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.
f
A person known by this person (indicating some level of reciprocated interaction between the parties). +
URL of the homepage of something, which is a general web resource. +
o
The property that determines that two given individuals are different. +
1
<p>“After [the camp’s dress] parade, which generally lasted about an hour, the camp was alive with fun and frolic . . . leap-frog, double-duck, foot and base-ball or sparring, wrestling, and racing, shared their attention.”</p>
<p>J. Harrison Mills, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Chronicles of the Twenty-First Regiment, New York Volunteers</span> (21<sup>st</sup> Veteran Assn., Buffalo, 1887), page 42. The newly-formed regiment, evidently raised in the Buffalo area, was at camp in Elmira in May 1861 in this recollection, and would deploy to Washington in June. A visitor to the camp wrote the next day, “I was not surprised . . . to see how extensively the amusements which had been practiced in their leisure hours in the city [Buffalo?], were continued in camp. Boxing with gloves, ball-playing, running and jumping, were among these. The ball clubs were well represented here, and the exercise of their favorite game is carried on spiritedly by the Buffalo boys.” [page 43.]</p> +
<p>1861: While the regiment trained at an Albany facility in September, a local newspaper noted: “They are under drill six hours during the day . . . Their leisure hours are devoted in great part to athletic exercises, fencing, boxing, and ball-playing, while their evenings are passed in singing, a glee club having been formed.” [page 17]. In a Virginia camp near Washington, “Christmas day of 1861 was given up to the enlisted men. They played ball in the morning and in the afternoon organized a burlesque parade which was very comical” [page 56].</p>
<p>1863: The regiment was near Culpepper in September. “Capt. B. K. Kimberly was an experienced and skillful base ball player and took the lead in inaugurating a series of games of base ball” [page166].</p>
<p>Captain Eugene A. Nash, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A History of the Forty-fourth Regiment, New York Infantry</span> (Donnelley and Sons, Chicago, 1911).</p>
<p>1864: In a May 25<sup>th</sup> letter to his sister from “Near White’s Tavern,” Sgt Orsell Brown noted “Monday [May] 2d I felt poorly. . . . The officers of the Brigade had a great game of ball in the afternoon, in front of our Reg’t.” Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009.</p> +
<p>At the very outset of war, Sophronia Bucklin [born 1828] felt herself driven to serve future wounded soldiers in the Union Army: “From the day on which the first boom of the first cannon rolled over the startled waters in Charleston harbor, it was my constant study how I cold with credit to myself get into military service to the Union.” She does not cite a date for this scene.</p>
<p>She subsequently got her chance. “Sitting at a window at a window in the Orphan Asylum at Auburn, New York, conversing with Mrs. Reed, the kindly matron, and watching the newly enlisted soldiers of the adjacent area, at a game of ball near the camp, I said, ‘I wish I knew of some way to get into the military service just to take care of boys such as those, when they shall need it.’” It turned out that Mrs. Reed knew a way [via the Soldier’s Aid Society], and Bucklin became a nurse in July 1862, serving through the war.</p>
<p> </p> +
<p>"(advertisement) JOHN C. WHITING, 87 FULTON STREET, N. Y., manufacturer of BASE BALLS and Wholesale and Retail Dealer in everything appertaining to BASE BALL and CRICKET. Agent for Chicester's Improved SELF-FASTENING BASES, and the PATENT CONCAVE PLATES for Ball Shoes, which are free from all the danger, and answer all the purposes, of spikes."</p> +
<p>[A] "CONTESTS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.-- Additional interest will be imparted to the ensuing base ball season by the playing of a series of contests between the senior, as well as between the junior clubs, for a silver champion ball (and)...will initiate a new system of general rivalry, which will, we hope, be attended with the happiest results to the further progress and popularity of the game of base ball.</p>
<p>[B] "We learn from Daniel Manson, chairman <em>pro tem</em>. of the Junior National Association, that the Committee on Championship have resolved to postpone the proposed match games for the championship...Among the reasons...is the fact that quite a number of the more advanced players, from the clubs selected for the championship, have enlisted for the war."</p>
<p>[C] The senior-club silver ball competition, offered not by the national association but by the Continental BBC, a non-contender, was also not held due to the war. In 1862, with the war then appearing to be of indefinite duration, the Continental offered it as a prize to the winner of the informal championship matches, with those games played as a benefit for the families of soldiers.</p> +
