2012 Marshall Hope Award For Most Outstanding Department Newsletter

Preserving the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic and our ancestors who fought to save the Union 1861-1865.

Dates to Note:

January TBA – Annual

Mid-Winter Meeting

February 1 – Deadline

for submissions to the Spring newsletter

May 30 – Memorial Day

June 9 – 136th Department of Ohio

Encampment in Columbus

August 9-12 – 137th National SUVCW Encampment in Boston,

Massachusetts

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

Department of Ohio - Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

2 – General William T.

Sherman Award Recipient

2 – Benjamin F. Stephenson Memorial Plaza

3 – Patriot Day Program

3 – Old Greencastle

Cemetery Clean-up

4 – Civil War Veteran

Finally Laid To Rest

5 – 73rd O.V.I. Regiment Band 2018 Schedule

5 – Spotlight on Civil War

Memorials & Monuments 6 – General William H. Lytle

Memorial Service

6 – Signals Officer’s Report 7 – Help Save Ohio’s Civil

War Heritage 9 – Baseball (October

Patriotic Instruction)

Remembrance Day History

Message From Commander James Crane

Volume 9, Issue 2 Winter 2017

Patriotic Instructor Mike Spaulding (with assistance from Sons of Veterans Reserve

Major General Robert Grim) presents the history of Remembrance Day. It started with an

effort in 1956 to honor the Grand Army of the Republic by the Auxiliary to the SUVCW,

who commissioned a monument to the GAR featuring a larger-than-life likeness of Albert

Woolson, who at age 109 was the last surviving member of the GAR and the last

documented Civil War soldier on either side.

Sadly, Woolson died in August before the monument was dedicated. Shortly after his

death, the 75th National SUVCW and 70th National Auxiliary Encampments were held

in Harrisburg, PA. During the encampments, a special trip to Gettysburg was organized

where 3,000 people witnessed a parade and the dedication of the GAR monument.

For many years prior to this, Pennsylvania SUVCW Brothers and Auxiliary Sisters

had been commemorating the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery and the

Gettysburg Address. They held a banquet on the Saturday closest to November 19, the

date of the original ceremony. Beginning in 1957 a ceremony to remember the GAR would

be held at the new monument on the same date as the banquet, and 500 people made the

procession to Ziegler’s Grove on that first Remembrance Day.

The modern Remembrance Day is organized and sponsored by the SVR. A parade

featuring several thousand uniformed SVR members and others, echoing the original

cemetery procession on November 19, 1863, is a popular attraction with visitors. A

President Lincoln reenactor performs the Gettysburg Address, and, as in 1957, there is a

ceremony at the GAR monument bearing Woolson’s image. During the ceremony, a

memorial wreath is placed, speeches are made, and a check is presented from the SVR to

the Gettysburg National Military Park for monument and memorial preservation.

Brothers of Ohio, I have been very busy representing you at several events taking

place over the past two months. One was the dedication of the USCIS office in Columbus,

naming it after Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Richard Enderlin, a Civil War hero from

Chillicothe. During that ceremony we had the pleasure of seeing a Navy Chief taking the

Oath of Allegiance to this country to become a citizen. It was also a pleasure meeting

Richard Enderlin, his grandson, and spending time with several members of the Sgt.

Enderlin Camp. Good job CC John Huffman.

By the time this newsletter comes out, I will have completed a couple of Camp

Installations. Please remember to contact me to schedule your Installation, as they all

need to be completed by the end of January 2018. About half of the Camps have been

scheduled so far.

The Department Encampment will be on Saturday, June 9, 2018. We will be

returning to the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus and more details will be coming

out soon regarding the details. Thanks to PDC Pete Hritsko, and his wife Judy, for

working on this Department event.

Lastly, as the holidays are upon us, please have a wonderful holiday season this year.

It is my favorite time of the year and a great time to spend with your families. Please

keep in your prayers the men and women who are currently fighting for our country.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah !!!!!!!

