Property:Text
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"Text" is a predefined property that represents text of arbitrary length and is provided by Semantic MediaWiki. This property is pre-deployed (also known as special property) and comes with additional administrative privileges but can be used just like any other user-defined property.
This is a property of type Text.
1
<p>“Monday, March 7, 1864. Warm again as usual to day. Great and exciting game of Ball in which Chaplain Rowlings figures conspiculously.”</p><p>“Civil War Diary of Charles Lepley, 103<sup>rd</sup> Pennsylvania Infantry,” online at <a href="http://www.civilwararchive.com/">www.civilwararchive.com</a> as accessed 6/19/09 via “charles lepley” Google Web search. Lepley’s diary covers the first nine months of 1864. His camp was at Plymouth NC, near the Carolina coast and about 110 miles east of Raleigh. Lepley was captured in April and died of dysentery at Andersonville Prison in September. </p> +
<p>March 28, 1864: “Supply train went to the station but did not get any soft bread. The 2<sup>nd</sup> Regt boys and a Massachusetts Battery had a game of base ball today. The 2<sup>nd</sup> Regt boys were the winners.” April 8, 1864: “Went to corps headquarters to see a base ball match between the 2<sup>nd</sup> Regt and the 77<sup>th</sup> New York. The New Yorkers did not appear.”</p><p>Diary of Stephen Gordon, provided by Michael Albrecht May 15, 2009. The 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ, 77<sup>th</sup> NY, and 1<sup>st</sup> MA artillery were in the 6<sup>th</sup> corps of the Army of the Potomac, which was at Brandy Station VA in spring of 1864.</p><p>The cancelled April 8<sup>th</sup> 1864 game was also noted in the <u>New York Clipper</u> of April 30, 1864. As noted in Patricia Millen, <u>From Pastime to Passion</u> (Heritage, 2001), page 22, <u>Clipper c</u>orrespondent W. B. Wilson complained that there was “great disappointment” among the gathered crowd when the match didn’t come off. <u></u></p> +
<p>“7<sup>th</sup> [April, 1864]. Fine weather. Drilled. Great base ball game between ours and the 143<sup>rd</sup> Regiment.”</p>
<p>Diary of John Bodler, 149<sup>th</sup> Pennsylvania, provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009.</p>
<p>The 149<sup>th</sup> regiment’s history also records this game. “The first days of spring [1864] weather greeted the legions of the vast army gathered around Culpeper that March and the men found a new activity to enjoy: baseball. Letters and diaries recorded the great fun the game brought in camp. Men gathered after the evening meal to lay the game for pleasure but soon there were games of competition between companies. Samuel Foust admitted losing a $20 bet when the team of the 149<sup>th</sup> lost to the 143<sup>rd</sup> regiment [page 125].” The history also refers to baseball games when the regiment was in Washington [September 1862?; page 27] and in June 1863 [page 68].</p>
<p>Richard E. Matthews, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The 149<sup>th</sup> Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War</span> (McFarland,1994). Accessed in limited preview format 6/19/90 via Google Books “149<sup>th</sup> pennsylvania” search.</p> +
<p>“[Illeg. Date ] April 1864. Base ball match between the 9<sup>th</sup> NYSM and 14<sup>th</sup> Regt. Score 9<sup>th</sup> Regt [illeg.] and 14<sup>th</sup> Regt 59 runs. . . .” [Illeg. Date] April 1864. Return match between 9<sup>th</sup> NTSM and 14<sup>th</sup> Regiment score 9<sup>th</sup> Regt [illeg.] and 14<sup>th</sup> Regt 33 runs”</p>
<p>Diary of Henry C. Sabine of the 14<sup>th</sup> NY Infantry, provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15, 1864. Sabine was near Culpeper VA on these dates.</p>
<p>The <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Clipper</span> ran box scores of these games, fixing the dates as April 20 and 25, 1864, and noting them as the regiments’ first matches of the season. The scores were Ninth 36, Fourteenth 29 in the first match, and Fourteenth 38, Ninth 33 in the second match. Facsimile supplied by Gregory Christiano, June 15 2009. “Ball Play in the Army,” <span style="text-decoration: underline;">New York</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> Clipper</span>, May 7, 1864.</p> +