<p>"Friend SPIRIT: A meeting for the purpose of organizing a base ball club in this city, was held on Thursday evening last, April 4, when eighteen of the most respectable young men of this city met and adopted a constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations for playing the game, and elected their officers...The club adopted the name of 'Houston Base Ball Club'...They play their first match game among themselves, on Saturday, the 27th of this month. The result you can expect immediately thereafter."</p> +
<p>“In October 1861 a ‘bold soldier boy’ sent the <em>Clipper</em> an account of a baseball game played by prominent Brooklyn club members on the parade ground of the ‘Mozart Regiment, now in Secessia.’” The Mozart Regiment was the 40<sup>th</sup> NY volunteers, and originally comprised men [mostly] from the NYC area. The writer added that the were times when the men were “engaged in their old familiar sports, totally erasing from their minds the all-absorbing topic of the day.” It appears that the regiment was in northernmost Virginia in October 1861, defending Washington.</p>
<p>Attributed to a soldier, apparently, in an article in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">New York Clipper</span>, October 26, 1861, page 220, (per Kirsch book).</p>
<p>A more extensive report of the Mozart regiment's play (same games?) is in the New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 20, 1861, Oct. 27, 1861.</p> +
<p>“The troops enjoyed a variety of sports, ‘some of which are harder than any work I ever saw,’ observed a Louisiana soldier at Columbus. Among them were footraces, several kinds of ball, wrestling, climbing trees and a herculean game in which a cannonball was hurled into one of nine holes in the ground.”</p>
<p>Larry J. Daniel, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army</span> (U of North Carolina Press, 1991), page 90. Daniel evidently attributes this to the <em>New Orleans Crescent</em>, October 29, 1861. He does not give the location or regiment involved.<strong> Note:</strong> There was a juvenile English game called None Holes.</p> +
<p>“Confederate troops played townball as well as more modern versions of the game in their army camps. In November 1861 the <em>Charleston Mercury</em> of South Carolina reported that Confederate troops were stuck in soggy camps near Centreville, Fairfax County, [northern] Virginia. Heavy rains created miserably wet conditions so that ‘even the base ball players find the green sward in front of the camp, too boggy for their accustomed sport.’” Centreville is adjacent to Manassas/Bull Run. 40,000 Confederate troops under Gen. Johnson had winter quarters there [the town’s population had been 220] in 1861/62.</p>
<p>Source: <em>Charleston</em><em> Mercury,</em> November 4, 1861, page. 4, column 5. Mentioned without citation in Kirsch, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Baseball in Blue and Gray</span> (Princeton U, 2003), page 39.</p> +
<p>A six-inning game of base ball was played at Camp Seminary on Saturday November 16, 1861. The 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ challenged the 1<sup>st</sup> NJ and prevailed. A member of the 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ sent a short report and box to the Newark newspaper.</p>
<p>Source: “A Game of Ball in the Camp,” <em>Newark</em><em> Daily Advertiser</em>, November 20 1861. Facsimile submitted by John Zinn, 3/10/09. Camp Seminary was located near Fairfax Seminary in Alexandria VA, near Washington DC.</p> +
<p>Members of the 2<sup>nd</sup> New Jersey regiment formed the Excelsior club, evidently named for the Newark Excelsior [confirm existence?] in late November 1861. A report of an intramural game between Golder’s side and Collins’ side appeared in a Newark paper. The game, won 33-20 by the Golder contingent, lasted 6 innings and took four hours to play. The correspondent concludes: “The day passed off pleasantly all around, and I think every one of us enjoyed ourselves duely [sic?]. We all hope to be at home one year hence to dine with those who love us. God grant it!”</p>
<p>One may infer that the 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ remained at winter quarters in Alexandria VA at this time, providing protection to Washington. Facsimile submitted by John Zinn, 3/10/09. Source: <em>Newark</em><em> Daily Advertiser,</em> 12/4/1861.</p> +
<p>Writing to the editor of the Manchester NH <em>Farmer’s Cabinet</em>, a soldier Mudsill noted that while awaiting further orders on the South Carolina island of Port Royal in November 1861, the 3<sup>rd</sup> NH observed a “regular, old-fashioned New England Thanksgiving Thursday, away down here in Dixie?” The pumpkin pies and plum pudding were missing, but “the day was passed in playing ball, turkey shooting, and in the afternoon a pole was erected and the regimental flag run up, amid a thousand cheers.” He does not further describe the ball game.</p>
