Property:Text

"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.

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Showing 100 pages using this property.

F

foaf:knows +

A person known by this person (indicating some level of reciprocated interaction between the parties). +

foaf:name +

A name for some thing or agent. +

foaf:homepage +

URL of the homepage of something, which is a general web resource. +

O

owl:differentFrom +

The property that determines that two given individuals are different. +

1

1861.34 +

“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.” J. Harrison Mills, Chronicles of the Twenty-First Regiment, New York Volunteers (21st 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.] +

1861.35 +

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]. 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]. Captain Eugene A. Nash, A History of the Forty-fourth Regiment, New York Infantry (Donnelley and Sons, Chicago, 1911). 1864: In a May 25th 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. +

1861.21 +

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. 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. +

1861.22 +

"(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." +

1861.23 +

[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. [B] "We learn from Daniel Manson, chairman pro tem. 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." [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. +

1861.24 +

"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." +

1861.25 +

“In October 1861 a ‘bold soldier boy’ sent the Clipper 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 40th 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. Attributed to a soldier, apparently, in an article in the New York Clipper, October 26, 1861, page 220, (per Kirsch book). 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. +

1861.36 +

“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.” Larry J. Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army (U of North Carolina Press, 1991), page 90. Daniel evidently attributes this to the New Orleans Crescent, October 29, 1861. He does not give the location or regiment involved. Note: There was a juvenile English game called None Holes. +

1861.26 +

“Confederate troops played townball as well as more modern versions of the game in their army camps. In November 1861 the Charleston Mercury 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. Source: Charleston Mercury, November 4, 1861, page. 4, column 5. Mentioned without citation in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 39. +

1861.27 +

A six-inning game of base ball was played at Camp Seminary on Saturday November 16, 1861. The 2nd NJ challenged the 1st NJ and prevailed. A member of the 2nd NJ sent a short report and box to the Newark newspaper. Source: “A Game of Ball in the Camp,” Newark Daily Advertiser, November 20 1861. Facsimile submitted by John Zinn, 3/10/09. Camp Seminary was located near Fairfax Seminary in Alexandria VA, near Washington DC. +

1861.28 +

Members of the 2nd 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!” One may infer that the 2nd NJ remained at winter quarters in Alexandria VA at this time, providing protection to Washington. Facsimile submitted by John Zinn, 3/10/09. Source: Newark Daily Advertiser, 12/4/1861. +

1861.29 +

Writing to the editor of the Manchester NH Farmer’s Cabinet, a soldier Mudsill noted that while awaiting further orders on the South Carolina island of Port Royal in November 1861, the 3rd 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. Source: “Our Army Correspondence: Letter from the N. H. Third,” Farmer’s Cabinet, December 12, 1861.. Accessed via Genealogybank subscription, 5/21/09. +

1863.3 +

Edwin A. Haradon, a member of the 86th NY infantry [possibly from the Corning NY area], made 12 terse references to ballplaying from January 17, 1863 to April 15, 1864. 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.” 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 73rd & 40th play ball some in the afternoon.” Haradon saw action at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg , and was wounded at Spotsylvania. Civil War Diary of Edwin Albert Haradon. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 2009. +

1861.30 +

December 1861 (Texas?): “There is nothing unusual transpiring in Camp. The boys are passing the time playing Town-Ball.” January 1862 (Texas?): “All rocking along finely, Boys playing Town-Ball” March 1863 (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.” March 1863 (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.” Source: W. W. Heartsill, 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 19th 1861 to May 20th 1865. 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. Query: “manufacture of rings?” +

1861.31 +

“December 18th: 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. Note: can we find the location of the 1st Regiment in late 1861? Are there other accounts of this unit that may add details to this account? Source: George Lewis, The History of Battery E, First Regiment, Rhode Island Lioght Artillery (Snow and Farmham, Providence, 1892), page 26. Adduced in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 33. Lewis makes no other mention of ballplaying in this history. +

1861.32 +

“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.” Alexander Hays, “Letter from Alexander Hays, 1861,” in Life and Letters of Alexander Hays, Brevet Colonel United States Army (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>. Query: Was Hays using a literal reference to the game of long ball, or was this a general analogy used at the time? +

1862.25 +

"The question will naturally be asked, how came the Unions to score so well against Creighton's pitching? and the reply is, that they waited until they got a ball to suit them, Creighton delivering, on an average, 20 or 30 balls to each striker in four of the six innings played." +

1862.26 +

“The 13th Massachusetts played amongst themselves daily during April and May of 1862.” Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), page 19. Millen cites S. Crockett, “Sports and Recreational Practices of Union and Confederate Soldiers, Research Quarterly October 1961, pp?. Crockett article is unprocured as of May 2009, and primary source is unknown. Note: It would be useful to know what game the regiment played, and how they named it. The regiment was reportedly at Ship Island, MS, in these months. +

1862.27 +

“’Every volunteer who has been in service, has realized the tedium of camp life . . . there is waste time, which might be used advantageously at such manly exercises as cricket, base ball, foot ball, quoit pitching, etc.’ That paper lamented the shortage of sporting goods available for the men and called for hardware dealers to supply quoits and also cricket and base ball bats. ‘For want of such things,’ it concluded, ‘the time of the soldier is mainly spent playing cars.’” Source: Charleston Mercury, April 3, 1862, page. 2, column. 1. Mentioned without citation in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 40. It seems interesting that cricket and base ball receive comparable emphasis in this article. +

1862.29 +

A Wisconsin newspaper sent a writer to the nearby Camp Randall, where 881 prisoners of war were just arriving. “Some of the men and boys, of the 55th Tennessee regiment were amusing themselves with playing ball.” The reporter notes that many prisoners had only light clothing that would provide little protection against northern winds. Many of the prisoners had been among 7000 men captured in the CSA’s surrender of Island Ten, a strategic position in the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri. The nature of the Tenneseeans’ ballplaying was not recorded. “Camp Randall,” Weekly Wisconsin Patriot (Madison), April 26, 1862. Accessed at Genealogybank on 5/21/2009. Camp Randall was the former fairground for Madison WI. See also Madison Journal, April 22, 1862, Milwaukee Daily News, April 24, 1862, Manitowac Weekly Tribune, May 14, 1862. The Boston Recorder, June 12, 1862, reports that Union Col. Whipple [Charles Whipple, Col. 19th Wisconsin Infantry] plays baseball with the POWs at Camp Randall. [ba] +

1862.30 +

“Sometimes the war disrupted these pastimes . . . . In the spring of 1862 a game between the Fifty-Seventh and Sixty-Ninth Regiments of New York Jacob Cole was lying on the ground watching the match when he heard a ‘rumbling noise.’ When Cole and his friend stood up they heard nothing, but when they put their ears to the ground Cole told his friend that ‘our boys are fighting.’ He remembered: ‘Hardly had I spoken before orders came to report to our regiments at once. So the ball game came to a sudden stop never to resume.’” Source: Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), pages 41-42. Kirsch does not supply a primary source. It appears that Cole was in the 57th NY, and that the story of the interrupted ball game was carried in Jacob H. Cole, Under Five Commanders: or, A Boy’s Experience with the Army of the Potomac (News Printing Company, 1909), p. [?]. Accessed as snippet-view text May 31, 2009. Note: Can we confirm the source, determine where this game took place, and assess the credibility of Cole’s account? Per p. 30 of the Cole book, this took place May 31, 1862, near the battle of Seven Pines, VA, a few miles east of Richmond. [ba] +

1862.31 +

“The evening parade was an uncommonly nice one . . . . The new colors were all brought out and the effect was very pretty, as they were escorted out and back and saluted by all the officers and me. After parade came a game of base-ball for the captains and other officers, and in the sweet evening air and early moonlight we heard cheerful sounds all about us at the men sang patriotic songs, laughed and chatted, or danced jig to the sound of a violin.” Eliza Howland, “Diary of Eliza Newton Woolsey Howland, April 1862, in Letters of a Family During the War for the Union 1861-1865 [Pubr? Date?] Volume 1, page 360. Eliza Howland’s husband Joseph was an officer with the 16th New York Volunteers. The couple lived in Mattawan NY before the War. Provided by Jeff Kittell, 5/12/09. 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>. Note: can we determine the location of the event? Per p. 284 of the Howland book, this took place April 3, 1862, in the camp of Slocum's division, near Fairfax, VA. [ba] +

