After a period commanding artillery defenses around Washington, D.C., Doubleday was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in February 1862 and placed in command of a brigade under General Irvin McDowell. [23], Mendham Borough and Mendham Township, New Jersey has held a municipal holiday known as "Abner Doubleday Day" for numerous years in the General's honor[24] and commissioned a plaque near the site of his home in the borough in 1998, even though the borough was known as Mendham Township back then. He was the third of eight children of Ulysses Freeman Doubleday and Hester (Donnelly) Doubleday. Doubleday remained in Washington for the remainder of the Civil War. An error has occured while loading the map. Currently, Abner Doubleday is 203 years, 9 months and 8 days old. June 17, 2015 Nelson Doubleday Jr., who shortly after taking over his family's publishing business used it in 1980 to buy the lowly New York Mets and put the team on course to win the World. [7], Doubleday initially served in coastal garrisons and then in the MexicanAmerican War from 1846 to 1848 and the Seminole Wars from 1856 to 1858. Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 January 26, 1893)[1] was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War. Spalding was set up to determine baseball's originsnamely if it was invented in the United States or derived from games in the United Kingdom. David W. Anderson is author of More Than Merkle and You Cant Beat the Hours, and has spoken at the Seymour Conference and SABR conventions. Doubleday next spent time in New York City before receiving a promotion to the rank of major. Born on 26 June 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York to Ulysses F. and Hester (Donnelly) Doubleday, Abner joined a respected family with deep ties to the still-young United States. 9 Letter to Bert Gumpert from Kenneth W. Rapp, acting chief, US Military Academy Archives, February 11, 1977. [16] There is a 7-foot (2.1m) obelisk monument at Arlington National Cemetery where he is buried. Abner was born in 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York. Receive Access to Over Two Billion Family Records. She was the granddaughter of Ulysses F. Doubleday, who served in the War of 1812 and was elected to both the Twenty-second and Twenty-fourth Congresses.She was the niece of General Abner Doubleday.. [7] He retired in 1873. Civil War Union Major General. }, Cronkite School at ASU His grandfather, also named Abner Doubleday, served under "Mad" Anthony Wayne in the American Revolution. Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York, in a small house on the corner of Washington and Fenwick Streets. Spalding was engaged in a dispute with Henry Chadwick. Seen not as a foolhardy soldier but as a steadfast one, many times in the future Doubleday would be asked to anchor a line and protect the flank of a large body of soldiers. I was fond of poetry and art and much interested in mathematical studies. He criticized Meades handling of the Gettysburg Campaign and argued that a pro-slavery faction existed within the Union Army. Doubleday rode with Lincoln on the train to Gettysburg for the Gettysburg Address and Col. and Mrs. Doubleday attended events with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln in Washington. His family lived in a tiny house, and they all slept in the attic. [5], 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. 00 Cooperstown is home to only 1,730 people, but more than 300,000 journey to the tiny Otsego County village's world-famous cultural attraction each year. Abner Doubleday summary: Abner Doubleday was an officer of the US. No serious historian of baseball believes Doubleday established the rules of baseball, but the myth of Doubleday still persists to some degree. He earned some legal experience from his position as he was in charge of courts martial. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/abner-doubleday-8040.php. He was then transferred to San Francisco to serve as a recruitment officer. In my outdoor sports I was a addicted to topographical work and even as a boy amused myself by making maps of the country around my fathers residence which was in Auburn, Cayuga County, New York.5 Interesting, there is no mention of baseball in his upbringing. 1994 Baseball Strike; Doubleday stayed in the army after the Civil War and in 1866 assumed command of troops in New York City. He also became a member of the Theosophical Society. Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 - January 26, 1893) [1] was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War. Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) was a U.S. military officer who served as a Union general during the Civil War (1861-65). . Abner Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York, on June 26, 1819. For the morale of the men, he is said to have provisioned balls and bats for the men. Administrative Command in Washington, D.C. https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/abner-doubleday. