Semantic search
1861.61 Army of the Potomac relaxes with base ball
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 lauds the Army of the Potomac's good conduct in camp: "A song, a light-hearted laugh, a group in ecstasies as two stout-hearted fellows roll, one over another, in a wrestling match, a foot race, or a party at base ball are the leading variations on the more formal duties of duty and drill..."
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
1861.62 Ohio Soldiers box and play ball
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861 reports on Ohio soldiers at Camp Dennison, east of Cincinnati: "Various are the sports devised by the soldiers to pass away their leisure hours: such as sparring, ball playing, singing, dancing, and almost every sport that could be thought of, or that ever was practiced..."
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861
1861.63 Thanksgiving game of 25th Massachusetts
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861, prints a letter from the 25th Massachusetts datelined Camp Hicks, Annapolis, Nov. 21, where in a Thanksgiving game, company H defeated company A 31-22. The game ended at 5 pm by mutual agreement. Gives a box score. "The game was a hard fought one, lasting three hours, and engaged in by the best players of both companies."
Day, "My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. ..." Nov. 30, 1861 entry from Camp Hicks in Annapolis, MD: "the boys engaged in ball-playing and other amusements." Dec. 26, 1861 entry: "ball-playing and other athletic sports used up the day."
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861
1861.64 Happy Pennsylvanians near DC
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861 prints a letter datelined May 26 from Fort Washington, MD, near DC, from a Lieutenant in the 1st company, Washington Artillery (a Pottsville unit): "At the close of the day, our boys indulge in a game of ball in the water battery, where our quarters are located, and are apparently as happy as if they were taking an afternoon game on Lawton's Hill, or back of the basin."
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861
1861.66 Ball Playing popular in Wisconsin Camp
The Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 1861, prints a letter datelined 1st Regiment, Camp Scott, Milwaukee, May 24:
"Amusements in camp.....Chess constitutes an agreeable and profitable pastime. Card and ball playing are more general favorites in which a large proportion of the men engage."
Prior to the war, a base ball field was located at where Camp Scott was established.
The Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 1861
1861.67 Base ball at Camp Vermont
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861 prints a Dec. 6th letter from the 12th Vermont, at Camp Vermont, near Alexandria: After a game of foot ball on Thanksgiving, "many joined in games of base ball."
See also chronology 1862.39.
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861
1861.68 7th New Hampshire has no brawls
The New Hampshire Statesman, Dec. 14, 1861, reports on the 7th New Hampshire, in camp at Manchester: "The chaplain remarked that [the men] have no brawls, and the only shouts ever heard in camp are the calls of the guard, or proceed from the ground devoted to ball play."
The New Hampshire Statesman, Dec. 14, 1861
1861.69 Pitching Quoits and Playing Ball
The New York Herald, May 14, 1861 reports on Col. Allen's regiment, the 1st NY National Guard, camped on Staten Island: "The hours of recreation are generally employed by the men in pitching quoits and playing ball."
The New York Herald, May 14, 1861
1861.70 Excelsior Brigade amuses itself
The New York Herald, May 23, 1861, reports on the Excelsior Brigade (a NYC unit), camped at Red House, Harlem: "During the time that the men are at leisure they amuse themselves by boxing, playing ball, jumping, running, or an any other harmless way they may see fit."
The New York Herald, May 23, 1861
1861.71 Irish Soldiers play ball with Rebel shells
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861, headlined "New One for Paddy" explains how Irish-American soldiers reacted to Confederate shelling: "One of the Massachusetts regiments had a game of base ball they day after the slaughter of Edwards' Ferry [the battle of BAlls Bluff], bu the Cleveland Hibernian Guard of the Eighth Ohio regiment, beat them at Romney... the Hibernian Guard actually stacked their arms and commenced playing ball with the six pounders that the enemy sent among them, tossing them about as cooly as if they were in the Cleveland Public Square."
Given the weight of the cannon balls, could this have been a rugby-like ball game?
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861
1861.72 Secesh and Unionists fraternize on ball field
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861: "Fraternization--I had the pleasure of beholding an oasis of fraternization of members of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Brooklyn, N.Y., composed in part of officers and privates attached to the Thirteenth Regiment New York State Militia, stationed on Mount Clare, near the city, and the Excelsior Base Ball Club of Baltimore, which is composed of secessionists almost to a man..." They played a game, the Baltimore club winning 26-25.
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861
1861.73 NC Lt. mentions baseball
Cornell University has a ms. letter dated 12-29-1861 from Lt. William Nunnally, 13th NC infantry, in which he mentions baseball, and visiting the CSS Merrimac. From the context, he must have been near Norfolk, VA at the time.
Cornell U., Box 1, Folder 19, catalog entry.
1861.74 New York Times advocates baseball for the army
“Let our army of 150,000 amuse themselves, and let cricket, quoit and base ball, alternating with the daily drill, give them vigor and endurance."
“The Lines of Arlington,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1861.
“The Lines of Arlington,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1861.
1861.75 36th Illinois Plays base ball in Aurora Camp
"Hiram, of Big Rock, in lieu of it opened a boxing gymnasium. This, with base ball, filled up the intervals between meal time and drill."
History of the 36th Illinois, p. 24. This was at Camp Hammond in Aurora, IL, in 1861.
Bennett and Haigh, History of the 36th Illinois, p. 24.
1861.76 Base ball in Rochester Camp
"A traveler going south out of Rochester on Mt. Hope Avenue during the war years would pass by Mt. Hope Cemetery, and then, just past the fork in the road formed by the West and East Henrietta roads, would come to the entrance of a military camp. Inside, he might glimpse an artillery company hard at drill, while off-duty recruits played a game of baseball."
This is Camp Hillhouse, in Rochester, NY.
Levy and Tynan, "Campgrounds of the Civil War," Rochester History, Summer 2004, p. 6.
1861.77 White House Secretaries watch Zouaves play ball
"When John Hay and George Nicolay drove their rented buggy over to Camp Lincoln to say hello to their friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, they found him wearing his “blouzy red shirt” and enjoying that New York favorite: Base Ball. Most New York firefighters played the game, and among those involved was Ellsworth’s aide-de-camp, Captain John “Jack” Wildey.