1862.34 +

The regimental history has four references to ballplaying. In July 1862, the unit arrived at Camp Lincoln at Newport News VA, where “the amusements at this camp were fishing for crabs, bathing, foraging and base-ball playing” [page 187]. Back at Newport News in March 1863, “the officers and men enjoyed themselves much in the innocent games of cricket and base-ball.” [page 290]. In May 1863, at a temporary camp near Somerset KY, “both officers and men enjoyed themselves hugely by playing at base ball in daytime between drill hours and at night by the performance of genuine negro minstrels, who were the field hands belonging to the neighboring plantations” [page 301]. Waiting in Annapolis for expected deployment to North Carolina in April 1864, “[b]ase ball is enjoyed by a large number of officers and men every afternoon, when the weather permits, and, I assure you, some very creditable playing is done – some that would do honor to any base ball club extant. [page 539]. Thomas H. Parker, History of the 51st Regiment of PV [Pennsylvania Volunteers] (King and Baird, Philadelphia, 1869). Accessed 6/2/09 on Google books via “’51st regiment’ parker” search. The regiment formed in Harrisburg in late 1861. +

1862.35 +

May: “One of the boys in a letter home vividly describes a hailstorm . . . ‘one day we had a regular hailstorm . . . The boys were out playing ball when it commenced sprinkling, and they thought it wasn’t going to be much of a shower, they kept right on playing, when all of a sudden came the [hail] stones, and the boys put for their tents . . . Queer weather here!’” July 4: “Some of the officers played baseball and drill was neglected.” Alfred S. Roe, The Twenty-Fourth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, 1861-1866 (Twenty-Fourth Veteran Association, Worcester, 1907), pages 112 and 135. Accessed on Google books 6/2/09 via “twenty-fourth regiment” search. The regiment’s officers were mostly from Boston. The regiment, organized at Readville, 10 miles SW of Boston, and was at Seabrook Island SC on these dates. +

1862.47 +

Notes upon visiting a camp near Alexandria VA: “Here were in progress all the occupations, and all the idleness, of the soldier in the tented field. Some were cooking the company-rations in pots hung over fires in the open air; some played at ball, or developed their muscular power by gymnastic exercise; some read newspapers, some smoked cigars or pipes.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Fortress Monroe,” in I. Finseth, The American Civil War (CRC Press, 2006), page 398. Accessed in restricted view on Google Books 6/16/09. +

1862.49 +

“THE BIRTH OF BASE-BALL. Some of the men who went home on furlough in 1862 returned to their regiments with tales of a marvelous new game which was spreading though the Northern States. In camp at White Oak Church near Falmouth, Va., Kearny’s brigade played this ‘baseball,’ as it was known. Bartlett’s boys won this historic game.” F. Miller and R. Lanier, The Photographic History of the Civil War, Volume Eight, Soldier Life, (Review of Reviews Co., New York, 1911), plate following page 243. This text sits next to a photograph of men playing football in 1864. Note: can we locate the cited photo? +

1862.36 +

On a lay day during a long October 1862 march from Harper’s Ferry WV toward Fredericksburg VA, the 21st CT “indulged the natural propensity of the soldier for foraging.” To thwart that, the Captain “ordered the roll to be called every hour, so that it was difficult to get far from camp. The boys enjoyed a game of baseball, notwithstanding the march of the day before, and the prospect of a longer march the next day.” This is the only reference to ballplaying in the history. The Story of the Twenty-First Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, During the Civil War. 1861-1865 (Stewart Printing Co., Middletown, 1900). Accessed on Google books 6/2/09, via “story of the twenty-first” search. The regiment was recruited in Eastern CT in late summer 1862, with the most men enlisting from Groton and Hartford. +

1862.37 +

A soldier in the 18th CT, Charles Lynch spent Thanksgiving at a camp near Baltimore. “November. The most important event was our first Thanksgiving in camp. Passed very pleasantly. A good dinner, with games of foot and base-ball.” After Appomattox, Lynch wrote: June 5th: . . . Thank God the cruel war is over. Playing ball, pitching quoits, helping the farmers, is the way we pass the time while waiting for orders to be mustered out. We have many friends in this town and vicinity.” These are the only references in the diary to ballplaying. In June Lynch was stationed in Martinsburg WV, about 30 miles west of Frederick MD and 75 miles northwest of Washington. Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary 1862-1865 (private printing, 1915), page 11, page 154. Accessed on Google books 6/2/09 via “charles h. lynch” search. Lynch, and presumably much of the regiment, was from the Norwich CT area. Lead provided by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09. +

1862.39 +

Thanksgiving in Fairfax County in northernmost VA: “At 2 o’clock, the regiment turned out on the parade ground. The colonel had procured a foot ball. Sides were arranged by the lieutenant colonel and two or three royal games of foot ball – most manly of sports, and closest in its mimicry of actual warfare – were played. . . . Many joined in games of base ball; others formed rings and watched friendly contests of the champion wrestlers of the different companies . . . . It was a “tall time” all around.” George G. Benedict, “Letter from George Grenville Benedict, December 6, 1862,” Army Life in Virginia: Letters from the Twelfth Regiment (Free Press, Burlington, 1895), pp 80-81. Accessed 6/3/09 on Google Books via “army life in Virginia” search. Benedict, from Burlington, had been an editor and postmaster before the Civil War, and later became a state senator. The regiment appears to have been raised in the Burlington area. Submitted by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09. +

1862.48 +

“We had plenty of pork and hard tack to go with the beans. We amused ourselves when the weather would permit by having a game of baseball.” William A. Waugh, Reminiscences of the rebellion or what I saw as a private soldier on the 5th Mass. Light Battery from 1861-1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15 2009. Waugh is here describing life in winter quarters near Falmouth on the Virginia coast and east of Fredericksburg. +

1862.53 +

“On Christmas Day 1862 the officers of Manigault’s brigade had a footrace, and afterward the colonels ‘chose sides from among the officers and men to play base[ball].’” Larry J. Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army (U of North Carolina Press, 1991), page 90. Daniel evidently attributes this quotation of a letter from James Hall to his father, December 25, 1862. His treatment of the name of the game, “base[ball], implies that the original letter read “base.” Manigault’s Brigade formed in Corinth, MS, in April 1862, comprising two South Carolina regiments and three from Alabama. We do not know the location of the brigade in December 1862, when Manigault was apparently elevated from colonel of the 10th SC to lead the brigade. The James Hall letter is cited more fully in Kevin Roberts, "We Were Marching on Christmas Day" p. 62: "We have tried to make a Christmas of it here. We have had foot races, wrestling and base[ball] playing ... {The colonels] chose sides from among their officers and met to play base[ball]." +

1862.44 +

“The report of musketry is heard but a very little distance from us . . . yet on the other side of the road is 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.” Attributed to “an Ohio private” who wrote home from Virginia in 1862, in Ward and Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History (Knopf, 1994), page 13. No source is given. Note: can we find the original source and fill in some detail? Note: the private’s use of the term “bat ball” is unusual. “Bat ball” is found in much earlier times [it was banned in both Pittsfield and Northampton MA in 1791]. In this case, since the private is an observer, not a player, it may be that he is using an incorrect label for the game he observes in 1862. Still, it may possibly imply that the term “bat ball” was current in Ohio in the pre-war years (in the private’s youth?), if not later. +

1863.1 +

[A] "[In April 1863] the Third Corps and the Sixth Corps baseball teams met near White Oak Church, Virginia, to play for the championship of the Army of the Potomac." [B] "Ballplaying in the Civil War Camps increased rapidly during the War, reaching a peak of 82 known games in April 1863 -- while the troops still remained in their winter camps. Base ball was by a large margin the game of choice among soldiers, but wicket, cricket, and the Massachusetts game were occasionally played. Play was much more common in the winter camps than near the battle fronts." [C] Note: In August 2013 Civil War scholar Bruce Allardice added this context to the recollected Army-wide "championship game": "The pitcher for the winning team was Lt. James Alexander Linen (1840-1918) of the 26th NJ, formerly of the Newark Eureka BBC. Linen later headed the bank, hence the mention in the book. In 1865 Linen organized the Wyoming BBC of Scranton, which changed its name to the Scranton BBC the next year. The 26th NJ was a Newark outfit, and a contemporary Newark newspaper says that many members of the prewar Eurekas and Adriatics of that town had joined the 26th. The 26th was in the Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, stationed at/near White Oak Church near Fredericksburg, VA. April 1863, the army was in camp. The book says Linen played against Charlie Walker a former catcher of the Newark Adriatics who was now catcher for the "Third Corps" club. "With all that being said, in my opinion the clubs that played this game weren't 'corps' clubs, but rather regimental and/or brigade clubs that by their play against other regiments/brigades claimed the Third and Sixth Corps championships. "Steinke's "Scranton", page 44, has a line drawing and long article on Linen which mentions this game. See also the "New York Clipper" website, which has a photo of Linen." +