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Doubleday attended school in Auburn and Cooperstown, N.Y., and in 1838 he was appointed a cadet in the U.S. Military Academy (graduating in 1842). In the 23rd episode of the anime Samurai Champloo, titled "Baseball Blues", Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright are featured as American naval officers who engage the main characters and local Japanese people into a baseball game, which the Americans lose. Abner Doubleday was born at Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York, on June 26, 1819, to Ulysses F. Doubleday and Hester (Donnelly) Doubleday. Abner's birthdate is not given, but his brother's birthday puts him at least in the same generation as Graves. Wrong username or password. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Later, he became a Republican and was one of the biggest supporters of President Abraham Lincoln. Family Life His father was named Ulysses F. Doubleday. While the modern rules of baseball were formulated in New York during the 1840s, it was the scattering of New Yorkers exposed to these rules throughout the country, that spread not only baseball, but also the "New York Rules", thereby harmonizing the rules, and being a catalyst for its growth. He was a staunch Union loyalist from New York, he served in many of the most famous battles during the Civil War. Doubleday would play a significant role in the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. 34 Civilwarwomenblog.com/mary-doubleday.htm. Doubleday later commanded an all-Black unit in Texas before retiring from the army in 1873. Abner Doubleday General Born 26 June 1819 - Ballston, Saratoga Co., NY Deceased 26 January 1893 - Mendham, Morris Co., NJ,aged 73 years old Buried - Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA 1 file available Parents Ulysses Freeman Doubleday 1792-1866 Hester Donnelly 1788-1859 Spouses Howard and Meade had incurred the New Yorker's enduring wrath, a fact made evident in Doubleday's Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Abner practiced as a surveyor and civil engineer for two years before entering the United States Military Academy in 1838. Before entering West Point, he had been a civil engineer for two years. Prior to that he was present when Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.30 Mustering out of the Union volunteer service in late August 1865, he became a colonel in the regular army and was sent to California, where he helped get a charter for the first cable car railway in San Francisco.31, In 1871 Doubleday was in Texas, where he commanded the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment. His stubborn defenses finally collapsed in the late afternoon, and his I Corps then retreated through the town of Gettysburg to the heights at Cemetery Hill. In 1858 he was assigned to Fort Moultrie in Charleston South Carolina. Abner Doubleday. Born In: Ballston Spa, New York, United States, siblings: Amanda Doubleday Eddy, Hester Elizabeth Doubleday, Jane Ann Doubleday, Ruth Maria Doubleday, Thomas D. Doubleday, Ulysses Doubleday, William James Doubleday, place of death: Mendham, New Jersey, United States, education: United States Military Academy, See the events in life of Abner Doubleday in Chronological Order, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doubledayo.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doubleday_and_wife_(1).jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abner_Doubleday.jpg. His maternal grandfather was a messenger for George Washington in the early years of the Revolution. Promoted to brigadier general in February 1862, Doubleday participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) and the Battle of Antietam later that year. Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 - January 26, 1893) was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. Promoted to full colonel in the regular army in March 1865, he remained in administrative duty until the end of the war. He was assigned to duty in northern Virginia while the Peninsula Campaign was being conducted by the Army of the Potomac. Before he entered the United States Military Academy, he also worked as a surveyor and civil engineer. General Abner Doubleday was long believed to have invented the game of baseball in 1839, but this has since been proven to be a myth. As a child, Abner was very short. brother Major Seth Doubleday They had no children. Elisha Doubleday married Mary Ann Pearsall and had 2 children. Up the hill from John F. Kennedy's grave and behind Arlington House on . He practiced as a surveyor and civil engineer for two years before entering the United States Military Academy[5] in 1838. True Babe Ruth is credited not only with being a remarkable player during the 1920s, but also for earning more than then-President Herbert Hoover. In 1858, he was transferred to Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor serving under Colonel John L. Gardner. He also abolished the dangerous practice of tagging runners by throwing balls at them. While this myth was later debunked, many baseball teams and fields continue to bear his name. background-image:unset; Doubleday touched off the first reply by the United States Army at 7 p.m. Doubleday, who graduated from West Point in 1842 had served in the Mexican War of 1846-1848, and then fought Seminole Indians in Florida from 1856 to 1858. His body is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. 