Wildey played ball before he became a Fire Zouave. He played for the New York Mutuals, named for his own Mutual Hook and Ladder Company Number 1. The Mutuals were formed in 1857 and played amateur ball at the Hoboken Grounds, their home field. Many firefighters and city employees played in a variety of New York teams, but the Mutuals were reckoned the best. It was perfectly normal for a handmade ball, a bit larger and softer than today’s baseball, to be found in the knapsack of an 11th New York Fire Zouave."
Hay and Nicolai were Pres. Lincon's Secretaries, and Ellsworth was perhaps Lincoln's closest young friend. Hay later became Secretary of State.
"Home Run Derby Star Captain "Jack" Wildey, The Emerging Civil War blog, July 16, 2018
1861.78 12th New York Plays the Nationals of DC
See the New York Sunday Mercury, June 30, 1861. Members of the 12th NY played a pickup team of the Nationals of DC, in DC, on "Tuesday last." Gives a box score.
1861.80 Left and Right Wings of 9th NY Play
. Right and left wings of the 9th NY play. Sgt.Major Burtis, an old member of the
Gotham club, pitchers the left wing to a 40-6 victory. Gives a box score.
New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 13, 1861
1861.82 "Old members of New York Clubs" play near DC
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 3, 1861 reports that the Van Houten Club of the 1st NJ defeated company A of that regiment 49-24 in a 6 inning game. "Many of the contestants are old members of New York clubs..." Gives a box score. Letter dated Oct. 29, Camp St. John, near Alexandria.
1861.83 The Mozart Regiment Plays Baseball
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 3, 1861 reports that on Oct. 28th, near Fairfax, VA, members of Company I of the Mozart Regiment (40th NY), "partly composed of ball-players," defeated a picked nine from the rest of the regiment. The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 10, 1861 reports the return match, also won by Co. I.
The regiment wasn't musical, but rather named after the Mozart Hall wing of the NYC Democratic Party.
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 46
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 46 prints (from the NYSM) the box score of the game.
1861.84 2nd Fire Zouaves Match
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 17, 1861 reports on a game between two nines of the 2nd Fire Zouaves, camped near Indian Head, MD. Company K's nine defeated Company I's 23-19.
The regiment was formally known as the 73rd NY Infantry.
1861.85 Colonel calls off drill so game can be played
The New York Sunday Mercury, Dec. 8, 1861 reports that the 14th NY defeated a team from the 24th NY so badly that the 24th quit in the 5th inning, already down 25-4. Game played in camp on the 25th. When the game started, the 30th NY was drilling on the hoped-for ball field, but upon request, the colonel of the 30th called off the drill so the game could be played.
The 24th was stationed near Upton's Hill, Fairfax County.
1861.86 A Battalion of Base Ballists?
The New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 18, 1861 reports: "We are informed by a correspondent that several gentlemen well known in base ball circles, have a project under consideration for the formation of a battalion or regiment, exclusively of base ball players: and it is seriously contemplated to recommend a call fora special meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players, for the purpose of bringing the matter more immediately before representatives of all the clubs." The Mercury notes that many ball players are already in the army, so the idea may not be practical, but that if only 5 men from each club joined, "better material for soldiers... cannot be found."
1861.87 Heavy battle losses don't stop baseball playing
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 has an article on a visit tot he Army of the Potomac, where the writer visited a regiment recently decimated in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, and sees "a party at play in a vigorous game of base ball, and that not forty eight hours after they stood hemmed in by the rebels..."
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
1861.88 In camp on Rikers Island
Charles F. Johnson, "The Long Roll," p. 16 (journal entry of May 21, 1861, when in camp at Rikers Island), mentions "a game of ball on the parade ground."
Johnson belonged to the 9th NY (Hawkins' Zouaves). Rikers Island is in New York harbor.
1861.89 Early-Days Monster in Left Field?
New-York Atlas, 10/21/1861
1861.90 Fort Wayne soldiers play town ball
A letter to the Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861, states that Fort Wayne soldiers are playing town ball at Camp Morton.
Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861
1861.94 Officers of US Chasseurs Play Base Ball
The 1st US Chasseurs (65th NY Infantry) while stationed in Camp Cochrane, DC had a game on Xmas day between the field and line officers. It ended in a 29-29 tie. The NYSM gives a box score. The two nines were called the "Old Bachelors" and the "Old Maids."
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 59 (from NYSM Dec. 29,1861)
1862.1 Brooklyn Games Organized as Benefits for Sick and Wounded Soldiers
Three games were announced in June 1862 for which net proceeds would be used for sick and wounded Union soldiers. The Eckfords and the Atlantics would play for a silver ball donated by the Continental Club. William Cammeyer provided the enclosed Union grounds without charge. Admission fees of 10 cents were projected to raise $6000 for soldiers' relief. The Eckford won the Silver Ball by winning two of three games.
"Relief for the Sick and Wounded," Brooklyn Eagle, June 21, 1862, page 2.
Craig Waff, "The 'Silver Ball' Game-- Eckfords vs. Atlantics at the Union Grounds", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 39-42
1862.2 The Death of Jim Creighton at 21
Excelsior star pitcher James Creighton, 21 years old, suffered some sort of injury during the middle innings of a game against the Union of Morrisania on October 14, 1862, and died four days later of a "strangulated intestine" associated with a hernia. (Other accounts cite a ruptured bladder - ouch.) One legend was that Creighton suffered the injury in the process of "hitting out a home run." Excelsior officials attributed the death to a cricket injury incurred in a prior cricket match.
Creighton was perhaps base ball's first superstar.
R. M. Gorman and D. Weeks, Death at the Ballpark (McFarland, 2009), pages 63-64.
Richard Bogovich, "The Martyrdom of Jim Creighton-- Excelsiors of Brooklyn vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 43-46
See Tom Gilbert's 3/4/2021 blog at https://howbaseballhappened.com/blog/how-baseball-killed-its-first-star-player. Tom's How Baseball Happened (Godine, 2020) carries Creighton's base ball career at p. 185ff, and his death is discussed on pp. 212-215.
Tom Gilbert, 3/5/2021-- "Creighton’s hernia did not “rupture”— it led to a strangulated intestine which became infected; the infection killed him. We know this because both Brooklyn Health Dept records and Green-Wood Cemetery records state the cause of death as “strangulated intestine.”