1863.2 +

Apparently not liking either the New York Rules or Massachusetts Game Rules, the two formal sets available to them, the boys of the South Berkshire Institute, a prep school in New Marlborough, MA, drew up a hybrid game. Their version is rare in that its documentation has survived. +

1863.4 +

“Not even regular guard and fatigue duty, drill and digging in the trenches could exhaust all of the energies of thee Massachusetts boys, so they must needs organize a baseball club, a thing they had never done in the month of January, and company rivalry ran high. The nine from Company I beat that of Company C to the tune of fifty to twenty-nine. It goes without saying that this was in the days of old-fashioned ball, when large scores were not unusual, and a phenomenally small one by no means argued a superior game.” Alfred S. Roe, The Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Fifth Regiment Veteran Association, Boston, 1911) page 196 The book has no other reference to ballplaying. This passage appears in an account of late January 1863, and the camp was evidently near Newbern VA [a railroad terminus], about 45 miles SW of Roanoke in Southwest Virginia. Accessed at Google Books 6/609 via “fifth Massachusetts roe” search. The regiment comprised men from towns NW of Boston. The unit was at New Bern, NC in January 1863. [ba] +

1863.5 +

The regimental history, writing of winter camp on the Rappahannock River in late January,: “The duties of a soldier’s life in camp were resumed. Drill, dress parade, inspection, picket and guard duty, policing, building roads, were the usual occupations. Amusements were encouraged and chess, checkers, baseball and athletic exercises helped to while away tedious hours.” Camille Baquet, History of the First Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers (State of New Jersey, 1910), page 71. This is the only reference to ballplaying in the book, which covers 1861 to 1865. Accessed 6/6/09 on Google Books via “baquet ‘first brigade’’’ search. +

1863.6 +

The 1863 diary of George Brockway includes 10 entries on ballplaying from February 27 to April 17 1863. Most are terse, along the lines of the March 11 entry: “played ball.” On March 2 Brockway elaborated a little: “In the afternoon the Company played base ball. O yes made a batter club also.” Two entries cite extramural play. April 11: “The boys play a game of ball with the 77th N. Y. V and beat them 12 members.” April 14: “The boys play a match game of ball with the Jersey boys and got bet by 40.” There are no references to ballplaying after April 17, and Brockway’s diaries for his other 3.5 years as a soldier are not referenced. George F. Brockway, Diary of 1863. Unpublished. Provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15 2009. The diary does specify Brockway’s location in spring 1863. George F. Brockway of Auburn, NY was a saddler in Cowan's NY battery of artillery, attached to the VI corps. In early 1863 it was stationed near Fredericksburg, VA. Brockway moved to MI postwar. [ba] +

1863.7 +

In February 1863 the 48th PA took a steamboat to Newport News VA, where it camped for a month. From the regimental history: “Many amusements were indulged in during the stay at Newport News – horse racing, cricket matches, base-ball and the like. Leaves of absence became frequent.” This is the only reference to ballplaying. In late March the unit headed off to Lexington KY. Oliver C. Bosbyshell, The 48th in the War (Avil Printing, Philadelphia, 1895), pp 102-103. Accessed 6/7/09 on Google Books via “bosbyshell 48th” search. The regiment formed in Schuylkill County of PA in late 1861, an area about 40 miles west of Allentown and 85 miles NW of Philadelphia. +

1863.8 +

“March 2 [1863]. Jas Mitchell falls. Died while playing wicket.” Diary entry, presumably by Captain Milo E. Palmer, 12th Regiment, in Deborah B. Martin, History of Brown County Wisconsin (S. J. Clarke Publishing, Chicago, 1913), page 216. The 12th Wisconsin was near “Coliersville” [Collierville?] TN in early March, according to the diary entries. Collierville is about 15 miles SW of Memphis. The 12th WI seems to have been raised in the Madison WI area. The book was accessed 6/7/09 on Google Books via “of brown county” search. No other cited diary entries refer to ballplaying. Caution: It is unconfirmed that “playing wicket” in this case referred to ballplaying. It seems plausible that wicket was played in the 1850s-1860s in WI, but it hardly seems a mortally risky game, and it seems possible that “playing wicket” has a military meaning here. Input from readers on this issue is most welcome. +

1863.55 +

“The ‘first team’ of the Ninth New York Regiment beat the Fifty-first New Yorkers 31-34 [sic] at Yorktown Virginia, in 1863. But a few days later the ‘second nine’ of the two units played, with the Ninth Regiment triumphing by the fantastic score of 58-19!” Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War, Book One, “The Life of Billy Yank,” page 170. Unavailable online in full text June 2009. Wiley’s footnotes are complicated, but it seems most likely the this account comes from “diary of Charles F. Johnson, March 4, 8, 1863, manuscript Minn. Historical Society.” It is unclear that the 9th was near Yorktown in early March. Note: can we confirm or disconfirm this Wiley reference? [ba]--the book "The Long Roll" is the wartime journal of Charles F. Johnson, 9th NY, and undoubtedly is Wiley's source (or the same as Wiley's source). Pages 215-217 note these games, which were played in camp near Newport News, VA. "Frank Hughson, President of the Hawkins Zouaves Baseball club" accepted a challenge from the 51st NY. Wagers were made, and the games played March 4 and 8, 1863. Graham, "The Ninth Regiment, New York Volunteers" p. 405 and the published Letters of Edward King Wightman, p. 121, also mention these games. +

1863.9 +

The US had captured the Sea Island area of SC in 1861, and a group of anti-slavery advocates from Massachusetts ventured south to help educate former slaves in the region. In a letter home from “H.W.,” described as the sister of a Harvard man just out of college, wrote about seeing, on March 3, 1863, what she called “real war camps.” She listed daily work duties, and added, “in almost every camp we saw some men playing ball.” It appears the trip’s objective was “the 24th,” which seems to have been the 24th MA, where a cousin James was to be found. +

1863.10 +

The history of the Fifth MA Battery has four brief references to base ball from March 1863 to February 1864. Two soldiers’ diaries note games on March 11, March 29, and April 11 1863 in Falmouth VA. A Captain Phillips wrote from Rappahannock Station on February 23, 1864: “I am sitting at my desk with my door wide open, and the men are playing ball out of doors.” History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery [1861-1865] (Luther E. Cowles, Boston, 1902), pages 559, 564, 572, 774. Accessed . . . +

1863.11 +

“Mar 13 [1863] Wrote a letter to George and one to father. In the afternoon played a game of ball. Mar 14 Played a game of ball in the afternoon. Bill rode my horse on the forage guard.” James H. Cowan, “Cowan’s Civil War Diary,” transcribed by Juanita Lewis, accessed 6/7/098 at <a href="http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/regiment/cavalry/01st/cowan.html">http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/regiment/cavalry/01st/cowan.html</a>. The diary, noted as volume 2, covers from September 1862 through April of 1863. The website notes that Cowan was from northernmost Iowa. His location in early March is inferred, perhaps incorrectly, from towns named Springfield, Rollo (Rolla?), Salem in the Feb/March entries. Cowan was in the 1st Iowa Cavalry. [ba] +

1863.12 +

“What think you, man of pen and scissors, of our hardships and sufferings, including the rigors of a winter campaign and other poetical ideas, when I tell you that the line officers of our Regiment played a match game of base ball last Saturday. The contest was between the right and left wings for the purpose of ascertaining which party should pay the expenses of an oyster supper.” The Left Wing won, 24-21, in a game evidently played by NY rules – nine players played nine innings and with 27 outs. “From the 17th Maine Regiment,” Lewiston [Me] Daily Evening Journal, March 23, 1863, page 1. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The printed missive, signed “Right Wing,” is headed “Camp Pitcher near Falmouth, VA, March 15th 1863.” The full text of the Regiment’s history, The Red Diamond Regiment, by William Jordan, is not accessible online as of June 2009. Lewiston ME is about 35 miles N of Portland. +

