Abner Doubleday - Early years, Military career, Postbellum career, Legacy and baseball
US soldier, born in Ballston Spa, New York, USA. He trained at West Point, and fought in the Mexican War and against the Seminoles in Florida. He commanded the Federal troops that fired the first shot in defence of Fort Sumter as the Civil War commenced, and then distinguished himself at the Battle of Gettysburg. He retired from the army in 1873, and wrote many newspaper and magazine articles as well as two accounts of his war experiences (drawing on his 67 volumes of diaries). In nothing he wrote does he ever mention baseball, nor does his New York Times obituary; but in 1908 a commission eager to establish the American origins of baseball credited him with being its inventor on the basis of a dubious letter from one Abner Graves, who claimed to have been present in Cooperstown, NY, on the day in 1839 Doubleday laid out the field and rules. Although the claim has long since been recognized as popular folklore - even by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown - Doubleday remains synonymous with baseball to most Americans.
Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 – January 26, 1893), was a career U.S. Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War.
In San Francisco, California, after the war, he obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs there.
Early years
Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York.
Military career
Early commands and Fort Sumter
Doubleday initially served in coastal garrisons and then in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848 and the Seminole Wars from 1856 to 1858.
Brigade and division command in Virginia
Doubleday was promoted to major on May 14, 1861, and commanded the Artillery Department in the Shenandoah Valley from June to August, and then the artillery for Maj.
Doubleday again led the division, now assigned to the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac, after South Mountain, where Hatch was wounded again. During the winter, the I Corps was reorganized and Doubleday assumed command of the 3rd Division.
Gettysburg
At the start of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was first infantry on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brig. Reynolds, was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps. It was Doubleday's finest performance during the war, five hours leading 9,500 men against ten Confederate brigades that numbered more than 16,000.
On July 2, Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Meade replaced Doubleday with Maj. Howard that Doubleday's corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse, but Meade also had a long history of disdain for Doubleday's combat effectiveness, dating back to South Mountain. Doubleday was humiliated by this snub and held a lasting grudge against Meade, but he returned to division command and fought well for the remainder of the battle. He formally requested reinstatement as I Corps commander, but Meade refused, and Doubleday left Gettysburg on July 7 for Washington.
Washington
Doubleday assumed mostly administrative duties in the defenses of Washington, D.C., where his only return to combat was directing a portion of the defenses against the attack by Confederate Lt. Gen. Also while in Washington, Doubleday testified against George Meade at the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, criticizing him harshly over his conduct of the battle of Gettysburg.
Postbellum career
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After the Civil War, Doubleday mustered out of the volunteer service on August 24, 1865, reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and became the colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry in September 1867.
Doubleday died of heart disease in Mendham, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Legacy and baseball
Although Doubleday was a competent, if colorless, combat general with experience in many important Civil War battles, the lore of baseball credits Doubleday with inventing the game, supposedly in Elihu Phinney's cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839.
The Mills Commission, chaired by Abraham G. The committee's final report, on December 30, 1907, stated, in part, that "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence obtainable to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839." It concluded by saying, "in the years to come, in the view of the hundreds of thousands of people who are devoted to baseball, and the millions who will be, Abner Doubleday's fame will rest evenly, if not quite as much, upon the fact that he was its inventor ...
However, there is considerable evidence to dispute this claim. At his death, Doubleday left many letters and papers, none of which describe baseball, or give any suggestion that he considered himself a prominent person in the evolution of the game. Chairman Mills himself, who had been a Civil War colleague of Doubleday and a member of the honor guard for Doubleday's body as it lay in state in New York City, never recalled hearing Doubleday describe his role as the inventor. Doubleday was a cadet at West Point in the year of the alleged invention and his family had moved away from Cooperstown the prior year. Furthermore, the primary testimony to the commission that connected baseball to Doubleday was that of Abner Graves, whose credibility is questionable;
Doubleday published two important works on the Civil War: Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie (1876), and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (1882), the latter being a volume of the series Campaigns of the Civil War.
Doubleday's indecision as a commander earned him the uncomplimentary nickname "Forty-Eight Hours."
In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Abner Doubleday was named in his honor.
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