Tom Shieber, Hall of Fame curator who has studied Creighton extensively, believes the injury was an inguinal hernia which ruptured. In an article published on December 7, 1862, the New York Sunday Mercury recounts a conversation with Creighton before the Union game in which he states that he had injured himself in a recent cricket match. It is assumed that he received the hernia in the cricket match and that it ruptured during the Union game.
1862.3 US Cricket Enters Steeper Decline
[A] "The cricket season last year was a very dull one, this clubs in this locality [Brooklyn] playing but a few matches, and those of no importance." The recent delline:
[B] "For several years, cricketers had been talking of forming as association similar to that set up by the baseball fraternity. Despite several meetings, they had not done so. At the annual convention of 1862, the Clipper noted the meager attendance and proclaimed the gathering 'a mere farce.' It despaired of cricket ever becoming popular unless it was made more American in nature. The disappointing convention was the last the cricketer would hold."
[A] Brooklyn Eagle, April 25, 1862. Contributed by Bill Ryczek, December 29, 2009.
[B] William Ryczek, Baseball's First Inning (McFarland, 2009), page 105. The Clipper quoted is the May 24, 1862 issue.
See also Beth Hise, "American Cricket in the 1860s: Decade of Decline or New Start?," Base Ball Journal, Volume 5, number 1 (Special Issue on Origins), pages 143-148.
1862.4 State Championship Base Ball Game in PA
"Base Ball Match. - A grand base ball match will take place at the St. George's Cricket Ground, near Camac's Wood, for the championship of Pennsylvania, between the 'Olympic' and 'Athletic' Clubs, on next Saturday."
The New York Sunday Mercury reported on Oct. 12 that the Olympic won, 19-18, and that it was the first of a best two-of-three match.
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1862. Accessed via subscription search May 20, 2009.
On what authority did it convey championship status?
1862.5 Brooklynites and Philadelphians Play Series of Games
Various assortments of leading players from Brooklyn and Philadelphia vied in both cities in 1862. Philadelphia sent an all-star assortment north in June, where it lost to Newark and to select nines in Brooklyn's eastern and western districts, but beat an aggregation of Hoboken players. Two select Brooklyn nines headed south and played two all-Philly sides in early July.
At the end of August, the Mutual club traveled to Philadelphia, winning 2 of 3 against Phila clubs. In October, the Eckford traveled to Philadelphia for a week of play against individual local clubs, and also played an "amalgamated nine" of locals, winning all games played.
Sources: various, including overviews at "Philadelphia vs. Brooklyn," Wilkes Spirit, July 12, 1862, and "Base Ball Match," Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 1862.
1862.8 Earliest Base Ball in Colorado Territory
"The first baseball games in Colorado Territory occurred in March 1862, when the Base Ball (two words back then) Club was formed. The first recorded contest happened on April 26, 1862."
Rocky Mountain News, March 13 and April 29, 1862. Cited in Brian Werner, "Baseball in Colorado Territory," in Thomas L. Altherr, Above the Fruited Plain: Baseball in the Rocky Mountain West (SABR Convention Publication, July 2003), page 71.
Werner identifies the game as the New York game.
Richard Hershberger, email of 1/19/2009, writes that on April 29 the Denver [CO] Daily Evening News reported on intramural game played by the Denver Base Ball Club, a likely reference to the games cited by Werner. He also notes that a March 12 issue of the Evening News referred to a "game played yesterday [that] went off well, considering that there were but two or three persons engaged who had ever played the game before, according to the New York rules, and it will take but a few more meetings to enable them to become proficient."
Jim Wohlenhaus, email of 2/24/2014, reports his own attempts to pin down Colorado's earliest games -- see the Supplemental Text, below. Jim's summary:
"The first recorded game was March 11, 1862 and not March 15. I do not believe the March 15 scheduled game ever was played.
"The Club was formally established on Mar 15, 1862. I am not sure if the first three games were played on April 26, or earlier. A comment in Protoball entry #1862.8 states these games were “intramural”. I would hazard a guess they were indeed, probably the first nine vs. the second nine. Since this was the only Club around, this was probably the only way to have competition. As an aside, I have found no mention of another Club until 1864 in Colorado Territory when two Clubs formed and challenged each other. Then baseball really started to take off in that year."
1862.9 First Admission Fees for Baseball?
May 15, 1862: "The Union Baseball Grounds at March Avenue and Rutledge Street in Brooklyn is opened, the first enclosed ball field to charge an admission fee."
James Charlton, The Baseball Chronology (Macmillan, 1991), page 15.
Regarding the opening of the Union Grounds, see:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 12 and May 16, 1862; New York Clipper, Feb. 22, 1862; New York Sunday Mercury May 11 and May 18, 1862,
Caveats: Admission was charged in 1858 for the Brooklyn-New York games at the Fashion Race Course, Queens, which was enclosed but not a 'ball field'.
Before the Union Grounds, there were no ball field enclosed for the purpose of charging admission.
Admission had occasionally also been charged for "benefit" games for charities or to honor prominent players.
1862.10 PA Base Ball Moves Beyond Philadelphia
"Base Ball Match. Harrisburg, August 21. - The first match game of base ball ever play in Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, cam off here yesterday, between the Mountain Club of Altoona, and the Keystone Club of Harrisburg. It resulted in a victory for the latter."
PhiladelphiaInquirer, August 22, 1862. Accessed 5/20/2009 via subscription search.
See 1860.38. Either the 1860 game in Allegheny was unknown, or not considered to have been played under National Association rules.
Harrisburg PA is in central PA, about 90 miles W of Philadelphia.
1862.13 Government Survey: Athletic Games Forestall Woes of Soldiers Gambling
After examining nearly 200 regiments, the Sanitary Commission [it resembled today's Red Cross] was reported to have found that "in forty-two regiments, systematic athletic recreations (foot ball, base ball, &c) were general. In one hundred and fifty-six, there were none. Where there were none, card playing and other indoor games took their place. This invited gambling abuses, it was inferred.
"War Miscellanies. Interesting Army Statistics," Springfield [MA] Republican, January 25, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file: CW13.
is it worth inspecting the report itself in search of further detail? It is not available online in May 2009.