1863.13 +

Lewis C. Paxson left Pennsylvania in 1862 to teach school in Lake City MN, joining the 8th MN in August of that year. He very briefly refers to “playing ball four times: on March 16th 1863, September 16, 1863, September 22, 1863, and March 2, 1864. His most expansive entries were his first, “There was ball playing upon the west camp” [p. 113], and that for September 22, “Played leap frog. Played ball.” He called the game “baseball” in the 1864 entry. Paxson also referred to wicket: On April 30 he wrote “We were mustered. Cronin hurt in playing wicket by being run against.” His entry for the next day was “The mail did not come. Cronin dies.” Caution: It is unconfirmed that “playing wicket” in this case referred to ballplaying. It seems plausible that wicket was played in the 1850s-1860s in MN, but it hardly seems a mortally risky game, and it seems possible that “playing wicket” has a military meaning here. Input from readers on this issue is most welcome. Source: Collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Part II – Volume II (Tribune, Bismarck ND, 1908), pages 113, 115, 123, 132. It appears that Paxson’s service time from 1862 to 1865 was spent at Fort Abercrombie, ND, about 30 miles S of Fargo. The Fort, evidently meant to protect Minnesota territory, had been attacked by the Sioux in the Dakota War of 1862. +

1863.14 +

At Falmouth VA, excerpts from the diary of Sgt Earle of the 15th MA notes games of ball with the 34th NY on March 18 and again on April 16, 1863 in the regimental history. The historian, Andrew Ford, writes 35 years later that “during March and April ball playing is frequently mentioned in the diary. The game played in those days was the old-fashioned round ball. Practice games inside the regiment occurred almost daily, and there were several great games with the New York Thirty-Fourth. Our boys were so successful that the captain of the New York team gave up the contest with the admission that if they ‘had been playing for nuts his men wouldn’t even have the shucks.’ The interest taken in these games in the army as a whole almost rivaled that taken in the races, sparring matches, and cock-fights of Meagher’s troops.” Ford does not elaborate on how he concludes that round ball was played, or that the army as a whole was taking to base ball. Andrew E. Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry [1961-1864] (W. J. Coulter, Clinton [MA?], 1898), pages 242 and 244. Accessed 6/8/09 on Google Books via “’fifteenth Massachusetts’” search. The 15th MA drew significantly from Worcester County MA. The 34th NY regiment was known as the “Herkimer Regiment,” with roots in Herkimer County in Upstate New York; the town of Herkimer is about 15 miles east of Utica on the Mohawk River. The game in this area that preceded the NY game may have been round ball. +

1863.15 +

E. L. Tabler’s Civil War diary runs from January 1863 through May 1864. In March 1863 he was camped near Murfreesboro TN. On March 25 1863 he wrote: “the boys enjoy themselves very well playing at Ball & pitching Horseshoes.” Tabler notes that his regiment has been taken over by John C. McWilliams; a John C. McWilliams is listed at a Captain in the 51st Illinois, which was in the Murfreesboro area in March 1863. “1998 Transcription by William E. Henry of a Civil War Diary,” <a href="http://www.51illinois.org/TablerDiaryRaw1863.pdf">http://www.51illinois.org/TablerDiaryRaw1863.pdf</a>, accessed 6/8/09. +

1863.54 +

“On the 25th [of March 1863] all cartridges were taken up, and fresh ammunition issued. From this time till after the fist of April, ‘base ball’ was the popular amusement in camp, and a select nine from our regiment played many games and return games with the 32nd New York Regiment, the 27th winning a good share of the games. The sharp exercise put the men in good condition after the winter of idleness in their tents and cabins.” C. Fairchild, History of the 27th Regiment N. Y. Vols (Carl and Matthews, Binghamton NY, 1888), page 153. The regiment was camped near Falmouth VA. +

1863.16 +

The diary of Benjamin Franklin Hackett, of Rochester VT, describes ballplaying twice in the 7 months of his diary as a member of the 12th VT. On March 30, 1863, “near Wolf Run Shoals Va,” he wrote “very pleasant in afternoon. Boys played ball all the afternoon. In the same camp on April 14, he wrote “the boys are playing ball and are as cheerful as could be expected.” Diary of Benjamin Franklin Hackett, provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. An article based on the diary appears as Elna Rae Zeilinger and Larry Schweikart, ““’They Also Serve . . .’: The Diary of Benjamin Franklin Hackett, 12th Vermont Volunteers, Vermont History, Volume 51, Number 2 (Spring 1983), pp.89 ff. The article accessed on Google Books via “’benjamin franklin Hackett’” search. +

1863.17 +

John G. B. Adams of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment: “While in camp at Falmouth [VA] the base ball fever broke out. It was the old-fashioned game, where a man running the bases must be hit by the ball to be declared out. It started with the men, then the officers began to play, and finally the 19th challenged the 7th Michigan to play for sixty dollars a side. . . . The game was played and witnessed by nearly all of our division, and the 19th won. The one hundred and twenty dollars was spent for a supper . . . . It was a grand time, and all agreed that it was nicer to play base than minié [bullet] ball.” Capt. John G. B. Adams, Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment (Wright and Potter, Boston, 1899), pp 60-61. Accessed 6/8/09 on Google Books via “reminiscences nineteenth” search. The regiment arose in northern MA, near the NH border. +

1863.18 +

From April 1863 to May 1864, seven mentions of ballplaying – one of them a game of wicket – appear in the account of the 10th Massachusetts. In early April, “in the intervals between [snow] storms the boys found time and place for playing ball” [p. 173]. Later that month, “[i]n the midst of so much warlike preparation it was a relief to find the boys of the Tenth and those of the 36th New York playing a game of baseball and all must have quit good natured, since the game itself was a draw” [p. 177]. At camp at Brandy Station on April 18 1864 the 10th won a “hotly contested” game against the 2nd RI, and again on April 26 the two regiments competed, “but it was lose again for Rhody’s boys” [p.252]. On April 28th the officers of the 10th lost a “game of our favorite baseball” with the 37th [MA?] – p.252. The next day the 10th beat the Jersey Brigade, 15-13. [p253]. “Considering the momentous interests at stake and the dread record that was to be written for May, 1864, it seems not a little strange that the beautiful month was ushered in just as April went out, with baseball. While a game of ball and shell of terrible import was pending, these men of war, after all only boys of a larger growth, happily ignorant of the future, were hilariously applauding the lucky hits and the swift running of bases clear up to the day before the movement across the Rapidan. It was on [May] 3rd that Company I played Company G and won the game by twelve tallies, and with that day came orders to march in the morning at 4.00 a.m.” [p. 253]. The wicket games also occurred at Brandy Station in April 1864;“With the advance of the season came all the indications of quickening life, and athletics became exceedingly prevalent, and one item among many was a game of wicket on [April] 13th, between a picked team in the 37th [MA] and one drawn from the Tenth, resulting in a victory of two tallies for our boys” [p.251]. In a rematch 10 days later, the 10th won again [p.252]. Alfred S. Roe, The Tenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861-1864 (Tenth Regiment Veteran Association, Springfield MA, 1909). Accessed 6/9/09 on Google Books via “’tenth regiment’ roe” search. The regiment was drawn from Springfield and Western Massachusetts, where wicket was evidently a not uncommon prewar pastime. Cf [[CW-57]], which also reflects the 10th MA.

1863.19 +

“[W]hile I played barn ball, one old cat and two old cat in early boyhood days, Cricket was my favorite game, and up to the time I enlisted in the army I never played a regular game of base ball or the New York game as it was then called. In my regiment we had eleven cricketers that had all played together at home and I was the leading spirit in getting up matches. We played a number of good matches but we were too strong for any combination that we could get to play against us, and we finally had to abandon cricket and + take up this so called New York game. I remember well the first game that I played. It was against the 27th NY Inf. at White Oak Church near Fredericksburg Va. In the Spring of 1863. I played occasionally during the remainder of the war, but after my discharge in 1865 I came to Washington and joined the American Cricket Club of this city. But I soon turned my attention to base ball + played with the Olympic Club of this city from 1866 to 1870.” Nicholas Young was born in Amsterdam NY in 1840, and thus was playing the named games in the 1850s. He was a member of the 32nd NY Infantry, which was at Falmouth VA in spring 1863. He led the NL from 1881 to 1903. +

1863.20 +

In letters home written on April 6, and April 10, 1863 from Acquia Creek, VA, officer Mason Tyler wrote: “When I arrived this afternoon [from Washington] I found all the officers with Colonel Edwards at their head out playing ball. Games are all the rage now in the Army of the Potomac. [page 78]” A few later he wrote: “[T]he wind is fast drying up the mud. Our camp is alive with ball-players, almost every street having its game. My boy Jimmie is so busy playing that he hardly knows how to stop to do my errands. He can play ball with the best of them, and pitching quoits he can beat anybody in my company, captain and all. [page 78]” “On November 20th [1863] there was a baseball game between the Tenth and Thirty-Seventh, and the Thirty-Seventh won. [page 125]” He wrote from Brandy Station VA in January 1864 to report on his recent reading, he added, “Sometimes we get up a game of ball, and now we have some apparatus for gymnastics, that occupies some of my time.” [page 131]” Mason W. Tyler, Memoir of Mason Whiting Tyler, in Recollections of the Civil War (Putnams, New York, 1912) page 78. Provided by Jeff Kittel, May 12, 2009. Accessed 6/6/09 at Google Books via “mason whiting tyler” search. Tyler was a new Amherst College graduate when he enlisted, and was shortly elected a 1st Lieutenant.. PBall file: CW-XX. Tyler was in the 37th MA. [ba] +