Two years ago, the Sherman Camp No. 93 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War voted to create the Major General William T. Sherman Award and left it to the current Camp Commander to determine the criteria and the recipient. As the Commander noted this was not meant to be a “Best Brother Award.” With so many hard-working, dedicated, and devoted Brothers there can be no such thing as the “Best” Brother in Sherman Camp.

This year’s recipient is one of the quieter Brothers yet he is nearly indispensable. First of all, he is a Camp officer which requires that he be present at every meeting, every ceremony, and every public gathering of the Camp. He can be said to fulfill the requirements of his

office with dignity and respect. The recipient is also a vital volunteer with several of our partner

organizations, especially the Miami Valley Military History Museum. He is a volunteer and organizer with the Patriot Freedom Festival and many other veterans’ organizations in our area. Finally, our winner has been one of our biggest fundraisers, helping out or working by himself at nearly every Dayton Dragons game fundraiser this summer and in preceding years as well. It can be truly said that the Camp would not be as successful as it is without the many contributions of our Brother and Chaplain Brent Davidson.

Page 2

Major General William T. Sherman Award

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

Benjamin F. Stephenson Memorial Plaza

Brother Brent Davidson receives the General W.

T. Sherman Award certificate from Sherman

Camp Commander Mike Spaulding earlier this

year.

View of the proposed Dr. Benjamin F.

Stephenson Memorial Plaza at his gravesite in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson founded the Grand Army of the Republic on April 6, 1866. Over twenty years after his death on August 30, 1871, a large granite memorial was placed at his gravesite in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Petersburg, Illinois and dedicated in 1894. Over the years the grounds surrounding the obelisk began to show their age and were in need of maintenance. The Department of Illinois proposed establishing a Memorial Plaza with paved bricks consistent with memorial designs of the Grand Army of the Republic from the 1880s to 1920s. Signature bricks could be purchased in three sizes, 4 x 8, 8 x 8 or 12 x 12 and engraved with an individual or Camp/Department name.

Earlier this year new Commander-in-Chief Mark R. Day visited the gravesite and later released a communiqué regarding the Memorial Plaza. He expressed his desire to see the plaza completed and available for everyone to visit, providing a tangible symbol for educating the public about the Grand

Army of the Republic. The Department of Illinois developed a plan to finish the project but funding is necessary for its completion. Information about the Memorial Plaza can be found on the Department of Illinois website at www.suvcwil.com. As an incentive, CinC Day offered to provide an appropriate certificate to any Camp that donates at least $100 and an appropriate streamer to any Department that has at least 75% of its camps donate at least $100.

At its September meeting, the Jacob Parrott Camp No. 33 deemed it proper and fitting that the Camp containing Brother David Rish, the recipient of the last five B. F. Stephenson Awards for recruiting be one of the first camps in Ohio to heed C-in-C Day’s recent call to action. Several current and past Camp Officers donated funds to allow the Camp to purchase a brick paver.

On September 23, 2017 the General William H. Lytle Camp No. 10 Department of Ohio Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War participated in Patriot Day in Mason, Ohio. The Brothers reported that they had a number of people stop by their table which was staffed by Brothers Larry Collins, Woody Cook, Jim Crane, Richard Davis, Jim Houston, Ralph Kidd, Rob Kidd, Kerry Langdon, and Michael Mershon. The group displayed several authentic artifacts from the Civil War plus shared stories and information about the conflict with attendees.

On July 22, August 26, September 23, and October 14 Brothers from the Sherman Camp No. 93 led a community clean-up project at the Old Greencastle Cemetery near Dayton. The Camp has been involved with the formerly neglected cemetery since 2011. The Brothers were joined by community members, local residents and groups such as Friends of Old Greencastle Cemetery, high school JROTC cadets, Boy Scouts, DUV Sisters, Montgomery County employees and inmates, and the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club.

During the project volunteers identified the outline of the Hiram Strong G.A.R. Post 79 burial section. Research has confirmed at least forty Civil War veterans buried in the section and Brothers documented the names of thirty-two soldiers and identified the locations of seven unmarked graves. Nearly 200 Civil War veterans rest throughout the entire cemetery.