1862.14 22nd MA beats 13th NY in the Massachusetts Game
"Fast Day (at home) April 3, there was no drill, and twelve of our enlisted men challenged an equal number from the Thirteenth New York, to a game of base-ball, Massachusetts game. We beat the New-Yorkers, 34 to 10."
J. L. Parker and R. G. Carter, History of the Twenty-Second Massachusetts Infantry (The Regimental Association, Boston, 1887), pages 79-80.
Fast Day in MA was traditionally associated with ballplaying. The 22nd MA, organized in Lynnfield MA (about 15 miles N of Boston), was camped at Falmouth VA in April, as was the 13th NY. The 13th was from Rochester and would likely have known the old-fashioned game. PBall file: CW-126.
1862.15 NY and MA Regiments Play Two Games Near the Civil War Front
Mr. Jewell, from the 13th NY Regiment's Company A, provided a generous [15 column-inches] account of two regulation NY-rules games played on April 15, 1862, near the Confederate lines at Yorktown VA. Sharing picket duties with members of the 22nd MA Regiment, Jewell says that "at about half-past 10 o'clock some one proposed a game of Base Ball. Sides were chosen and it commenced." [As scorer, Jewell's box scores did not mark the sides as a contest between regiments, and it may have involved mixed teams. He did note that the leadoff batter/catcher for the "Scott" side was a member of Boston's Trimountain Base Ball Club.] "It was decidedly 'cool' to play a game of Base Ball in sight of the enemy's breastworks." Between games the ball was re-covered with leather from a calf boot found on the ground. During the afternoon game, Union troops in the area were evidently sending artillery fire out toward the Rebs as they were building new fortifications in the distance. General McClelland's entourage is reported to have passed toward the front while the game was in progress. Jewell sent his account to the Rochester paper. The two games, each played to a full mine innings, were won by Scott's side, 13-9 and 14-12.
Source: Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862, page 2, column 2. PBall file: CW16.
1862.16 13th Massachusetts Plays Ball Near Officers, Dignitaries, Enemy Lines
"In the afternoons, after battalion drill, the game of base-ball daily occupied the attention of the boys. On one of these occasions, General Hartsuff riding by, got off his horse and requested permission to catch behind the bat, informing us there was nothing he enjoyed so much. He gave it up after a few minutes and rode away, having made a very pleasant impression."
Davis also mentions a game of ball being played in April 1863 as large numbers of troops were awaiting a formal review by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton near the Potomac River, "to the no small amusement of the lookers-on" [page 198]. In November 1863, still in Virginia, Davis reports that while awaiting an order to attack a nearby Confederate force, "Time dragged along, and no movement was made. We were all tired of the inaction and the heavy strain on the mind from hours of expectation, and so we had a game of ball to pass away the time. Occasionally the ball would be batted over the crest of the hill in front, in range of the rebel skirmishers, necessitating some one going after it. It was a risky piece of business and required quick work, but it was got every time." [page 288.]
In March 1864, the 13th played the 104th NY and won 62-20. "As opportunities for indulging our love for this pastime were not very frequent, we got a deal of pleasure out of it." [page 309.] Later that month, the regiment celebrated the escape and return the colonel of the 16th Maine with base-ball, along with chasing greased pigs and a sack race. [Page 313.]
Charles E. Davis, Jr., Three Years in the Army: The Story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers (Estes and Lauriat, Boston MA, 1894), page 56. The full text was accessed on 6/1/09 on Google books via a search for "'Charles E. Davis' three". PBall file: CW20.
Also cited in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 41.
The first entry is dated May 6, 1862, when the regiment was in the vicinity of Warrenton VA. There is no further detail on the version of base ball that was played.
1862.17 Ballplaying Frequently Played at Salisbury Prison in North Carolina
Beginning in 1862, prisoners' diary accounts refer to a number of base ball games [by New York rules; Millen infers that games occurred "almost daily"] at Salisbury prison in NC. Charles Gray, a Union doctor who arrived at Salisbury in May 1862, reported ball playing "for those who like it and are able." RI soldier William Crossley in a May 21, 1862 diary entry described a "great game of baseball" between prisoners transferred from New Orleans and Tuscaloosa AL, which brought "as much enjoyment to the Rebs as to the Yanks, for they came in hundreds to see the sport..."
[A] In an unattributed and undated passage, Josephus Clarkson, a prisoner from Boston "recalled in his diary that one of the Union solders wandered over and picked up a pine branch that had dropped on the ground. Another soldier wrapped a stone in a couple of woolen socks and tied the bundle with a string. The soldiers started a baseball game of sorts, although there was much argument over whether to use Town Ball rules or play like New Yorkers. 'To put a man out by Town Ball rules you could plug him as he ran,' wrote Clarkson. 'Since many of the men were in a weakened condition, it was agreed to play the faster but less harsh New York rules, which intrigued our guards. The game of baseball had been played much in the South, but many of them [the guards] had never seen the sport devised by Mr. Cartwright. Eventually they found proper bats for us to play with and we fashioned a ball that was soft and a great bounders.'" According to Clarkson, a pitcher from Texas was banished from playing in a guards/captives game after "badly laming" several prisoners. "By and large," he said, "baseball was quite a popular pastime of troops on both sides, as a means of relaxing before and after battles."
[B] Otto Boetticher, a commercial artist before the war, was imprisoned at Salisbury for part of 1862 and drew a picture of a ball game in progress at the prison that was published in color in 1863. A fine reproduction appears in Ward and Burns.
[C] Adolphus Magnum, A visiting Confederate chaplain, noted in 1862 that "a number of the younger and less dignified [Union officers] ran like schoolboys to the playing ground and were soon joining In high glee in a game of ball."
[D] An extended account of ballplaying at Salisbury, along with the Boetticher drawing, are found in From Pastime to Passion. It draws heavily on Jim Sumner, "Baseball at Salisbury Prison Camp," Baseball History (Meckler, Westport CT, 1989). Similar but unattributed coverage is found in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), pp 43-45. PBall file: CW21.
[E] See also Giles W. Shurtleff account of prison life in the history of the Seventh Ohio, p. 324. Shurtleff had played while at Oberlin College. See also The Congregationalist, May 4, 1864.