1863.21 +

In a diary extending from 1862 to 1864, Sgt. Franklin Horner referred to ballplaying only on April 11, April 13, and April 18, 1863. The entries are brief: the most informative is: “April 11 Saturday – Warm and pleasant . . . . no news from our armies all quiet in front the boys are enjoying themselves by playing ball the health of the men is good I am well.” Diaries of Franklin Horner, Company H, 12th PA reserves regiment volunteers. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The file states, “The diaries, in their original form, are part of the Curatorial Collection at the Gettysburg National Military Park. Their catalog numbers are as follows: 1862 Diary (GETT-6848), 1863 Diary (GETT-6850), 1864 Diary (GETT-6849).” It appears that in April 1863 the regiment camped in the Falls Church VA vicinity, a day’s march from Washington DC. The march to Gettysburg was ahead. +

1863.22 +

Chaplain Frank Hall of the 16th New York Infantry mentioned games of ball 10 times in his journal and letters home. [Note: we need to ascertain the range of actual dates; all seem to be for Feb. –April 1863.] All are passing references, like “Saturday, they had another splendid game of ball.” The men played on February 11, 1863, and Hall notes that “Gen. Bartlett came out . . . and played too & men from nearly the whole Brigade entered into the game. Col. Adams, shortly after Gen. Bartlett was called away & as he past on horseback someone threw the ball and it happened to pass right to his saddle bow. He caught it very gracefully & threw it back.” In an April 11 1863 letter to his wife he describes the scene at camp. “I thought I would just write out the sheet to try & give you a picture of things a bit. I am sitting in the tent by the table on one of the three legged stools which I fixed with straps the other day. The day is delightful. The wind is pleasantly flapping the tent. The Jersey band back of it has just finished a delightful air. On the hill in front, to the left of the camp, the boys are playing a game of ball & a few men are to be seen in camp who are excused from picket.” Frank Hall file, #BV-419-01, provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15, 2009. The 16th NY was drawn from northern counties, and included men from Plattsburg and Ogdensburg. The 16th was in northern VA in early 1863. +

1863.23 +

Sgt. Sewell G. Gray, 23, wrote in his diary entry for April 10, 1863: “. . . inspected at 1 o’clock p.m. by Captain Totten. This ended the duties of the day. I participated in a huge game of ball in the afternoon that proved disastrous to my powers of locomotion as it so lamed me that I can hardly stand on my pegs. Weather fine.” No other references to ballplaying are found. “Diary of Captain Sewell Gray 1862 to 1863,” page 12. The 6th Maine was at Falmouth VA at this time. Gray died at the second battle of Fredericksburg in May 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. +

1863.24 +

Private Berea M. Willsey kept a diary in 1862, 1863, and 1864, and noted ballplaying succinctly 8 times, all in the month of April. In April 1863 there are entries for April 9th, 14th, 18th, 20th, and 22nd. On the 14th, when hostilities seemed near, he wrote “Eight days rations were given out to the different Regts & all surplus baggage sent away. Prepared myself as well as I could for the coming struggle & then had a good game of ball.” Willsey mentions a match against the 35th NY on April 20th and one against the 36th NY on April 22nd. The 10th was in a Virginia winter camp in this period. In 1864 Willsey reports on a match game with the 2nd RI on April 26 and another against the 1st NJ on April 30. “We have never been beat, he says. On April 23, he records a “game of ball” that was wicket. “The dust has been flying in clouds all day, yet it did not prevent the game of Ball from being played. Our boys were opposed by the 37th Mass at a game of wicket making 337 tallies, while the 37th only made 200.” In 1864 the Regiment was in the vicinity of Brandy Station VA. Jessica H. DeMay, ed., The Civil War Diary of Berea M. Willsey (Heritage Books, 1995), pp 84-86, 142-143. Full text unavailable online 6/10/09. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The 10th MA was from Western Massachusetts, and Willsey may have been from the North Adams area. Cf. [[CW-51]], which also depicts the 10th MA. +

1863.25 +

“Dear Wife . . . . The boys have had fine Sport this Spring, playing Ball pitching quarters and other Sports, it has been fine weather for some time and the ground dry and hard. Last Evening after Dress Parade I could not resist the temptation of joining with the men in there sports. After playing ball for some time I changed the sport by running a foot race with Lt. Murphy, which created a considerable fun after which the whole Redg. joined with the 127th Redg. in the same Sport, officers as well as men.” Letter from Ambrose F Cole to his wife, Jane Utley Cole, April 14, 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. Note: can we determine where the 59th was formed, and where it was in April 1863? 59th mostly from NYC. Was in Army of the Potomac, in VA in April 1863. [ba] +

1863.26 +

“Falmouth April 27th, 63. Dear sister . . . we expect to move very soon perhaps to night other troops have been on the move all day the 19th Mass regt and the 7th Michigan have had a great game of ball to day the stakes were one hundred & ten dollars a side the Mass boys beat & won the money . . . write often.” Letter from James Decker to Francis Decker, April 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. Other Decker letters suggest that Decker may have been from the Syracuse NY area. Note: identify Decker and his military unit? +

1863.27 +

“April 26th 1863. “Another day has passed and I have made a full day in the pay rolls. I heartily wish they were finished for I am tired of them. After parade played ball for half an hour . . . I think we will certainly march in a day or two: George French, Diaries for 1862 and 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. French was a sergeant in the 105th NY. Note: we need to re-examine the context for this reference; where was the 105th in April, where was French from. The regiment had some soldiers from Rochester NY, including many Irish immigrants. The 105th was near Falmouth, VA that April. [ba] +

1863.28 +

Near Falmouth VA in April 1863, two companies of the 11th New Jersey Regiment played a ball game for which a box score was preserved. Each team was captained by, well, a Captain, and each Captain captain inserted himself as leadoff hitter. The box shows a nine-player, nine-inning game [or maybe eight] with a three-out side-out rule. [There seem to have been no outs recorded in one nine-run half-inning, but let’s not be picky.] Captain Martin’s D Company rushed out to an 18-2 lead and coasted to a 40-15 win over Captain Logan’s H Company. A handsome account of the game’s context, with the box score, is found in John W. Kuhl, “The Game,” Military Images, Volume 25, Number 3 (November/December 2003), pp. 19-22. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The article’s author reports that the box score appeared in the regimental history but does not give a further source. Sadly, both captains were to be killed at Gettysburg in a matter of weeks. The regiment’s history is Thomas D. Marbaker, The History of the Eleventh New Jersey Volunteers from its Organization to Appomattox (MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, 1898). It appears to be available online via the subscription site ancestry.com as of June 2009. +

1863.29 +

While the 11th New Jersey base ball match took place prior to Gettysburg, the third reference involved a game played several months after the battle, not long before Abraham Lincoln gave his historic speech at the new Gettysburg National Cemetery. Playing in the match were members of Battery B of the 1st New Jersey artillery, more popularly known as Clark's battery which served with distinction on both the second and third days at Gettysburg. The base ball connection came to my attention when my friend, Joe Bilby sent me a picture of a print of Clark's battery in camp at Brandy Wine Station, Virginia in November of 1863. The print shows members of the battery engaged in various camp activities including a group in the lower right hand corner playing base ball. Joe cautioned me that the picture was not in the public domain so I set out try to locate the original. My search took me to the Baseball Hall of Fame library which only has a copy and so couldn't give permission to use it. The library also passed on a link to an recent sale of a copy on eBay for about $425. (John Zinn) +

1863.30 +

The Herald headline for an April 1863 article about Hooker’s Army of the Potomac promised “Fun and Sports in the Army: Base Ball Match – New Jersey vs. New York.” Unfortunately, no corresponding text is in the article as retrieved online. The dispatch from Virginia is dated April 28. “Interesting from Hooker’s Army,” New York Herald, April 29, 1863. Accessed May 21, 2009 via subscription to Genealogybank. Note: can we locate the full text? +

