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The 2023 MLB season is upon us, grab your baseball glove, cracker jacks, and a hot dog and let’s learn about baseball’s rise to popularity during the Civil War. To begin, previous scholarship gave credit to the creation of baseball to Union General Abner Doubleday; this, however, is a misconception as there is no evidence to support this. While it is an interesting story, baseball evolved from the British schoolyard game called rounders.[1] The game was a semiprofessional sport in the decades before the Civil War, however, its popularity afterwards exploded to a national level. Originating in Cooperstown, New York with one of the first teams to rise to popularity called the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, it was primarily a sport played in New York and New England at the time.
The rules of baseball in 1860 as adopted by players and organizations are not too different from the modern version of the game. There are four bases spaced evenly apart with one of those being home plate, three strikes and you’re out, three outs in an inning, and nine innings for a standard game.[2] One of the major differences in the rules of baseball in the 19th century is that the batter, after hitting the ball, can only be called “out” if he is hit by the ball.[3] Over the decades the game would evolve into the modern sport America and fans around the world know today.
Baseball originated as a gentleman’s sport but quickly became a favorite of people from all working classes. The fun, exciting, and energetic play of 19th century baseball spread throughout the Union armies and later throughout the Confederacy, “football was occasionally mentioned in letters and diaries, but baseball, or ‘bass ball’ as one Yank put it, appears to have been the most popular of all competitive sports.”[4] Union soldiers would play baseball while in camp or while they were waiting for deployment as the soldier’s life was usually quite boring. Not only did this provide entertainment for the troops, it also was an outlet for physical exercise and was welcomed by regimental surgeons as a way to keep the troops healthy.[5]
During the Civil War, baseball spread rapidly throughout the nation via prisoners of war. Captured Union soldiers taken to Confederate prison camps would often play baseball as the guards watched. In 1862 at Salisbury Confederate Prison, both guards and POWs noted that baseball games happened almost daily, and on rare occasions, Union POWs would play baseball with their captors and teach them how to play the game.[6] Shortly after, baseball spread throughout the South and “Captain James Hall of the Twenty-fourth Alabama Regiment observed that his men, while Joe Johnston was waiting at Dalton to see what Sherman was going to do, played baseball ‘just like school boys.’”[7] The Civil War allowed baseball to spread across the nation to become a national pastime and eventually one of the most popular sports in America.
Today, baseball games can be called, postponed, or delayed by weather just as they were in the Civil War. However, as recorded by Union soldier George Putnam, a baseball game was interrupted when “suddenly there was a scattering of fire, which three outfielders caught the brunt; the centerfield was hit and captured, left and right field managed to get back to our lines. The attack… was repelled without serious difficulty, but we lost not only our centerfielder, but.. the only baseball in Alexandria, Texas.”[8]
Forty years after the Civil War ended, in 1903, the National League (1876) and the American League (1901) signed an agreement, and the Major League Baseball organization was formed. Since then, baseball has become one of the premier sporting events in the nation, and has spread throughout much of the world, becoming the national sport of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Taiwan, and Venezuela. Baseball has also become increasingly popular in Japan since its introduction by the US in 1876. The MLB remains a national pastime of the US and is one of the nation’s most popular sports.
The game has evolved since the 1860s with teams having individual traditions and long histories of rivalries between clubs. The Boston Red Sox, my home team, and the New York Yankees have one of the greatest rivalries in sports history, going back to 1918 when the Red Sox traded all-star Babe Ruth to the Yankees. This began an 86-year World Series drought for the Red Sox, dubbed “The Curse of the Bambino.” That curse ended in 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series after making one of the greatest baseball playoff comebacks in history against their storied rivals. People from around the world dream of playing professional baseball and being part of a rivalry like the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, as it makes the sport more entertaining and solidifies baseball as a national pastime, just as it was in the 1860s.
About the Author
Michael Mahr is the Education Specialist at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. He is a graduate of Gettysburg College Class of 2022 with a degree in History and double minor in Public History and Civil War Era Studies. He was the Brian C. Pohanka intern as part of the Gettysburg College Civil War Institute for the museum in the summer of 2021. He is currently pursuing a Masters in American History from Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute.
Sources
[1] Calcaterra, Craig. “Today in Baseball History: A Lie about How Baseball Was Invented Is Born – MLB: NBC Sports.” NBC Sports, April 2, 2020. https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/04/02/today-in-baseball-history-a-lie-about-how-baseball-was-invented-is-born/.
[2] “The Rules of 1860, as Adopted by the National Association of Base-Ball Players.” VBBA Vintage Base Ball Association, n.d. https://www.vbba.org/beadles-1860/.
[3] “Evolution of 19th Century Baseball Rules.” Baseball History: 19th Century Baseball: The Rules, n.d. http://www.19cbaseball.com/rules.html.
[4] Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1952. Pg 170
[5] Light, Steve. “Baseball Came of Age during American Civil War.” Baseball Hall of Fame, n.d. https://baseballhall.org/discover/baseball-came-of-age-during-civil-war.
[6] Schaefer-Jacobs, Debbie. “Civil War Baseball.” National Museum of American History, August 2, 2012. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/08/civil-war-baseball.html.
[7] Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1943. Pg, 159
[8] “Baseball in the Blue and Gray (Part 1).” Emerging Civil War, September 21, 2016. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2016/09/22/baseball-in-the-blue-and-gray-part-1/#:~:text=George%20Putnam%2C%20a%20Union%20soldier,managed%20to%20get%20back%20to.