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. Thomas Donnelly, his maternal grandfather, was a soldier as well; he had joined the army when he was just 14. Doubleday led a corps on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, and then served in administrative duty in Washington, D.C., for the rest of the conflict. Doubleday had a number of West Point classmates who served in the Civil War, including John Newton and John Pope. The family all slept in the attic loft of the one-room house. They are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.34. Ammi Doubleday, Revolutiona. Doubleday then led rearguard operations during the Union retreat from the field. By the time of the American Revolution, variations of such games were being played on schoolyards and college campuses across the country. As a lieutenant of the 1st Artillery, Doubleday was involved in the hostilities against the Apaches from 1854 to 1855 on the Texas border. Emily Gumpert assisted with this project as well. After graduating in 1842, he became a cadet and was commissioned into the 3rd US Artillery as a brevet second lieutenant. Alice Gaylord , Richard Treat, Blanche de BRIENNE , Guillaume de FIENNES. Despite Abner Doubleday having had nothing to do with baseball's origin, the Baseball Hall of Fame still displays an oil painting of Doubleday. The commission used flimsy evidencethe claims of one man, mining engineer Abner Graves, who said he went to school with Doubledayto come up with the origin story, which managed to stick. His maternal grandfather Thomas Donnelly had joined the army at 14 and was a mounted messenger for George Washington. 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. SPORTS HISTORY > History Of Baseball >> Abner Doubleday . Liljenquist Family collection (Library of Congress) Repository Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 . Abner Doubleday was born at Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York, on June 26, 1819, to Ulysses F. Doubleday and Hester (Donnelly) Doubleday.2 Doubledays ancestors participated in the American Revolution; his paternal grandfather fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, served at Valley Forge, and fought in the Battle of Stony Point (New York) in 1779. Until not too terribly long ago, if you asked most people about the origins of baseball, they'd say "a man named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York in 1839." They'd say that because, until not too long ago, there was a sign there, right next to the Hall of Fame, saying so. If you can help us improve this players biography,contact us. Gen. Abner Doubleday, NOT the inventor of baseball but a Union leader who seemed to be in some of the hottest spots in the war between 1861-63, wrote the above narrative shortly after Gettysburg where he served temporarily in command of the 1st Corp (Reynolds was acting as the Left Wing commander until his death) until his relief following an unjust report by Gen. O. O. Howard, commander of XI . One of the persistent legends of baseball history is that Doubleday invented the game in 1839, although he was in West Point at the time. The letter was published in a newspaper and eventually used by the Mills Commission to support its finding that the game was of American origin. Great spot for baseball fans to catch a game in a historic space. He graduated from West Point in 1842 ranking 24th in a class of 56 members on July 1 of that year. A native of New York, Doubleday graduated from West Point and served during. Game On! Many members of his family served in the military, including his father, who fought in the War of 1812, and later became a congressman. Luckily I was hit squarely by the smooth round surface. Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball. Doubledays force was lightly engaged at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, and he was placed in charge of the newly created Third Division a month later. [25], In 2004, the Abner Doubleday Society erected a monument to Doubleday in Iron Spring Park, Ballston Spa, near his birthplace.[26]. Doubleday was popularly credited with inventing the game of baseball for many years, but this claim was later debunked. 3 Thomas Barthel, Abner Doubleday: A Civil War Biography (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2010), 7-8. [5], At the start of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was the second infantry division on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brigadier General John Buford. He said he had attended school with Doubleday. letters, or papers. In 1859 Doubleday was stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston. [6] He formally requested reinstatement as I Corps commander, but Meade refused, and Doubleday left Gettysburg on July 7 for Washington. Thanks to Mark Pattison for providing information on Gumperts work on Doubleday. On the first day of the. At Antietam, he led his men into the deadly fighting in the Cornfield and the West Woods, and one colonel described him as a "gallant officer remarkably cool and at the very front of battle. There, Doubleday was second in command to Major Robert Anderson, who was from Kentucky and was from a slave-owning family. Unfortunately, that's a bit of a myth. Doubleday, who was born to a prominent family in upstate New York in 1819, was still at West Point in 1839, and he never claimed to have anything to do with. By the third year of the Civil War, Doubleday was a reliable general and his biographer Thomas Barthel describes him this way: He has never been given credit he deserves for his actions in the Civil War or later because he was not one of the boys. He 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.