1863.31 +

“A match game at Base Ball occurred between selected nines of the Fifth and Eighth New Jersey Regiments on Tuesday last, resulted in favor of the Eighth by a score of 50 to 15. . . . On the second innings the Eighth Regiment made 14 runs.” “Base Ball in the Army,” Trenton State Gazette, April 30, 1863. Accessed May 20, 2009 via Genealogybank subscription. According to a fellow named Abner Doubleday, the 5th NJ was part of a “brilliant Counter-charge at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3: thus, the regiment and the match must have been in Virginia. [See A. Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (Scribners, New York, 1882), page 47.] An identical article appeared in the Newark Daily Advertiser on April 28, 1863 [provided by John Zinn on 3/10/09], and in the Daily State Gazette and Republican [City?] on 4/30/1864 [provided by John Maurath on 1/18/2009]. +

1863.32 +

“A match game of base ball was played near the banks of the Rappahannock on the 2nd inst., between selected nines of the 2d and 26th Regiments, and of the 2d New Jersey Brigade, resulting in favor of the former, 29 to 15. Among the players of the former were Lieuts. Linen [see file CW-65] and Neidisch [sic?] of the Eureka and Newark Clubs.” Newark Daily Advertiser, June 6, 1863. Provided by John Zinn, March 10, 2009. +

1863.33 +

“On Saturday the 11th inst., a match game of ‘base ball’ came off upon the drill ground of the 1st N. J. Brigade, in Virginia, between the players of the 2nd Regt., and the 26th, the former being the challengers. It was witnessed with much interest by most of the Brigade . . . . “A challenge from the 26th is expected soon, when the 2nd hope to carry off the palm.” “Local Matters. Base Ball in the Army,” Newark Daily Advertiser, April 15, 1863. Provided by John Zinn 3/10/09. Note: this game is also mentioned in passing in B. Gottfried, Kearney’s Own: the History of the First Jersey Brigade in the Civil War (Rutgers U Press, 2005), page 107. +

1863.35 +

“The health of the entire Army remains good, and the men enjoy themselves by athletic exercises and other amusements between parades and drills, pitching quoits, playing base ball and cricket, and horse racing are their every day pastimes.”“Penn,” [sic?] in “Our Army Correspondence,” [Pittsburgh?] Chronicle, Thursday, April 16, 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. This long piece focuses some on the “three Pittsburgh and Alleghany regiments, viz. Sixty-Second, One Hundred and Twenty-Third, and One Hundred and Fifty-Fifth,” but the remark about recreation does not appear to apply to them only. The correspondent writes from a camp near Falmouth, VA. +

1863.36 +

“All We two Compnys do is to drill 1 and ½ hower in th mornig gon gard once in two Weaks We play ball pitch quoits the rest of the time. We play the New York Gam most of the time. Mass Game some We Changle other Regement and thay us the 25 Mass is the Best plays 46 next 44 next 51 Nex Battarys Next 5 R.I. Last some exciting games to. Have a Greesy pole Grees Pig all sorts of games you can think of Card Domonuse, &c. . . . But How are the girls in M [Marlboro NH] . . . the Boys have bases up & are in a stem to have me play ball I supose I must go. . . [resuming later:] My side got 10 tales. The other side got 7 talies the sam wons are going to try it to morrow.” Letter from Ora W. Harvey, April 15, 1863, from New Bern NC. Harvey, from Marlboro NH, was with the 46th MA. New Bern had been captured by the North in March 1862 and held for the entire war. Text and facsimile online via the Notre Dame rare book collection, accessed 6/14/09 via ”’msn/cw 5026-01’” search. Marlboro NH is just west of Keene NH, and about 20 miles north of the MA border. New Bern is near the Atlantic coast and is about 100 miles SE of Raleigh. +

1863.37 +

“Friday, April 17, 1863 Quite a fine day. Boys all playing ball. Co. drills in the afternoon. “Wednesday, April 22, 1863 Cool with some appearances of a storm. Played ball today and got somewhat tired.” G. S. Stuart and A. M. Jakeman, Jr., eds., John H. Stevens: Civil War Diary (Miller Books, Acton ME, 1997), page 127. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 1863. Note: we need to ascertain Stevens’ home and unit; the 9th PA lists a soldier by this name as a 1st Lt., as does the 5th MI, as does the 5th ME, which seems the most likely unit.. Text is not found via Google Books in June 2009. +

1863.38 +

“The parade ground has been a busy place for a week or so past, ball-playing having become a mania in camp. Officers and men forget, for a time, the differences in rank and indulge in the invigorating sport with a school-boy’s ardor. [The account lists two recent inter-company games.] The game is the fashionable “New York Game,” played by nine on a side, and nine innings making a game. An undecided game is now pending between the Tenth Massachusetts and Thirty-Sixth New York regiments.”Private Alpheris B. Parker, of the Tenth Massachusetts, on April 21, 1863, as cited [in part] in Ward and Burns, Baseball (Knopf, 1994), page 11. The original source is not there cited, but must be from a letter or diary written by Parker. The full quotation appears in J. K. Newell, Ours. Annals of 10th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, in the Rebellion (C. A. Nichols, Springfield, 1875), page 199. The author of the history indicates that he “pirated” material from men’s accounts, sometimes without attribution, as seems to be the case with this passage. The 10th lists an “Alpheus Parker,” from Colrain in NW MA, on its Company G rolls. The Tenth’s winter camp in 1862-63 was near Falmouth VA, and In April it stood on the eve of the Chancellorsville battle.In April 1864 the 10th was camped near Brandy Station VA. Ours [page 256] suddenly lists ballplaying on seven days between April 13 and May 3. Wicket was played on April 13 [10th vs, 37th] and April 23rd [10th vs 37th]. Base ball was played on April 18 [10th vs. 2nd RI], April 26 [10thj vs, 2nd RI], April 28 [officers of 120th vs. officers of 37th], April 30 [10th vs. 1st NJ, and May 3 [Company I vs. Company I]. The next day they all left for the Battle of the Wilderness.Ours was accessed 6/14/09 at Google Books via “ours annals” search. The New York Sunday Mercury, April 26, 1863 reports on the 10th/36th game, played on the 20th in the rain to a 20-20 tie [ba].

1863.39 +

“April 22d pleasant. On wood detail this morning. This afternoon the 9 best base ball players of the 2 New York Troy regiment play with the best 9 Jerseymen in our brigade for 300.00. The Jersey boys beat 20 inings & a ining not played.” Heyward Emmell, Journal, April 22 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. It would seem that Emmell was not familiar with base ball, or the game was played by unusual rules. A NPS research note places Emmell in the 7th NJ regiment, which may have been in the same brigade as the 2nd NY and 9th NJ. Note: the men were about to fight at Chancellorsville in VA, but we do not know the location of this game. The New York Herald, April 29, 1863, appears to report this game, in a letter datelined April 24 from "near the Rappahannock." The 2nd brigade, 2nd division, Army of the Potomac included 4 NJ regiments and the 2nd NY. A team from the 5th/7th/8th NJ played the 2nd NY for $100 a side and "betting ran high." NJ won. Gives a box score. +

1863.40 +

“[O]ur camp was made merry by the common prevalence of a variety of sports. Horse racing was quite extensively practiced, the presence of the paymasters enabling the officers to make up purses with much freedom. . . . In the Second Brigade of the Second division base ball became the popular amusement, and matches between regiments were of every day occurrence. The brigade counts for New Jersey regiments and one (the Second) from New York. The Jerseymen had played a number of matches between themselves, when the New Yorkers challenged the first nine from all the Jersey regiments to a match for $150 a side. The game was played on Tuesday, and attracted a large crowd. Betting ran high, with odds at the outset in favor of the New Yorkers. The playing was spirited on both sides; but the Jersey boys displayed the greater skill, and quickly turned the popular enthusiasm. They won the match on their eighth innings by twenty-three runs.” An elaborate box score is included. “Near the Rappahannock, April 24, 1863: Sports in Camp,” New York Herald, April 24, 1863. Provided by John Maurath, January 18, 2008. Note: our image is truncated in the middle of the box score, and more text may appear in the full article. The NJ nine comprised 5 players from the 8th NJ, 3 from the 7th NJ, and 1 player from the 5th NJ. The Trenton State Gazette carried a brief account of this game on May 2, 1863. It reported the final score as 34-14, the stakes were $100 a side, and noted that the 2nd NY was from Troy NY. +

