Chancellorsville and Gettysburg

Publisher Marketing: Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) had one of the lengthiest Civil War resumes and an influence that made him worthy of national recognition. Doubleday is credited with firing the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening fight of the war, and he played a pivotal role on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, taking command of the I Corps early on the morning of July 1, 1863 after General John Reynolds was killed. Doubleday also led a division at South Mountain and then at Antietam, where he was injured during deadly fighting in the Cornfield and the West Woods. One colonel described him as a "gallant officer ... remarkably cool and at the very front of battle," and his personal character was so admired among the rank-and-file that one of his men humorously asserted, "He is deficient considerably in the requisites of a commander. He does not drink whiskey...stays with his command and seems anxious to do his duty and fight Rebels.... He also allows his wife to stay with him when he ought to keep a mistress." Despite his Civil War service, few people remember Abner Doubleday for his military career today, and it has basically been relegated to the status of historical footnote. Instead, Doubleday has become the inadvertent beneficiary of the myth that he invented baseball, and he is almost universally remembered for that claim. In conjunction, the widespread belief that Doubleday invented baseball resulted in his hometown of Cooperstown, New York becoming home of Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame. This is all in spite of the fact that Doubleday never claimed to have invented the game much less said anything of note about it, which should come as no surprise since baseball was so commonplace by then that it was a popular game played in army camps among Civil War soldiers on both sides. In this work, he discusses the pivotal battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, fought in May 1863 and July 1863 respectively. Contributor Bio:  Doubleday, Abner Abner Doubleday was born on June 26, 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers fought in the Revolutionary War and his father in the War of 1812 before becoming a U. S. Congressman. After spending much of his childhood in Auburn, New York, Abner was sent to Cooperstown to live with his uncle and attend a private high school. He worked as a surveyor before entering West Point, from which he graduated in 1842, becoming a lieutenant in the U. S. Artillery. He served in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, then the Seminole Wars from 1856 to 1858. In 1852, he married Mary Hewitt. At the start of the Civil War, he was second in command at Fort Sumter, and in fact, aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot of the war in 1861. Promoted to major, he was a hero at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and was present at South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and of course Gettysburg, where he spent five hours leading 9,500 Union troops against 16,000 Confederates. Due to a misunderstanding, General George Meade replaced him, and he assumed administrative duties in Washington, D. C. When Abraham Lincoln travelled to Gettysburg, to give his famous address, Doubleday travelled with him. He left the military in 1873. While stationed in San Francisco from 1869 through 1871, he invented the cable car, which still runs there today. Working as an attorney in New York, he also spent much time writing and became a friend of Thomas Edison. Doubleday died on January 26, 1893, at the age of 73, from heart disease in Mendham, New York. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. As to the myth that he was the inventor of baseball, there is no evidence to support that, either historically, or in Doubleday's own writings.