Chronology:MD
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1861.52 Christmas Baseball in Camp
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Clipper, Jan. 11, 1862, headlined "Christmas in Camp," reports on a game on Christmas Day between the officers of the "1st Regiment, Excelsior Brigade" (70th NY Infantry) at Camp Farnum, Sandy Point, MD. Capt. Mitchell's nine defeated Lt. Dennson's 32-12. A greased pig chase followed.
Sources:
The New York Clipper, Jan. 11, 1862
Year
1861
1861.59 1st MA has plenty of exercise
Location:
Age of Players:
The Boston Traveler, Oct. 26, 1861 prints a letter from the 1st Massachusetts in Bladensburg, MD, denouncing newspaper reports of lack of exercise in the unit. "Six hours of every pleasant day are devoted to it [drill], sometimes at the double quick, and the hours between are filled up with bathing, base-ball, &c."
Sources:
The Boston Traveler, Oct. 26, 1861
Year
1861
1861.63 Thanksgiving game of 25th Massachusetts
Location:
Age of Players:
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861, prints a letter from the 25th Massachusetts datelined Camp Hicks, Annapolis, Nov. 21, where in a Thanksgiving game, company H defeated company A 31-22. The game ended at 5 pm by mutual agreement. Gives a box score. "The game was a hard fought one, lasting three hours, and engaged in by the best players of both companies."
Day, "My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. ..." Nov. 30, 1861 entry from Camp Hicks in Annapolis, MD: "the boys engaged in ball-playing and other amusements." Dec. 26, 1861 entry: "ball-playing and other athletic sports used up the day."
Sources:
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861
Year
1861
1861.64 Happy Pennsylvanians near DC
Location:
Age of Players:
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861 prints a letter datelined May 26 from Fort Washington, MD, near DC, from a Lieutenant in the 1st company, Washington Artillery (a Pottsville unit): "At the close of the day, our boys indulge in a game of ball in the water battery, where our quarters are located, and are apparently as happy as if they were taking an afternoon game on Lawton's Hill, or back of the basin."
Sources:
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861
Year
1861
1861.72 Secesh and Unionists fraternize on ball field
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861: "Fraternization--I had the pleasure of beholding an oasis of fraternization of members of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Brooklyn, N.Y., composed in part of officers and privates attached to the Thirteenth Regiment New York State Militia, stationed on Mount Clare, near the city, and the Excelsior Base Ball Club of Baltimore, which is composed of secessionists almost to a man..." They played a game, the Baltimore club winning 26-25.
Sources:
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861
Year
1861
1861.84 2nd Fire Zouaves Match
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 17, 1861 reports on a game between two nines of the 2nd Fire Zouaves, camped near Indian Head, MD. Company K's nine defeated Company I's 23-19.
The regiment was formally known as the 73rd NY Infantry.
Year
1861
1861.87 Heavy battle losses don't stop baseball playing
Location:
Age of Players:
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 has an article on a visit tot he Army of the Potomac, where the writer visited a regiment recently decimated in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, and sees "a party at play in a vigorous game of base ball, and that not forty eight hours after they stood hemmed in by the rebels..."
Sources:
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
Year
1861
1862.73 14th NY Plays in Annapolis
Location:
Age of Players:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862, under the headline "Ball Playing in the 14th Regiment," reports that in Annapolis on the 6th, Oline's nine defeated Pendleton's, 34-21.
The Eagle wrote a lot of stories on the 14th, which appears to have had many prewar ballplayers.
Sources:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862
Year
1862
1863.70 10th Vermont loves its Baseball
Location:
Age of Players:
The Vermont Watchman, April 3, 1863, prints a letter from the 10th Vermont Infantry Regiment, camped at Conrad's Ferry, MD, stating that now the ground is drying up from winter, "base ball has come into vogue."
Conrad's Ferry is now known as White's Ferry. It's on the Potomac River.
Year
1863
1863.93 Rebel POWs at Fort McHenry
Location:
Age of Players:
The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863 writes of "Rebel" POWs at Fort McHenry, site of the Star Spangled Banner: they "have the run of the fine parade ground, amuse themselves with ball play and other exercises."
The "ball play" included baseball. See Elias, "The Empire Strikes Out" p. 9.
Sources:
The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863
Year
1863
1864.57 Union Army Parolees Play Baseball in Camp
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Cox, "Civil War Maryland" says Union army parolees played baseball in 1864 at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland.
"Parole" was a system of POW exchange whereby the soldier, after surrender, took an oath not to serve again until properly exchanged, and was then released. Union parolees went to the parole camp near Annapolis that the Federal government established, to wait (in friendly territory) until notified that they'd been exchanged for a Confederate parolee. So this is another example of Union army POWs playing baseball.
Sources:
Cox, "Civil War Maryland"
Year
1864
1864.77 196th PA plays ball in Baltimore
Location:
Age of Players:
Morris et al., "Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255, quotes Griffith, "The Early History of Amateur Baseball" as saying in 1864 he watched soldiers of the 196th PA practice baseball in Baltimore. Among the soldiers practicing was Dick McBride, the well known pitcher. The 196th was a 100-days regiment that contained many Philadelphia area ballplayers.
Sources:
Morris et al., Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255
Year
1864
1866c.19 Burlesque Baseball Performances in Baltimore, MD
Advertisement for the last performance of a series of a burlesque baseball games by a minstrel group from California at the Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore, MD.
Sources:
Baltimore American, July 13, 1866
Circa
1866
1872.12 NA Clubs Struggle to Meet Payroll
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
Sources:
Baltimore American September 7, 1872.
Comment:
Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today," 9/8/2022:
"The officers of the Baltimore Club are working to raise funds to carry the club over the coming winter. This speaks volumes. The Baltimores were a good team. At this point their record is 29-13-1, putting them in second place behind Boston. The quality of the product on the field is not their problem. Yet they aren't breaking even, and have to scramble to raise funds to stay afloat.
I have had two great realizations about the early business of baseball. It dawned on me years ago that the later 1870s makes sense only in light of the Panic of 1873 and the depression that followed. But that is in the future. My more recent realization is that even apart from the general economy, they did not yet have a viable business model. Competition for players inevitably drove salaries up beyond the break-even point. The scramble to raise funds we see here is the rule, not the exception. This is why the churn rate was so high. Investors got tired of being tapped for more cash. Two or three years was about the limit for most clubs.
The creation of "organized baseball" was all about controlling costs, by which I mostly mean player salaries. This will take a while for them to figure out. The great breakthrough will be the reserve system, but that won't come until the 1879/1880 offseason."
See also Steve Colbert comment, in Supplemental Text (Below).
Year
1872