Some of the activities included mowing grass, trimming around grave markers, removing weeds and branches, cleaning grave markers, ordering official government headstones for the unmarked graves, digging holes and installing the new markers. On September 23, the new headstones were dedicated during a brief ceremony which included a blessing from Pastor Rick Nance of Aldersgate United Methodist Church.

Their activities at the cemetery have attracted attention from community members and elected officials. Former Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin recently wrote “A big thank you to those persons who have cleaned up the Old Greencastle Cemetery!!” The actions of the Brothers reflect greatly upon their Camp and the Department of Ohio. The restored cemetery and burial section provides a fitting and dignified final resting place for the men who helped preserve the Union.

Patriot Day Program

Page 3 THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

Old Greencastle Cemetery Clean-up

Above – Pictured (l to r) are Lytle Camp Brothers Rob

Kidd, Kerry Langdon, Ralph Kidd, Richard Davis,

and Woody Cook at their Patriot Day table.

Below – Parrott Camp Brother Ronald Marvin speaks to

Upper Sandusky eighth grade students.

Students Prepare for Gettysburg Trip

On October 13, Wyandot County Museum and Jacob Parrott Camp No. 33 Patriotic Instructor Ronald Marvin spoke to 120 8th grade students at the Upper Sandusky Middle School in preparation for their upcoming annual trip to Gettysburg, PA and Washington, D.C.

He spoke about the Civil War, the Gettysburg battle and several of the Ohio regiments with Wyandot County men who fought in the battle. Marvin also shared actual Civil War artifacts from the museum’s collection with the students and discussed the various G.A.R. Posts and monuments throughout Wyandot County.

Above – The restored Hiram Strong G.A.R. Post

79 burial section including cannons.

Below – Appearance of the overgrown cemetery

in July prior to several clean-up and work days.

Sons of Union Veterans

of the Civil War Department of Ohio

The Buckeye Bugle is the

unofficial newsletter published quarterly to

inform and educate members of the SUVCW

Department of Ohio.

Articles for possible publication should be sent by email to the Editor at: curator@wyandothistory.org

Ronald Marvin, Jr. Editor

Sergeant Richard Enderlin Building

Page 4 THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

Civil War Veteran Finally Laid To Rest

One hundred and three years following his death, Civil War veteran Private Zachariah M. Stucker was finally laid to rest during a formal ceremony at the Retsil Veterans Home Cemetery in Port Orchard, Washington on September 28, 2017.

He was born during February 1845 in Illinois (although he self-reported Kentucky as his birth state in some census records). Only sixteen at the time, Stucker initially enlisted as a Musician on September 1, 1861 and served with Company A, 48th Regiment, Illinois Infantry. Stucker participated in over fifteen battles including Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg and was mustered out on August 15, 1865.

Following the war, he took up farming in Indiana but eventually made his way west where he worked as a teamster, gold miner, and laborer in Oregon and finally Washington. In 1910, in failing health, he applied to live at the Washington State Veterans Home in Retsil where he died of heart failure in his bed on June 28, 1914. His body was then sent to Seattle for cremation.

Stucker never married nor had any children so his remains went unclaimed. They were later transferred to Lake View Cemetery in Seattle where they sat virtually untouched on a shelf in an empty crypt/storage facility for over 100 years until being discovered in July 2017 by the Missing in America Project which seeks to locate the unclaimed remains of veterans and arrange for their proper internment.

Brothers from the Department of the Columbia SUVCW arranged for a service very similar to one Private Stucker would have received from the Grand Army of the Republic. Period appropriate music was provided by Washington’s 133rd Army National Guard Band, members of the 4th U.S. Civil War Reenactors fired a twenty-one gun salute, which was followed by echo taps. It was fitting and proper that Private Zachariah M. Stucker received this honor in recognition for his service and sacrifice to our great nation.

On October 18, the Sergeant Richard Enderlin Camp No. 73 hosted a

celebratory program following a brief ceremony marking the renaming of the

United States Citizenship and Immigration building in northeast Columbus

in honor of their namesake.