1863.41 +

“I thought we should have been half way to Richmond before this time, but here we are all very much taken up with base ball playing recently. Yesterday the fifth N. Jersey played the rest of the Brigade for $100 a side and we beat them, to day we played the second New York on the same terms and beat them, and tomorrow the Eight New Jersey playes the second N.Y. for $300 a side, and then we play the Sickles Brigade.” Stanley Gaines, 7th NJ, to his sister from “Camp near Falmouth Va April 22d/63. In an earlier letter to a friend on April 14, 1863, Gaines had written, “Morality is certainly at a low ebb in the army, more preferring to play ball than to go to church, but a more generous open hearted and jolly crew than our soldiers it is hard to find.” Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. +

1863.42 +

[A] “The Rochester Evening Express published a letter from a soldier dated March 31, 1863, saying the Union Troops near what is now Leeland Station in Stafford were amusing themselves by running races and ‘playing ball, the latter being the favorite amusement or our correspondent. ‘We played nearly all day yesterday, our gallant Colonel looking on with as much pleasure as though he had a hand in . . . . (Quite a number of spectators assembled on our parade ground to witness the expertness of our officers, as they were practicing a match-game with the commissioned officers of the veteran 13th.) I learn that the 108th Regiment and the 14th Brooklyn Regiment were to play a match game of ball to-day for a purse of $25. . . . It may appear that we should be engaged in something else beside playing base ball, but I tell you it is one of the best things in the world to keep up the spirits of the men, , and not only that, but it is of vast importance to their health, and necessary to the development of their muscle . . . . The old veteran Joe (Gen. Joseph Hooker) himself can be seen out on the field encouraging the boys on as earnest as if he were on the battlefield.” [B] In a 2001 article, Allison Barash cites parts of this communiqué, and adds that the writer was “Captain Patrick H. “True Blue” Sullivan of the 140th New York Volunteers, who had played for Rochester’s Lone Stars Club before the war and was obviously hopelessly addicted to the game, left many written statements of Civil War ballgames.” She does note give a source for this passage or the other writings. +

1863.43 +

“William D. Rogers closed a letter to his parents by confessing he was stopping to ‘join the Boys in a game of Ball which has become a great amusement here.’” J. S. Sheppard, “’By the Noble Daring of Her Sons; The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee,” (PhD Dissertation, Florida State U, 2008), page 200. Sheppard’s citation: “William D. Rogers to Dear Papa and Mother, April 17, 1863. William D. Rogers Letters, 1862-1865.” Thesis accessed 6/15/09 via Google Scholar search “’noble daring’ Sheppard.’’ Rogers’ unit was evidently at winter quarters near Tullahoma TN then, about 80miles SE of Nashville and 245 miles N of the Alabama border. Rogers was from Alabama. +

1863.45 +

“Occasionally they indulged in the amusing and time-honored game of base-ball, but not infrequently they were called from this pleasure, to some arduous and important duty.” William Whitman and Charles True, Maine in the War for Union (Dingley, Lewiston, 1865), page 247. It seems clear from context that ballplaying was not infrequent. It is unclear from the phrasing whether they played the NY game or an old-fashioned form. The passage seems to imply that the game was played in 1862-1863 winter camp; the Tenth ME was at Stafford Court House VA from January to April 1863. +

1864.29 +

“During the winter the ground was occasionally covered with snow and battles with snow balls took place, different regiments challenging each other. When the weather was pleasant baseball became popular, and there were many excellent players on the Third Brigade. These games were watched by great crowds with intense interest. On April 18th, the 49th and 77th Regiments played a grand game on the parade ground.” F. D. Bidwell, History of the Forty-Ninth New York Volunters (J. B. Lyon, Albany, 1916), pages 28-29. Accessed on Google Books 6/27/09 via “forty-ninth new” search. The regiment formed in the Buffalo area, and was at Falmouth VA on April 18. +

1863.57 +

May 16th, 1863. “We have had a fine game of Town Ball which gave me good Exercise, and I was on the Side that beat.” May 28th, 1863. “We have [jus]t had a fine game of Town Ball and I was on the Beating Side. Nothing can beat me and Sergeant. Jones. He is a first rate man.” Letters from Corporal William Harden, Company G, 63rd Infantry Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, to his wife, written from just east of Savannah at “Thunderbolt.”. Accessed 6/26/09 at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Civil War file. The 63rd formed in Savannah, and Harden had previously lived in Pike County, which is directly south of Atlanta. +

1863.58 +

“The civil war, however, arrested the development of the new game [base ball] for a time. It was played during the war in camps all over the south. Regiments and companies having their teams. Sergeant Dryden, of an Iowa regiment, relates that during the long waits in the trenches before Vicksburg, the Union and Confederate soldiers jokingly challenged each other to play baseball, and that during the brief truces the men of his company and the enemy played catch from line to line. “’We were throwing and catching the ball belonging to our company ne day,’ he relates, ‘when firing commenced afresh and the men dived into their holes. There was a big fellow named Holleran who, after we got to cover, wanted to go over and whip the ‘Johnny Reb’ who hd stolen our ball. The next morning during a lull in the firing, that ‘Reb’ yelled to us and in a minute the baseball came flying over the works, so we played a game on our next relief.’” The siege of Vicksburg MS occurred from late May to July 4 1863. Many Iowa regiments participated. +

1863.47 +

“Another favorite amusement in the corps was the game of base ball. There were many excellent players in the different regiments, and it was common for the ball-players of one regiment or brigade to challenge another regiment or brigade.’ He added: ‘These matches were watched by great crowds of soldiers with intense interest.’” George T. Stevens, Three Years in the Sixth Corps (Gray, Albany, 1866), page 183. Accessed on Google Books 6/15/09 via “’three years with the sixth’” search. (Part of this passage is cited in George B. Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, (Princeton U Press, 2003), page 37). Stevens’ 77th NY was in winter camp at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA, in 1862-63. Stevens was a regimental surgeon. Stevens [page 191] also reports that, awaiting the assault on Chancellorsville, even as the sounds of nearby clashes rolled in, “the thundering of the guns and the trembling of the earth seemed like a series of earthquakes. The spirit of our boys rose, and the battle on the right progressed, and there seemed to be indications of work for them. Groups might be seen at any time, when we were not standing in the line of battle, telling yarns, singing songs, playing ball, and pitching quoits, while they momentarily looked for the order to advance upon the heights, into the very jaws of death.” +

1864.1 +

Finding, on the Chancellorsville battlefield, a partly used diary in the abandoned knapsack of a Union soldier from the 87th NY, Robert T. Douglass started making entries in May 1864. “May 26 . . . Quite pleasant this afternoon. Played a game of ball with my friends in the 40th Va. Reg.” “May 27. . . . Relieved from guard this morning. Out in the field playing ball with a portion of the 40th Reg.” “May 28. . . . Played ball.” “May 30. . . . Played ball this evening for sport as I had nothing else to do. Bad news from home.” “June 2. . . . Played ball this afternoon. No news in camp of any importance.” “June 11 . . . . Played a game of ball called cat.” Douglass returned the diary to its original owner in 1867. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The diary is also found online: Google web search: “douglass diary morrisville.” Note: Douglass’ unit appears to have stayed near the Stafford/Chancellorsville area in May and June. His diary entries continue through 1863 but have no additional ballplaying references. Accessed online 6/15/09. +

1863.44 +

“Roddie Shaw wrote that baseball fever also swept through his regiment, mentioned ‘while I write the Regt. Is engaged in a game of town-ball one of our greatest sources of amusement.’”J. S. Sheppard, “’By the Noble Daring of Her Sons; The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee,” (PhD Dissertation, Florida State U, 2008), page 200. ’’ Sheppard’s citation: “Roddie Shaw to My Dear Sister, May 17, 1863. FSA, Tallahassee, FL.” Thesis accessed 6/15/09 via Google Scholar search “’noble daring’ Sheppard.” Shaw’s 4th FL unit was evidently at winter quarters near Tullahoma TN then, about 80miles SE of Nashville and 245 miles N of the Alabama border. Shaw was from Quincy, FL, which is about 20 miles NW of Tallahassee and about ten miles S of the Georgia border. +

1863.46 +

“A sergeant from the 62nd N.Y. Volunteers wrote to the New York Clipper sporting weekly on May 30 of 1863 to clarify the rules as he knew them: ‘That in making a home run in a game of baseball the runner is allowed to run 2’ either side of the bases without touching them. I claim that he is obligated to touch each base as he passes it; . . . To play now in N.Y. is to touch the base in all cases; so that the matter is settled, and the rules can now be interpreted correctly.’”Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books,2001), page 20. The 62nd NY, recruited from New York City, had fought at Chancellorsville in early May, sustaining its heaviest casualties, and Gettysburg was a month ahead. Note: can we obtain the article? +