[6]. Alderman, 1890), 115. Written as part of Scribner's "Campaigns of the Civil War" series and published in 1882, the book bristled with criticism of the pair. Abner Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York. David Oman McKay papers 1897-1983 . I was brought up in a book store and early imbibed a taste for reading. During early fighting near Brawners Farm, Doubleday dispatched nearly 1,000 of his men to support forces under General John Gibbon. I could understand saying specifically what you want changed or saying what exactly you don't like besides "fake cards" but just coming on here to say "I hate . Gen. Abner Doubleday Library of Congress Quick Facts Significance: Union general during the Civil War Place of Birth: Ballston Spa, New York Date of Birth: June 26, 1819 Place of Death: Mendham, New Jersey Date of Death: January 26, 1893 Place of Burial: Arlington, Virginia Cemetery Name: Arlington National Cemetery When his corps commander, Major General John F. Reynolds, was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps at 10:50 am. Maj Gen Abner Doubleday Born 26 Jun 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York, USA Ancestors Son of Ulysses Freeman Doubleday and Hestor (Donnelly) Doubleday [sibling (s) unknown] Husband of Mary (Hewitt) Doubleday married 27 Jan 1852 in District of Columbia, United States [children unknown] Died 26 Jan 1893 at age 73 in Mendham, New Jersey, USA He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. However, a lot of counterevidence has been presented by baseball historians that refute this claim. [17], Doubleday Field is a 9,791-seat baseball stadium named for Abner Doubleday, located in Cooperstown, New York, near the Baseball Hall of Fame. Abner Doubleday will celebrate 204th birthday on Monday, 26th of June 2023. . Course: American Civil War Era, Furman University. He was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on February 3, 1862, and was assigned to duty in northern Virginia while the Army of the Potomac conducted the Peninsula Campaign. There is a popular myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Abner Doubleday was born to Ulysses F. Doubleday and Hester Donnelly, in Ballston Spa, New York, on 26th June 1819. Mary Stewart Doubleday Cutting was the daughter of Civil War Brevet Brigadier General Ulysses Doubleday and his wife, ne Mary Stewart. His last-year scores were 26th in Engineering; 29th in Ethics; 30th in Infantry Tactics; 32nd in Artillery; and 32nd in Mineralogy and Geology. READ MORE: Baseball Opening Day Fun Facts. In 1905 Abraham G. Mills was appointed by Albert G. Spalding to head a commission to determine when and where baseball began. Historical Society of Pennsylvania . Doubleday never forgave Meade, and his career with the Army of the Potomac was over.27 Allen C. Guelzo, in Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, writes, The written update (General John) Hancock sent back to Meade from Gettysburg included a brief statement Howard says that Doubledays command gave way which became fixed in Meades mind as proof that Doubleday had lost all control of I Corps and somehow caused the collapse of both the I and the XI Corps. He wrote, "Robert Henderson, Harold Seymour, and other scholars have since debunked the Doubleday-Cooperstown myth, which nonetheless remains powerful in the American imagination because of the efforts of Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown." We strive for accuracy and fairness. Some historians make the argument that he kept Cemetery Ridge as part of the Federal lines during the first days fighting. Please try again. Abner Doubleday, 1819-1893. . Abner Doubleday Field not to be missed especially when Legends of Baseball are playing! Updated: July 1, 2021 | Original: March 27, 2013. In 1905, Albert Spalding, a. The real Abner Doubleday Doubleday was born in June 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York, just north of Albany, the state's capital. in Ballston Spa, New York, USA , United States, Died on January 26, 1893 An obelisk monument was also built at his burial ground. After the Civil War Doubleday remained in the army and was stationed in California and Texas. [4] Abner spent his childhood in Auburn and later was sent to Cooperstown to live with his uncle and attend a private preparatory high school. As part of the Northern Virginia Campaign, he had to lead the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division and III corps. Abner Doubleday's grave at Arlington National Cemetery (staff photo by Matt Blitz) 1/4. Abner's namesake paternal grandfather had survived the brutal Valley Forge winter and fought in the Battles of Bunker Hill and Stony Point, while his other grandfather . Doubleday attended school to study civil engineering and then worked as a surveyor for railroads before receiving an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1838. 1 Letter to Bert Gumpert (1899-1978) from Alan C. Aimone, military history librarian, US Military Academy Library, February 17, 1977. Abner came from a distinguished family. After a 36-hour bombardment, Doubleday surrendered Fort Sumter along with Anderson. [21], Doubleday Field at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where the Army Black Knights play at Johnson Stadium, is named in Doubleday's honor.[22]. OBITUARY.---After a few weeks' illness Mr. William A. Doubleday departed this life on the 23d inst.