Abner Doubleday

While Abner Doubleday is remembered primarily, and mistakenly, for having “invented” baseball (he did not), it was his selfless exercise of duty to his nation that should be honored. Following his youth in Auburn, New York, and his days as a cadet at West Point to the Union general’s involvement in the American Civil War and his public service afterwards, he is revealed in this biography as a man who took unpopular stands but was guided by a firm vision of justice. One chapter fully explores the baseball myth.

Thomas Barthel is Professor Emeritus from the State University of New York, and has written seven books. He lives in Clinton, New York.

Thomas Barthel
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 283
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4561-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5616-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi
Foreword by Edward G. Longacre      1
Preface      3
Introduction      5

1. Doubleday as a Young Man      7
2. Career at West Point, 1838–1845      17
3. The Mexican War      25
4. Texas and the Gardiner Affair, 1852–1856      42
5. The Seminole War, 1856–1859      49
6. The Hero of Sumter      55
7. The Army of the Shenandoah      77
8. Doubleday and Runaway Slaves      86
9. The Occupation of Fredericksburg, Virginia      89
10. The Battle of Groveton      93
11. The Battle of Second Bull Run      102
12. The Battle of South Mountain      107
13. The Battle of Antietam      112
14. After Antietam      118
15. The Battle of Fredericksburg      120
16. After Fredericksburg      126
17. The Battle of Chancellorsville      131
18. Gettysburg, Day One      137
19. Gettysburg, Day Two      156
20. Gettysburg, Day Three      161
21. After the Battle of Gettysburg      169
22. July to December, 1863      172
23. March 1864 to Retirement in 1873      180
24. Life After Military Service      196
25. Debunking the Doubleday Baseball Myth      221

Appendix: Historian’s Views of Doubleday at Gettysburg      245
Chapter Notes      249
Bibliography      257
Index      267

“Barthel takes the reader through Doubleday’s remarkable military career. The book is a good overview of Doubleday”—Blue & Gray Magazine; “wow!”—The Lone Star.