1863.48 +

“That June a correspondent to the [New York] Clipper reported a match following the Massachusetts game rules played for $50 a side between Massachusetts’ Eleventh Regiment and the Twenty Sixth of Pennsylvania. He noted: ‘we have four clubs in our brigade, and there are several more in the division.’” George B. Kirsch, Base Ball in Blue Gray (Princeton U Press, 2003), page 39. The 26th had fought in the May 1863 Chancellorsville battle, seems likely to be in Virginia in June, perhaps back at Falmouth. Kirsch does not specify the date of the Clipper article. It seems unusual that a MA – PA game would have been featured in a New York paper. Note: can we locate this article? +

1863.49 +

“During the [Thanksgiving] holiday of 1863, twenty picked men from the brigade [2nd Brigade, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac] and some of the members of the old ‘Honey Run Club’ from the Germantown, Pennsylvania area reportedly played ball.” Patricia Millen, Passion to Pastime: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), page 24. Millen cites the New York Clipper for November 14th and November 28, 1863. The location of the game is not indicated in the book. See also 1862.84. The Clipper of Nov. 14th indicates that the game would be town ball, played on the 25th at the parade ground of the 2nd brigade, 2nd division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac, then stationed in VA. +

1863.50 +

“As Confederate soldier Corporal William Harding wrote while stationed in Georgia in 1863, ‘had a fine game of Town ball which gave me good exercise. . .’” Patricia Millen, Passion to Pastime: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), page 19. Millen cites “Harding, John. Letter. Cooperstown, NY: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. 1863.” Note: can we obtain a facsimile of the letter, and determine Harding’s unit and the GA location of the game? +

1864.2 +

Isaac Clason, of Company B in the 2nd Minnesota Volunteers, made 10 minimal references to ballplaying from January 29 to April 16, 1864. No more appear to the June end of the record. A typical entry was “Had a fine game of ball this afternoon” [March 17]. On January 29: “Spent today playing ball, pitching anvils and everything to amuse myself.” On April 5: “Had a fine game of ball and in the evening went to the Boulten Minstrels performance. Not very good entertainment.” The diary refers to “Ringgold” [and to peach trees in bloom in March] and it would seem that Clason spent his winter in the area of Ringgold Gap, GA, where a September 1863 defeat had stalled the North’s incipient drive toward Atlanta until May 7 1864. Ringgold GA is about 15 miles SE of Chattanooga and about 6 miles south of the Tennessee border. Diary of Isaac W. Clason, accessed online at ancestry.com by Google web search “clason diary.” +

1864.3 +

In a diary extending from January 1864 through January 1865, James Lormor of the 103rd New York Infantry made passing reference to having a “game of ball” on three dates from January 27 to February 6. The least laconic: “Saturday February 6 – Got up at five as usual went to work and fixed our tent The 89 and our boys had a game of ball Weather warm and pleasant” He mentions shelling Charleston and serving as picket at Pawnee Landing – was he on the Carolina coast east of Charleston SC?Civil War Diary of James Cordin Lormor, 103rd New York Infantry, at civilwararchive.com, accessed 6/16/09 via Google web “stormo inlet” search. +

1864.4 +

In his diary for the year 1864, Lieutenant Lemuel Abbott [10th VT] includes six entries on ballplaying. One involved a challenge from the non-commissioned officers to the officers to play for an oyster dinner [January 29], and another in which his Company challenged the regiment to “play a game of ball for $50 [March 19]. One day he reports that “a game of ball came off this afternoon in which the commissioned offers won. Two more games are to be played Monday if a good day. [January 30]” All ballplaying entries appear between January 29 and April 29. Lemuel A. Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary 1864 (Free Press, Burlington, 1908), pages 13, 20, 28, 30, 41. The January entry is mentioned in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 41. Accessed 6/19/09 on Google Books via “recollections 1864” search. Abbott’s Company B was from Burlington VT. Their camp during early 1864 was near Brandy Station, VA, about 60 miles SW of Washington and about 75 miles NW of Richmond. See also Montpelier Daily Journal, Feb. 15, 1864, and Vermont Watchman, Feb. 19, 1864, for notice of the commissioned/non-commissioned officers game. +

1863.51 +

“[Horse] [r]aces were a favorite amusement of the men in this camp . . . . Foot-races among the men wre frequently indulged in, not for the purpose of developing any retreating qualities. These were always exciting, and usually afforded themes for discussion and conversation for one day at least. Base-ball and foot-ball were favorite amusements among the soldiers, and afforded recreation which was highly appreciated.” Rev. Geo. W. Bicknell, History of the Fifth Regiment Maine Volunteers (Hall L. Davis, Portland, 1871), page 298. Bicknell writes this of the 63/64 winter camp. The camp was at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA – which is about 3 miles NE of Fredericksburg. +

1864.5 +

A CSA Chaplain wrote: “At leisure hours I frequently engaged with the young men on my regiment in a game of base-ball, for exercise in part, but principally to effect what it was ever my purpose to do, viz., to draw men out from their tents into the light of day, where evil practices are discouraged or corrected.Rev. A. C. Hopkins [Chaplain, 2nd Virginia Infantry], in “Appendix: Letters from Our Army Workers,” J. W. Jones, Christ in the Camp, or Religion in Lee’s Army (B. F. Johnson, Richmond, 1887), page 472. Accessed on Google Books 6/17/09 via “jones ‘in the camp’” search. Hopkins in this passage refers to the regiment’s winter camp “near Pisgah’s Church in Orange County [VA].The area is about 25 miles E of Fredericksburg and 60 miles NE of Richmond. +

1864.6 +

“February 12, 1864. Officers played a game of base ball this afternoon.” +

1864.7 +

“A game between the Eighth and the 114th Vermont Regiments near Franklin, Louisiana, in February 1864 was won by the former, 21 to 9.”Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War (Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1952) Book One, page 170. Wiley’s footnotes are clustered, and it difficult to determine source which is which. . The “diary of James F. Williams, Feb. 6, 1864” seems a possibility. The 114th New York was in camp near Franklin in early 1864, and seems the likely opponent of the Eighth VT. [There is no record of a 114th VT regiment.] The Eighth’s Regimental history does not mention any ballplaying, or a 114th regiment. The Eighth was recruited from northern VT. +

1863.52 +

“[T]he Thirty-Seventh provided liberal physical recreation. Nearly every pleasant day in the intervals between drills a game of base-ball or ‘wicket’ formed a center of attention for the unemployed members of the brigade; these games were becoming largely inter-regimental, a variety of ‘teams’ were organized throughout the brigade, some of which became very proficient. If a fall of snow prevented the regular pastime, it only furnished the opportunity for another, and many a battle of snow-balls was conducted. . . . ” James L. Bowen, History of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment, Mass. Volunteers (Bryan and Co., Holyoke), 1884), page 260. In winter 1863/1864 the regiment, and evidently its brigade, was at “Camp Sedgwick” on the Rapidan River in VA. The regiment was in a camp at Warren Station VA [near Petersburg], the 37th history [page 406] paints this early spring 1865 tableau: “As the warming weather of early succeeded the interminable storms of the severe winter, and the hoarse voice of the frog began to resound from the surrounding marshes, games of quoits and ball became possible on the color line and mingled with the good news of the collapsing of the rebellion in other directions.” +

1864.8 +

“March 1 . . . I played wicket ball, pitched quarters and stayed with Smith.” “March 2 . . . Helped get dinner, drilled, played ball, got some water to drink . . .”Alonzo Miller, “Diary of Alonzo Miller, March 1864,” in Alonzo Miller, Diaries and Letters, 1864-1865 (Alexander Street Press, 1958), page 122. Provided by Jeff Kittel, May 12 2009. Miller was with the 12th WI, which participated in Sherman’s Atlanta campaign in 1864. It might be inferred that Miller was from Prescott WI, which is on the Minnesota border and about 20 miles S or St. Paul. Available online via subscription June 2009. Note: can we confirm that Miller’s letters and diaries have no other ballplaying references? +

1864.9 +

[March 3] “Went on shore at 10 ½ o’clock this morning and played base ball for about 3 hours. At 3 p.m. practiced with revolver.” [March 10] “Went out in the afternoon and exercised my men in company drill. Played a game of ball.” J. Jones and E. Keuchel, eds., Civil War Marine: a Diary of the Red River Expedition, 1864 (US Marine Corps, 1975) page 34-35. Provided by Jeff Kittel, May 12, 2009. Church was a member of the small [3800 troops] Marine Corps sent from Cairo IL to support the Red River campaign, intended to liberate TX, AR, and LA [it didn’t]. The base ball entries preceded the March 13 start of fighting. Church’s diary covers three spring months of 1864. +

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