[A] Wells Twombley, 200 Years of Sport in America (McGraw-Hill, 1976), page 71.
[B] Ward and Burns, Baseball Illustrated, at pages 10-11.
[C] Magnum.
[D] Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp.27-31.
[E] Patricia Millen, "The POW Game-- Captive Union Soldiers Play a Baseball Game at Salisbury, NC", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 36-38
William Crossley, "Extracts from My Diary" p. 43.
It would be desirable to locate and inspect the Josephus Clarkson diary used in Twombley [A, above.]. Clarkson, described as a ship's chandler before the war, does not yield to Google or Genealogy bank as of 6/6/2009 or 4/3/2013. John Thorn's repeated searches have also come up empty. Particularly questionable is Clarkson's very early identification of Cartwright as an originator of the NY game.
1862.18 Impact of War Lessens in NYC
[A] "BALL PLAYERS OFF TO THE WAR.-- But few of the fraternity, in comparison with the number who left in May, 1861, have gone off to the war this time in the militia regiments...All the clubs have their representatives in the several regiments...but the hegira of warlike ball-players is nothing near as great as in 1861, the necessity not being as pressing..."
[B] "Base Ball. The return of the 47th and 13th regiments has given quite an impetus to ball playing, and the vigor and energy that characterizes the ball player are again displaying themselves in the various clubs."
[C] "BASE BALL. THE BALTIC BASE BALL CLUB OF NEW YORK. It is really a pleasure to welcome the 'Old Baltics' again to the base ball field. At the commencement of the rebellion a great many of the most active and prominent members of this club, patriotically enlisted under and fought for the 'old flag;' this was the main cause of the club's temporary disbandment..."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, June 1, 1862
[B] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep. 9, 1862
[C] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Nov. 29, 1862
In an editorial printed on Aug. 9, 1862 Fitzgerald's City Item, of Philadelphia listed arguments for continuing base ball during the war.
1862.19 The 39th Massachusetts Plays Ball
The regimental history of the 39th MA has two passing references to ballplaying. On Thanksgiving Day of 1862, "There was a release from the greater part of camp duties and the time thus secured was devoted to baseball, football and other diversions so easily devised by the American youth" [p. 50]. The regimental camp was in southern MD, within 15 miles of Washington. April 2, 1863 "was the regular New England Fast Day, and a holiday was proclaimed by the Colonel . . . . [T]here was no failure in taking part in the races, sparring-matches, and various games, of at least witnessing them. The baseball game was between the men of Sleeper's Battery and those selected from the 39th with the honors remaining with the Infantry, though the cannoneers were supposed to be particularly skillful in the throwing of balls." [page 64]. The regiment was now in Poolesville MD, about 30 miles NW of Washington.
Alfred S. Roe, The Thirty-Ninth Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers 1862-1865 (Regimental Veteran Association, Worcester, 1914). Accessed 6/3/09 on Google Books via "'thirty-ninth' roe" search. PBall file: CW-26.
The regiment was drawn from the general Boston area.
1862.20 Wisconsin Man's Diary Included a Dozen References to Ballplaying
Private Jenkin Jones sprinkled 12 references to ballplaying in his Civil War Diary. They range from December 1862 to February 1865. Most are very brief notes, like the "played ball in the afternoon" he recorded in Memphis in February 1863 [page 34]. The more revealing entries:
· Oxford, 12/62: "The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys form their well-worn decks and cribbage boards, bringing them out in ball playing, pitching quoits,etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball" [pp 19/20]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Games daily in camp, ball, etc." [p. 184]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Played ball all of the afternoon" [p.193]
· Fort Hall, 4/64: "[Col. Raum] examined our quarters and fortifications, after which he and the other officers turned in that had a game of wicket ball." [p.203]
· Etowah Bridge, 9/64: "a championship game of base-ball was played on the flat between the non-veterans and the veterans. The non-veterans came off victorious by 11 points in 61." [p. 251]
· Chattanooga, 2/65: "The 6th Badger boys have been playing ball with our neighbors, Buckeyes, this afternoon. We beat them three games of four.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary (Wisconsin History Commission, 1914). Accessed on Google Books 6/3/09 via "'wisconsin history commission' 'No. 8'" search. PBall file: CW-28.
Jones was from Spring Green, WI, which is about 30 miles west of Madison and 110 miles west of Milwaukee WI. Jones later became a leading Unitarian minister and a pacifist.
1862.21 Michigan Colonel Plays Ball in Tennessee, Still Rebuffs Rebs
The 12th Michigan Regiment had the task in December 1862 of guarding a supply railroad in Tennessee. On December 24, a detachment under Col. Wm. Graves was surrounded by a large rebel force that approached under white flag, demanding surrender. Graves' account: "The officer asked, 'Who is in command?' I answered, 'I am;' whereupon he surveyed me from head to foot (I had been playing ball that morning, pants in boots, having a jacket without straps) . . . ." Graves refused, a two-hour fight ensued, and the rebels retreated.
J. Robertson, compiler, Michigan in the War (W. S. George, Lansing MI, 1882), page 327. Accessed 6/4/09 on Google Books via ""michigan in the war" search. PBall file: CW-29.
The regiment seems to have been drawn from the vicinity of Niles, MI, which is 10 miles north of South Bend IN and 60 miles east of Chicago.. The 1862 engagement occurred at Middleburg TN, which is at about the midpoint between Nashville and Memphis.
1862.22 Crowd of 40,000 Said to Watch Christmas Day Game on SC Coast
"In Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Christmas Day in 1862, recalled Colonel A. G. Mills in 1923, his regiment, the 165th New York Infantry, Second Duryea's Zouaves, [engaged a?] picked nine from the other New York regiments in that vicinity.' Supposedly, the game was cheered on by a congregation of 40,000!" Mills eventually served as President of the National League and chair of the Mills Commission on the origins of baseball.
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp 21-22. Millen cites A. G. Mills, "The Evening World's Baseball Panorama." Mills Papers, Giamatti Center, Baseball HOF. The account also appears in A. Spalding, Americas' National Game (American Sports Publishing, 1911), pp 95.96. PBall file -- CW-30
Is this crowd estimate reasonable? Are other contemporary or reflective accounts available?