<p>“Soldier baseball must have been vigorous. One Yank noted after a contest in Tennessee, “We get lamed badly.”</p>
<p>Bell Irvin Wiley, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Common Soldier in the Civil War</span> (Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1952), page 170. Wiley’s footnotes are clustered, and hard to match to textual claims. His most likely source is “Edward L. Edes for his father, April 3, 1864.” <strong>Note:</strong> can we verify and enrich this account? Richard Welch’s <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Boy </span>General (Fairleigh Dickinson U, 2003), page 76) identifies an Edward L. Edes as a soldier in the 33<sup>rd</sup> Massachusetts.. In April 1864 the 33<sup>rd</sup>, apparently raised in Springfield, MA was on the outskirts of Chattanooga awaiting the start of the Atlanta campaign.</p> +
<p>“Rappahannock Station, Va., April 18<sup>th</sup> 1864. Dear Wife, . . . . there is a move on the foot or I am no judge of Soldiering. Our Dr. seems to think we shall stay here this summer. It is nothing but play ball when we are in camp lately and I must stop for my arm is lame throwing. I thought I would write today for the Picket goes out tomorrow and it is my turn to go.”</p>
<p>Letter from Eugene B. Kelleran, 20<sup>th</sup> Maine; provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The 20<sup>th</sup> was spared in the upcoming battle of Chancellorsville in May 1864 when it was quarantined for suspected smallpox.</p> +
<p>“The boys are killing time in camp by playing ball, which is such good exercise that it will fit them for the fatiguing marches to be taken this summer. The Soldiers here are undoubtedly, at this time more lighthearted and like schoolboys than I ever saw them. Maj. Lash and Col. Badger often play ball with the men.”</p>
<p>Letters from Washington Ives, 4<sup>th</sup> FL regiment, April 14, April 17, May 3, and May 7 1864, as noted in J. Sheppard, “’By the Noble Daring of Her Sons’: The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee,” (FSU Dissertation, 2008), pages 291-292. Some of these letters, and evidently another written by Archie Livingston on April 24, further describe a series of games involving the 1<sup>st</sup> FL, the 3<sup>rd</sup> FL, the 4<sup>th</sup> FL, the 6<sup>th</sup> FL, and the 7<sup>th</sup> FL regiments in this period. The Sheppard thesis was accessed 6/20/09 on Google Scholar via “’noble daring’ Sheppard” search. The regiments were camped at Dalton GA, about 30 miles SW of Chattanooga defending the route to Atlanta.</p> +
<p>“We are enjoying our share of April showers . . . the soldiers prayer is that it may continue to rain until the 5<sup>th</sup> of June. When it is pleasant the boys are at their games of ball. Yesterday we had a game in our Regt 9 innings to a side. One side got 34 tallies the other 28. There was some fine playing. [4/15/1864].”</p>
<p>Letter from Corporal Henry Blanchard, 2<sup>nd</sup> Rhode Island, as cited in an auction lot accessed online June 20, 2009, by a Google Web search for “’lot 281 civil war’ RI”. Blanchard was at Camp Sedgwick near Petersburg VA in April. He was killed three weeks later in the Battle of the Wilderness. One can infer that Blanchard was new to a nine-inning game, presumably the New York game, and he uses the term “tallies” usually seen in the New England game.</p> +
<p>“Captain James Hall of the 24<sup>th</sup> Alabama Regiment observed his men playing [. . . ] ‘just like school boys’ while waiting for the advance of Union General Sherman.”</p>
<p>Patricia Millen, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">From Pastime to Passion </span>(Heritage, 2001), page 19. She cites B. I. Wiley, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Common Soldier in the Civil War</span> (Grosset and Dunlap, 1960), page 170. L. J. Daniel, in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee</span> (UNC Press, 1991), page 90, seems to identify this quote as taken from a letter from James Hall to his brother, April 19, 1864.</p> +
<p>“A game between the ‘first 9’ of the 1<sup>st</sup> New Jersey and the 10<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts was also recorded in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">New York Clipper</span> as being played near Brandy Station [VA] on May 14, 1863 – the 1<sup>st</sup> New Jersey losing 15 to 13.”</p>
