd New Jersey Volunteers vs. 77th New York Volunteers All-Star nine | Billed as another big game, newspapers openly criticized the 77th after a no-show. |
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| 1864 | Union | 1st New Jersey Artillery vs. 10th Massachusetts Infantry | New York Clipper newspaper covered the game at Brandy Station. NJ lost 13 to 15. |
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| 1864 | Confederate | 11th Mississippi POWs at Union Prison Camp in Sandusky, OH (Confederate Club vs. Southerners) | One game recorded ended with the Confederates winning 19-11. |
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| 1865 | Both | Union and Confederate soldiers from both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia | Following General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, soldiers from both sides played to pass the time. |
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| 1866 | Union | POWs detained at the Confederate Prison Camp in Salisbury, NC | Despite pleasant accounts of baseball early on, many players later died due to overcrowded conditions. |
After Appomattox
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.
Baseball played during the war was very different than the game we know today. Some rules included: The Striker (batter) gets to choose where he wants the pitch. The Pitcher must throw underhand. No leading off the bag. No base stealing. No foul lines. All balls are fair. See Complete Rules of "Townball". A report published in 1908 by the Spalding Commission (appointed to research the origin of baseball) credited Union General Abner Doubleday as being the "father of the modern game". It stated: "Baseball was invented in 1839 at Cooperstown, NY by Abner Doubleday-afterward General Doubleday, a hero of the battle of Gettysburg-and the foundation of this invention was an American children's game call one old cat.""
Sources: From Pastime to Passion, Baseball in Blue and Gray, Civil War Digest, Fort Ward Museum.
Here are the rules to Townball in case you are interested in playing in your backyard. "1. The Ball must weigh not less than two, nor more than two and three-quarters ounces, avoirdupois. It must measure not less than six and a half, nor more than eight and a half inches in circumference, and must be covered with leather.
2. The Bat must be round, and must not exceed two and a half inches in diameter in the thickest part. It must be made of wood, and may be of any length to suit the Striker.
3. Four Bases or Bounds shall constitute a round; the distance from each base shall be sixty feet.
4. The bases shall be wooden stakes, projecting four feet from the ground.
5. The Striker shall stand inside of a space of four feet in diameter, at equal distance between the first and fourth Bases.
6. The Thrower shall stand thirty-five feet from and on a parallel line with the Striker.
7. The Catcher shall not enter within the space occupied by the Striker, and must remain upon his feet in all cases while catching the Ball.
8. The Ball must be thrown - not pitched or tossed - to the Bat, on the side preferred by the Striker, and within reach of his Bat.
9. The ball must be caught flying in all cases.
10. Players must take their knocks in the order in which they are numbered; and after the first inning is played, the turn will commence with the player succeeding the one who lost on the previous inning.
11. The Ball being struck at three times and missed, and caught each time by a player on the opposite side, the Striker shall be considered out. Or, if the Ball be ticked or knocked, and caught on the opposite side, the Striker shall be considered out. But if the ball is not caught after being struck at three times, it shall be considered a knock, and the Striker obliged to run.
12. Should the Striker stand at the Bat without striking at good balls thrown repeatedly at him, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or of giving advantage to players, the referees, after warning him, shall call one strike, and if he persists in such action, two and three strikes; when three strikes are called, he shall be subject to the same rules as if he struck at three fair balls.
13. A player, having possession of the first Base, when the Ball is struck by the succeeding player, must vacate the Base, even at the risk of being put out; and when two players get on one Base, either by accident or otherwise, the player who arrived last is entitled to the Base.
14. If a player, while running the Bases, be hit with the Ball thrown by one of the opposite side, before he has touched the home bound, while off a Base, he shall be considered out.
15. A player, after running the four Bases, on making the home bound, shall be entitled to one tally.
16. In playing all match games, when one is out, the side shall be considered out.
17. In playing all match games, one hundred tallies shall constitute the game, the making of which by either Club, that Club shall be judged the winner.
18. Not less than ten nor more than fourteen players from each Club, shall constitute a match in all games.
19. A person engaged on either side, shall not withdraw during the progress of the match, unless he be disabled, or by the consent of the opposite party.
20. The Referees shall be chosen as follows: One from each Club, who shall agree upon a third made from some Club belonging to this Association, if possible. Their decision shall be final, and binding upon both parties.
21. The Tallymen shall be chosen in the same manner as the Referees."
Enjoy ~SJ
Erin McKeown, one of my current favorite artists is living in Maine. This Massachusetts native is in Parsonsfield, Maine recording in the farm house of her keyboard player. NPR had a great interview with her that aired yesterday.