The crowd estimate is exaggerated. There weren't anywhere near 40,000 troops on the island at that time. [ba]
1862.23 Soldiers' Christmas in Virginia - Ballplaying "on Many a Hillside"
A correspondent near Fredericksburg VA told Philadelphia readers about "orders from head-quarters that Christmas day should be observed as a day or recreation. The men gladly availed themselves of this privilege, and on many a hill-side might be seen parties playing at ball, or busy at work dragging Christmas-trees to the quarters . . . ."
The article also reported that "Brown cricket jackets are now issued to the men instead of the brown blouses formerly issued. These jackets make a very comfortable garment . . . but they are very unmilitary-looking."
"Christmas in the Army," Philadelphia Inquirer, December 29, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file CW-31.
was a PA regiment involved?
1862.24 Ball Game Photographed at Fort Pulaski, Georgia
A ball game appears in the background of photographs of the 48th New York at Fort Pulaski. The Fort, near the Georgia coast, had been taken by the North in July 1862. The National Park Services dates its image to 1862.
One shot appears in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 32, and another, apparently, at the NPS site http://www.nps.gov/fopu/historyculture/baseball.htm [accessed 6/6/09.] PBall file: CW-33.
we welcome your interpretation of these photos.
The 48th NY was from NYC, and thus likely had members familiar with the game. [ba]
1862.25 Hitting Creighton: Patience Pays
"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."
New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 2, 1862
The report goes on to disclose the secrets of Creighton's success as a pitcher. The Union of Morrisania club had defeated Creighton and the Excelsior of South Brooklyn, 12-4.
1862.29 Rebel Prisoners Seen Playing Ball in WI Prison Camp
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. [ba]
1862.30 Game Suspended When BIG Fight Breaks Out
“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]
1862.35 Massachusetts Officers Play Ball in May, on July 4
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.
1862.36 CT Boys Play Ball on March to Fredericksburg
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 Thanksgiving and Foot-ball . . . and Base-Ball
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 Vermonters Play Manly Sport of Football, (and Base Ball) in Virginia
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.
1862.44 Ohio Soldier Sees “Most of Our Company “ Playing Pre-battle Bat Ball
“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.
1862.48 Pork, Hard-Tack, Beans, and Baseball in the 5th Mass Artillery
“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.
1862.50 Texas Ranger Plugs Waaay Too Hard
“And the game might become so rough as to necessitate precautionary steps. ‘Frank Ezell was ruled out,’ wrote a Texas Ranger in his diary, because ‘he could throw harder and straighter than any man in the company. He came very neat knocking the stuffing out of three or four of the boys, and the boys swore they would not play with him.’”
Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War (Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1952), Book Two, The Life of Johnny Reb, page 159. Wiley’s end-note is, evidently, “diary of D[esmond]. P[ulaski]. Hopkins, entry of March 15, 1862, typescript, University of Texas.” Neither Hopkins’ unit nor its March 1862 location is noted. Note: can we locate the full text and its context?
D. P. Hopkins and Benjamin Franklin Ezell (1839 MS - 1913 TX) were members of Norris' Frontier Battalion which in March 1862 was stationed at/near Kerrville, TX. The Hopkins diary was published in the San Antonio Express, 1-13-1918. The March 15, 1862 entry (on page 23 of the Express) mentions this game, and mentions that the troops made their own ball out of yarn socks. [ba]
1862.52 Zouave Pitcher Baffles Batters With “Weak, Puzzling” Delivery
“On Roanoke Island Hawkins' Zouaves formed two scrub teams. A young volunteer pitcher won for his side by a weak, puzzling delivery which baffled the batsmen. It was Alphonse Martin, first in line of great American pitchers.”
A. G. Spalding, America’s National Game (American Sports Publishing, 1911), page 97. Available online via Google Books. Roanoke Island is on the North Carolina Coast near Kitty Hawk NC, and about 80 miles SE of Norfolk VA.. Hawkin’s Zouaves were the 9th NY Regiment, which was organized in New York City and was at Roanoke Island in the early part of 1862. Alphonse “Phonney” Martin was then not yet 17. Known for throwing tricky pitches, “Old Slow Ball” Martin pitched for Troy, Brooklyn, and the New York Mutuals in 1872 and 1873. Spalding gives no source for this note, which may well have been received via personal communication.
The New York Sunday Mercury, April 20, 1862 mentions a match on Roanoke by Company F of this regiment. Another match is reported in same, June 8, 1862.[ba]
1862.53 Southern Brigade’s Play Base . . . Somewhere
“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 brigade was near Murfreesboro, TN on 12-25-62. [ba]
1862c.54 Confederate soldiers in need of base ball and cricket bats
"Camp Games. Every volunteer who has been in service, has realized the tedium of camp life. Between reveille and breakfast--between morning and evening drill--there is waste time, which might be used advantageously at such many exercises as cricket, base ball, foot ball, quoit pitching, etc. A recent visit to some of our camp[s], showed several parties enjoying a quiet hand at pitching quoits in a shady grove. Cannot some of our hardware dealers have a supply cast, and let our soldiers know where they can be procured? Cricket and base ball bats are also wanted, and a few dozen substantial foot balls would, we are sure, find ready sale. For want of such things, the time of the soldier is mainly spent in playing cards."
The Charleston (SC) Mercury (3 Apr 1862). Available digitally through "Accessible Archives."
Duplicate of 1862.27
1862.55 They Do It Differently in Philadelphia
"THE GRAND MATCHES IN PHILADELPHIA. BROOKLYN VS. PHILADELPHIA...On the first day's play, there was no chalk line made between the home and 1st and 3rd bases, as the rule requires...It would be well, to,, to mark the home base line of six feet in length on which the striker is required to stand. Every player running the bases should be required to touch them...In cases of foul balls, too, the player running the bases should remain on the base, after he has returned to it, until the ball has been settled in the hands of the pitcher...we would also call the Philadelphians' attention to Section 20 of the rules. It applies to the striker as well as anyone else. (Section 20 deals with obstruction).