<p>Patricia Millen, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War</span> (Heritage Books,2001), page 26. <strong>Note: </strong>can we obtain the article?</p> +
<p>“Orders to be in readiness to move were received every day . . . . From their very frequency the regiment soon came to regard these orders with serenity, and in the first days of June abandoned itself in unclaimed hours, to the pleasant pastime of cricket – a game very dear to Philadelphians– for which a complete outfit had been ordered some time before.”</p>
<p>Lt.Col. Thomas Chamberlin, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">History of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers</span> (F. McManus, Philadelphia, 1905), page 106. Accessed 6/20/09 on Google Books via “bucktail brigade” search. The regiment was camped at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA. The regiment has several companies from Philadelphia.</p> +
<p>“When the Fourteenth Regiment returned to Brooklyn in June 1864 a comrade in arms from the Thirteenth Regiment wrote to the<u> Brooklyn Daily Eagle</u>: ‘Among the returned heroes of our gallant Fourteenth are some well known ball players who, while devoted to the use of more deadly weapons, have not forgotten the use of bat and ball, as the many games played by them during their three years service will prove.’ He proposed an ‘amalgamated match’ between the two regiments to inaugurate a new ball ground in Coney Island.”</p><p>Patricia Millen, <u>From Pastime to Passion</u> (Heritage, 2001), pages 37-38. Millen does not indicate the date of the <u>Eagle</u> article, which is likely her main source for this passage. <b>Note: </b>can we locate the article, and discover whether the game was played? </p> +
<p>“Vegetable and market wagons were allowed to visit them every morning; a pint of rice, a slice of bacon, and usually a small loaf of bread, with some salt, were allowed them as a daily ration; and a plot of ground where they could play ball and exercise themselves was set apart for their use.”</p>
<p>H. E. Tremain, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Two Days of War</span> (Bonnell, Silver and Bowers, New York, 1905), page 218. Accessed 6/20/09 on Google Books via “two days of war” search. Tremain is apparently here describing the improved conditions that ensued after the Union troops threatened to treat rebel prisoners cruelly if inhumane treatment of Union prisoners continued. The location was Charleston SC, which was under bombardment in August 1864.</p> +
<p>Perhaps the best documented instance of ballplaying in the Civil War occurred near Sandusky Ohio, site of the Johnson’s Island prison for southern officers. Beginning in about July 1864, apparently, matches were common. Accounts from 6 diaries give accounts of regular play. According to one diarist, the officers also had a cricket club and a chess club.</p>
<p>In-depth coverage of base ball at Johnson’s Island is found in John R. Husman, “Ohio’s First Baseball Game: Played by Confederates and Taught to Yankees,” <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Base Ball</span>, Volume 2, Issue 1 (Spring 2008), pp 58-65. Husman reports that while prior interclub play in OH is known, the prison saw the first match game. He also points out that at least some players knew the New York game from pre-war play in New Orleans.</p>
<p>See also W. A. Nash, "Camp, Field and Prison Life" p. 234, 168.</p>
<p>See also Benjamin Cooling, "Forts Henry and Donelson" p. 257, stating the POWs played town ball, which cites the prison journal of Captain John Henry Guy at the VA Historical Society; Curran, "John Dooley's Civil War..." p. 295, which has a diary entry on an Aug. 29, 1864 game.</p>
<p>See also John Snead Lambdin's "Recollections of my prison Life," in the Magnolia (MS) Gazette Oct. 22, 1880.</p>
<p>See also Diary of Lt. William Peel, 11th Mississippi, MS Dept of Archives and History, entries for July 29 and Aug. 28, 1864; D. R. Hundley diary, publsihed in 1874.</p> +
<p>“Tuesday [September] 27 [1864] pleasant weather, I was detailed for Camp guard the A.M. we had a game of ball this afternoon, I stood two tricks of guard only.”</p>
