American Civil War: Abner Doubleday Born

June 26, 1819 - Abner Doubleday (right), a Civil War general and baseball pioneer, is born at Ballston Spa, NY. Attending West Point, Doubleday graduated in 1838, and was assigned to the 3rd US Artillery. After service in the Mexican and Seminole Wars, he was posted to Fort Sumter in 1858. A captain under the fort's commander, Major Robert Anderson, Doubleday fired the first shot in its defense when it was attacked by Confederate forces on April 12, 1861. Dubbed the "Hero of Fort Sumter," Doubleday quickly rose through the ranks seeing action as a brigade and division commander at Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam. Promoted to major general in November 1862, his division sat idle during the Battle of Fredericksburg. The division was again kept in reserve during the Battle of Chancellorsville the following May. That July, Doubleday assumed command of the Union I Corps following the death of Major General John Reynolds. Battling the Confederates northwest of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, he was able to hold the enemy off for five hours until being forced to withdraw due to the XI Corps collapsing on his right. The next day, Major General George Meade, sent Doubleday back to his division after receiving an erroneous report from the XI Corps commander, Major General Oliver O. Howard, stating that Doubleday's men broke first. After the battle, Doubleday formally requested that command of I Corps be returned to him. Meade, who had long disliked Doubleday, refused. Leaving the Army of the Potomac on July 7, Doubleday finished the war serving in the Washington DC defenses. Remaining in the army after the war, he moved through several assignments on the frontier before retiring in 1873. Doubleday is believed to have been the creator of the game of baseball, though recent scholarship has shown this claim to largely be myth.

Photograph Courtesy of the Library of Congress