[A] New York Clipper, July 12, 1862
1862c.56 Dime Admission Free Adopted at More Sites
In 1862, a ten-cent admission fee is reported at the Union Grounds. In 1864, the some fee provided entry at the Capitoline Grounds.
Sources?
Are these the only two other known collection of entry fees in the middle 1860s?
1862.57 Games Between NY and MA Regiments Punctuated by Artillery
Union General George McClellan
Members of the Massachusetts 22nd Regiment and the NY 14th squared off for two matches on April 15, 1862, in the vicinity of active fire, and "in sight of the enemy’s breastworks mounted with heavy 64’s and 32’s." A discarded boot supplied material for a new cover for the game ball. Union General McClellan passed by while play was in progress.
Additional details are provided in the supplemental text, below.
Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862.
Undoubtedly, Game played near Yorktown, VA
1862.58 2nd Mass Troops Beat 3rd Wisconsin Regiment, 75 to 7
The men of the Wisconsin 3d challenged our men to a game of base ball & this afternoon it was played & at the end the tally stood 75 for our side & 7 for theirs so I hardly think they will care to play a return match; we have some of the best players of quite a celebrated ball club from Medway & some of the play was admirable.
Letter from Captain Richard Cary, 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, May 3, 1862. Reported in The Beehive, the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society, April 5, 2012.
Protoball wonders if the Mass Game was in fact unfamiliar in WI.
Medway was a leading MA-rules club before the War.
Do we know the location of these Regiments in May 1862? Who was Captain Cary writing to?
The 2nd MA and 3rd WI were at/near Harrisonburg, VA on May 3, 1862. This entry is based on the letters of Cary to his wife, at the MA Historical Society. [ba]
1862.59 Thirsty Baserunning
"The Newburg boys excel in running bases with bottles of soda-water, sucking
as they run."
To a previous report of player Holder smoking while batting (see 1860.89) in a game in 1860,this head-scratcher can be added, from a report in the New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862, of a game between the Hudson River Club of Newburg, NY, and the Eclipse Club of Kingston.
They won, either because or in spite of such skills, 39-21.
New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862.
1862.60 Confederate POWs play baseball in New York City
May 9, 1862: "This morning we received balls and bats from New York and have organized a regular Base Ball Club. We have been playing considerable today and I feel quite fine in consequence."
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
Drummond, along with his Savannah "Chatham Artillery" unit, were captured at Fort Pulaski, outside Savanna, and taken to Governors Island POW camp in New York harbor. The next month he and his comrades play baseball almost daily.
Drummond was a Maine-born bookkeeper in Savannah at the start of the war. This entry suggests that his fellow townsmen were perfectly familiar with the game of base ball.
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
1862.61 Confederate POWs in Indianapolis play base ball
Confederate army POWs at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, played baseball in 1862, according to a letter from a POW, and a report by a Union general. See James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
Camp Morton was situated on the old state fairgrounds, and was used as a baseball field postwar.
The Century Magazine (1891, p. 763-64) has an article on Camp Morton which quotes a Union officers as saying the POWs enjoyed "ball playing" and has a plan of Camp Morton, which features a "base ball grounds."
James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
1862.63 Right and Left wings of 13th NY in Suffolk, VA
The Brooklyn Evening Star, July 9, 1862 prints a 7-5-62 letter from the 13th NY Regt. at Camp Cook, Suffolk, VA: "As soon as we got dinner settled, we got up a game of ball between the right and left wings. It was a very interesting game, and lasted all the afternoon. The Left Wing being 18 runs to 11--Company C in the left wing, of course."
This game is also reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 12, 1862. From Camp "Crook," on July 4th. See also The New York Sunday Mercury, July 13, 27, 1862 for other games of the 13th at Camp Crook. See also The Ball Players Chronicle, Nov. 28, 1867, for further mentions of these games.
The Brooklyn Evening Star, July 9, 1862
1862.64 Winter Baseball in West Virginia
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863 reports that last month soldiers of the 91st Ohio amused themselves by playing ball in the camp at Fayetteville.
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863
1862.65 Base Ball at Fort Monroe on Christmas Eve
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin of Milwaukee, Jan. 9th, 1863 reports that on Christmas Eve at Fort Monroe "I saw the soldiers playing at base ball..."
See also New York Herald, Jan. 5, 1863, headlined "Amusements of the Army"
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin, Jan. 9th, 1863
1862.66 In camp near Rochester, New York
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862 prints a letter from Camp Fitz John Porter, Sept. 24, 1862, from a member of the 140th NY: "The boys are playing ball, writing to friends, and some are target shooting..."
The camp was at/near Rochester, NY.
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862
1862.67 Playing Ball near Yorktown
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862 prints an April 24 letter from a soldier in "camp near Yorktown" discussing the soldier's life there:
"While not on duty, they engage in almost every variety of exercise and amusement, playing ball, pitching quoits, and other athletic sports."
At this time the Army of the Potomac camped opposite the Confederate lines running south from Yorktown, VA.
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862
1862.68 Christmas Day on Hilton Head
"The New South" a union army newspaper, Dec. 27, 1862 reports on a Dec. 25th game at Hilton Head between the Van Brunt and Frazer base ball clubs. James L. Frazer was colonel of the 47th NY and George B. Van Brunt was then major of the 47th. The 47th was raised in NYC and Brooklyn.
A Charles Van Brunt had headed an early New Jersey team.
"The New South" Dec. 27, 1862
1862.70 Drummers defeat Fifers on Hilton Head
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862 reports that "Base ball is the favorite amusement at Hilton Head just at present" and notes a game among the 3rd New Hampshire Infantry in which Galvin's Drum Corps nine defeated Davis' Fifers nine 30-27.
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862
1862.71 Confederate Surgeon encourages ball-playing
In his "Manual of Military Surgery" for CS surgeons, noted Dr. Julian Chisolm recommended that the army encourage "gymnastic exercises" to relieve the soldier's boredom:
'"`UNIQ--pre-00018903-QINU`"'Chisolm book. See also Kirsch book, p. 31.
1862.72 Town Ball club formed by Ohio Regiment in West Virginia
The Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative, May 18, 1862 prints a May 2 letter from a soldier in the 84th Ohio, Camp Union, Fayetteville, VA (now WV): "We are enjoying ourselves hugely. We have a town-ball club organized and a splendid field to play in. ..."