<p>Civil War Diary of Samuel Whitehead, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center MS collection, Ac #4248. Accessed 6/21 on Google Web search with “’samuel whitehead’ diary” search. The diary covers about May through November 1864. In September the 100<sup>th</sup> OH was at Decatur, GA, about 5 miles east of Atlanta. He was mortally wounded in November.</p> +
<p>“The prison guard, Captain Hogendoble, struck by a foul ball from a prisoners’ baseball game, approached the batter, drew his pistol, and threatened to ‘blow their d-----d brains out.’”</p>
<p>Benton McAdams, “Greybeards in Blue,” <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Civil War Times</span>, February 1998. Accessed 6/21/09 via Google Web search: “’greybeards in blue’ hogendoble.” The article tells the story of the 37<sup>th</sup> Iowa, comprising many older men, who were assigned in May 1864 to the military prison in Alton, Illinois. The source for this recollection is not provided.</p> +
<p>“[A] new person being put in command of the inside [of the Texas prison] about the 1<sup>st</sup> of October [1864], made suggestions which the commandant allowed him to carry out, and relieved us ever afterward. He gave us a fine ball ground which was well occupied and proved a blessing.”</p>
<p>Major J. M. McCulloch, 77<sup>th</sup> Illinois, as quoted in Washington Davis, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Camp-Fire Chats of the Civil War</span> (Lewis Publishing, Chicago, 1888), page 70. Accessed on Google Books 6/21/09 via “’camp-fire chats’ davis” search. McCulloch does not elaborate on the nature of games played. He had been captured with troops from Ohio and Kentucky as well as Illinois. The prison was at Camp Ford near Tyler TX, about 100 miles E of Dallas.</p>
<p>An escapee from Camp Ford arrived in Milwaukee in November and told the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sentinel </span>about his adventure. “We used to pass time playing checkers, cards, and dominoes. We were let out by twenties on parole to play ball, but so many ran away that the privilege was taken from us.” “Prison Life in Texas – Narrative of an Escaped Prisoner, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Milwaukee</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> Sentinel</span>, November 11, 1864.” Accessed 5/21/09 via Genealogybank subscription.</p> +
<p>“During some portions of the winter of 1864-’65, in fine weather, the officers and men of the Eleventh often indulged in a friendly game of ball together. As they were playing one day, some general officers passed them on horseback, and one of them was overheard to remark, ‘That’s a good regiment, for the men and officers play ball together.’ Whoever that officer was, he never uttered truer words.”</p>
<p>Leander W. Cogswell, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment</span> (Republican Press Assn, Concord NH, 18911), pages 396-397. From June 1864 to early April 1865, the 11<sup>th</sup> NH was part of the siege of Petersburg VA. The regiment formed in Concord NH.</p> +
<p>“Washington March 29 65. . . . Put up fence round our Q’rs played wicket ball Evening bought cigars and smoked.” “Monday Apr. 3<sup>rd</sup> Lost and found my Pocket Book Played Wicket Traded watches.” “Tuesday Apr. 4<sup>th</sup> Played ball.”</p>
<p>Milo Deering Dailey, Civil War Diary of 1865. Accessed 6/22/09 by Google Web search: “’milo deering dailey.’” The diary covers February through-June 1865. Dailey was with the 112<sup>th</sup> Illinois, which was organized in Peoria IL. The regiment was in North Carolina in early April, closing on Raleigh from the east. Washington NC is about 95 miles E of Raleigh.</p> +
<p>“My dear wife, We were drawn up in line this afternoon and informed we would be discharged and sent to our Regiments in ten days. We had a gay old time playing ball. . . . You must send me five dollars without fail. I am almost distracted by the want of tobacco.”</p>
<p>Letter home from Wheeling, West Virginia, by John R. Irving, May 4, 1865. Irving, in a Massachusetts Cavalry unit, was assigned to General Custer’s Division. <strong>Note: </strong>it is possible that the ellipsis in this rendering omits a bit more detail about the ballplaying. Accessed 6/22/09 by Google Web search “’john r irving’ ‘auction contents.’” The letter is descried under auction #2.1.</p> +