<p>Source: “Our Army Correspondence: Letter from the N. H. Third,” <em>Farmer’s Cabinet</em>, December 12, 1861.. Accessed via Genealogybank subscription, 5/21/09.</p> +
<p>Edwin A. Haradon, a member of the 86<sup>th</sup> NY infantry [possibly from the Corning NY area], made 12 terse references to ballplaying from January 17, 1863 to April 15, 1864.</p>
<p>Most are simple diary notes like the first entry: “Staid around camp and plaid at ball and had a good time nothing else going on.”</p>
<p>Some other examples: “April 2 [1863] “went on picket plaid ball at the reserve 10:00 till 1:00 o’clock” April 6 [1863] “plaid at ball and saw the boys play drop ball.” April 15 [1864] “plaid ball some jumped some” April 30 [1863] “Laid around camp Saw the 40 and our boys play.” June 21 [1865] “Read some quite lonesome Saw the 73<sup>rd</sup> & 40<sup>th</sup> play ball some in the afternoon.” Haradon saw action at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg , and was wounded at Spotsylvania.</p>
<p>Civil War Diary of Edwin Albert Haradon. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 2009.</p> +
<p><em>December 1861</em> (Texas?): “There is nothing unusual transpiring in Camp. The boys are passing the time playing Town-Ball.”</p>
<p><em>January 1862</em> (Texas?): “All rocking along finely, Boys playing Town-Ball”</p>
<p><em>March 1863</em> (USA prison camp, IL?): The Rebels have at last found something to employ both mind and body; as the parade ground has dried up considerably in the past few days, Town Ball is in full blast, and it is a blessing for the men.”</p>
<p><em>March 1863 </em>(USA prison camp, IL?): “Raining this morning, which will interfere with ball playing, but the manufacture of rings ‘goes bravely on,’ and I might say receives a fresh impetus by the failure of the ‘Town-ball’ business.”</p>
<p>Source: W. W. Heartsill, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army: A Journal Kept by W. W. Heartsill: Day-by-Day, of the W. P. Lane (Texas) Rangers, from April 19<sup>th</sup> 1861 to May 20<sup>th</sup> 1865.</span> Submitted by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09. Available online at The Ameridcan Civil War: Letters and Diaries Database, at <a href="http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com/">http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com/</a>. Heartsill joined Lane’s Texas Rangers early in the War at age 21. He was taken prisoner in Arkansas in early 1862, and exchanged for Union prisoners in April 1863. He then joined Bragg’s Army in Tennessee, and assigned to a unit put in charge of a Texas prison camp of Union soldiers. There are no references to ballplaying after 1863.<strong> Query: </strong>“manufacture of rings?”</p> +
<p>“December 18<sup>th</sup>: Many of the boys had a revival of their school days in a game of ball. These amusements had much to do in preventing us from being homesick and were productive, also, of health and happiness.” The unit was stationed at Camp Webb, near Alexandria VA. No further description of the rules or play are given.<strong> Note: </strong>can we find the location of the 1<sup>st</sup> Regiment in late 1861? Are there other accounts of this unit that may add details to this account?</p>
<p>Source: George Lewis, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The History of Battery E, First Regiment, Rhode Island Lioght </span>Artillery (Snow and Farmham, Providence, 1892), page 26. Adduced in Kirsch, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Baseball in Blue and Gray</span>, page 33. Lewis makes no other mention of ballplaying in this history.</p> +
<p>“Our light artillery rapidly gained position within range and the firing became general. The main body of our army [were] passive spectators of this game of ‘long ball,’ but not without partaking of its dangers.”</p>
<p>Alexander Hays, “Letter from Alexander Hays, 1861,” in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Life and Letters of Alexander Hays, Brevet Colonel United States Army</span> (publisher? date?), page 708. Provided by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09. Not available online May 2009. Jeff notes that Hays was a Union general from PA who was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. Available online at The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries Database, at <a href="http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com/">http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com/</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Query: </strong>Was Hays using a literal reference to the game of long ball, or was this a general analogy used at the time?</p> +