At this time town-ball was popular in Cincinnati (and Philadelphia and Evansville). Query if the unit had soldiers from that city.
The Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative, May 18, 1862
1862.73 14th NY Plays in Annapolis
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862, under the headline "Ball Playing in the 14th Regiment," reports that in Annapolis on the 6th, Oline's nine defeated Pendleton's, 34-21.
The Eagle wrote a lot of stories on the 14th, which appears to have had many prewar ballplayers.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862
1862.75 Confederates Play Ball at Fort Sumter
The Charleston Courier, July 29, 1862, reports on the Confederate army garrison at Fort Sumter: "On the dismissal of the parade, the soldiers entered with zeal into an animated ball play."
The Charleston Courier, July 29, 1862
1862.76 Ball playing, running and jumping
The Boston Daily Advertiser, April [Aug?] 8, 1862: "From the Army of Virginia [at Sperryville] Their labor is light, and time enough is left and to spare for them to enjoy themsleves as they wish, such as ball playing, running, and jumping."
The Boston Daily Advertiser, April [Aug?] 8, 1862
1862.77 42nd Ohio plays ball in Louisville
The Daily Cleveland Herald, April 5, 1862 prints a letter from the 42nd Ohio, in Louisville, April 1: "...the boys are out upon the lawn, playing ball, rolling on the grounds, turning summersaults &c."
The Daily Cleveland Herald, April 5, 1862
1862.78 Baseball at Camp Cleveland
Theodore Tracie's 1874 book, "Annals of the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Artillery" recalls soldier life in 1862 in Camp Cleveland (bounded by West 5th, Railway, West 7th and Marquardt) in what is now Tremont. Says that among other diversions, "Baseball games were played on the parade grounds."
1862.79 Exhilarating Game of Ball
The Burlington Daily Times, May 24, 1862, reports on state adjutant general Washbrn's visit to Vermonters in Camp near Yorktown. "When off duty they amuse themselves with quoits, the exhilarating game of ball, or in other harmless sports."
The Burlington Daily Times, May 24, 1862
1862.80 Union POWs seen playing ball in Macon
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" contains the diary of Leroy Wiley Gresham of Macon. The May 6, 1862 entry (p. 133): "In the evening went downtown and saw the Yankee prisoners. Some were drilling, others cooking, some played ball."
There was a POW facility, Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon.
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" p. 133
1862.81 VA Artillerymen play town ball
Walbrook Swank, "Confederate Letters" p. 70 prints a letter from Charles T. Shelton (1839-63), a UVA grad who served in Virginia's Botetourt Artillery:
Our company is engaged in a game of town Ball..."
From the online snippet it is unclear where/when the letter was written. The unit was transferred to East Tennessee in 1862, and in late 1862 was sent with Stevenson's division to defend Vicksburg, MS. He mentions the game was familiar from his days in school.
Walbrook Swank, "Confederate Letters" p. 70
1862.83 Irish Brigade plays near Richmond
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37 lists an 1862 game of the Union's "Irish Brigade" seen by Confederates across the Chickahominy River, just east of Richmond, during the Peninsula Campaign.
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37
1862.84 Soldiers Play Philadelphia Champs
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37 lists an 1862 game where the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division [Army of the Potomac] played selected members of the Honey Run Club, the 1859 Philadelphia champs.
See 1863.49--same game, but put in a different year?
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37
1862.85 76th NY plays baseball--or is it drive ball?
Note: this entry was, in February 2022, merged in Chronology item 1862.104.
The 1862 letters of Lester Winslow, of the 76th NY, at the National Archives, feature stationary printed with the heading "Camp Doubleday" "76th New York" and show soldiers playing a bat-ball game. On this David Block writes:
"In the foreground of the illustration two soldiers face each other with bats, one striking a ball. Since no other players are involved, the only game that seems to correlate to the image is, in fact, drive ball. If not for Abner Doubleday's association, we would pay this little heed, but it is a matter of curiosity, if not amusement, to place baseball's legendary noninventor in such close proximity to a game involving a bat and ball." David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It (U Nebraska, 2005), page 198. See entry on Drive Ball.
Camp Doubleday, named for brigade commander General Abner Doubleday, was a fort protecting DC, near where Fort Stevens is/was.
1862.86 An interesting game of base ball in Oxford, MS
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary": "Near Oxford, Friday, Dec. 19th... The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys from their well worn decks [of cards] and cribbage boards,bring them out in ball playing, pitching quoits, etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball."
Dec. 19, 1862, near Oxford, MS. Jones was a member of the 6th WI Battery.
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary"
Dup of 1862.20?
1862.87 Maryland Confederates Play Town Ball
"Our only game out here is Town Ball and with the rest of the Maryland Boys we sometimes get up a game."
Diary of Edward Tilghman Paca, Oct. 26, 1862 entry, in Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
1862.88 21st MA "played ball a good deal..."
James Madison Stone, "Personal Recollections of the Civil War" chapter 3 says that in mid-1862 "While at Newport News we had a rather pleasant time. We drilled a little, we played ball a good deal..."
Stone was with the 21st MA.
The Barre [MA] Gazette, June 13, 1862 prints a May 20th letter from a soldier in the 21st which says that each night closes with "a game of wicket."
James Madison Stone, "Personal Recollections of the Civil War"
The Barre Gazette, June 13, 1862
1862.89 71st NY enjoy themselves with a baseball game
The New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862 reports on a baseball game between Co. K, 71st NY, and a picked nine from the rest of the 71st. The box score is given. Co. K lost 33-11, but they were all "enjoying themselves." Another game of the same regiment, same place, is reported in The New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 3, 1862. The officers of the regiment gave a "splendid colaltion" after the match.
Tenleytown was then MD, now part of DC.
1862.94 Union Army Parolees Play baseball at Camp Douglas
The New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 26, 1862 reports on a game of baseball at Camp Douglas, the Confederate POW camp in Chicago, on the 22nd. between two teams of Union army parolees from Companies A and F, 5th NY Artillery. The latter won 15-14, with "good pitching" shown on both sides. Se also same, Nov. 9, 1862.
Parolees were army prisoners who were at home, awaiting exchange for enemy POWs.