Sergeant Richard Enderlin was born in Germany on January 11, 1843 but

grew up in Chillicothe, Ohio. He enlisted on November 19, 1861 as a

Musician with Company B, 73rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He

received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle of Gettysburg on

July 2, 1863 and was promoted to Sergeant that same day. Enderlin was

mustered out on May 30, 1865 and died in Chillicothe on February 11, 1930.

WE NEED YOUR INFORMATION!! In order to share the great work our Camps are doing and

to promote their upcoming events we need your assistance. Please send your program information with dates to Brother Ken Freshley, PCinC who is serving once again as the Department Signals Officer. The programs will be listed on a calendar on our Department website and be forwarded to Brother Ronald Marvin, Jr. to be included in the next newsletter. Brother Freshley can be contacted by email at klfsuvcw@freshleys.net. Thank you in advance for your assistance. We can only promote what we know about.

Image of Sergeant Enderlin

during the

Civil War.

73rd O.V.I. Regiment Band 2018 Schedule

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE Page 5

Spotlight on Civil War Memorials & Monuments

February 17, 2018 June 9 or 16, 2018

Regimental Ball Camp Chase Cemetery Memorial Ceremony

Canton, Ohio Columbus, Ohio

May 6, 2018 June 23 & 24, 2018

Mansfield Civil War Show Miamisburg Bicentennial Celebration

Mansfield, Ohio Dayton, Ohio

May 12, 2018 July 14 & 15, 2018

Civil War Living History Day James A. Garfield National Historic Site

Wooster, Ohio Mentor, Ohio

May 28, 2018 September 15 & 16, 2018

Grandview Cemetery Memoria Ceremony Sidney Civil War Encampment

Chillicothe, Ohio Sidney, Ohio

June 2, 2018 November 17, 2018

Cynthiana Reenactment Gettysburg Parade

Cynthiana, Kentucky Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

This issue’s monument is located at the intersection of North Broad and Main Streets in an area known as Zane Square/Veterans Park in downtown Lancaster, Ohio. It is an original 2.9 inch, ten pound Parrott Rifle cast in 1861 by the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York. Reportedly one of the last-known cannons General William Tecumseh Sherman used during the Battle of Shiloh and his famed “March to the Sea” campaign during the Civil War, it was originally presented to Ben Butterfield Post No. 77 of the Grand Army of the Republic by Lancaster native General William T. Sherman in 1882.

In 1967 a bronze plaque was added near the base of the cannon which reads in part: “Dedicated to the memory of Lancaster’s most illustrious soldier, General William Tecumseh Sherman, November 11, 1967, by The American Legion Post 11; Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1380; Disabled American Veterans Chapter 40; The General Sherman Chapter of the Civil War Roundtable; Fairfield Heritage Association.” The Butterfield Post was the original caretaker of the cannon but eventually the Post closed and maintenance of the cannon fell to the Major William McKinley Camp 21 Sons of Veterans which was established in October 1901.

Currently, the William McKinley Camp 21 SUVCW is the new “permanent custodian” of the cannon monument. Between 2009 and 2011 the Brothers restored and rebuilt the cannon and its carriage. It was rededicated “in memory of William T. Sherman and the more than 3,000 Fairfield County citizens who served in the Civil War.” In an effort to help preserve cannons such as theirs, the Brothers of the Camp transported the “Sherman Cannon” to the Ohio Statehouse on June 20, 2017 where it was featured during a Press Conference to introduce HB 48.

Image of the unrestored Parrott Rifle located on

the public square in Lancaster, Ohio taken by J. J. Prats in 2008 (above)

and an image of the

restored monument taken by George Hettenhouse in

2017. The cannon has been on public display

since being given to the local G.A.R. Post in 1882.

Signals Officer’s Report

Page 6 THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

General William H. Lytle Memorial Service

The General William Haines Lytle Camp No. 10 held a

memorial program on September 24 at the General’s graveside in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery. This memorial program has been held annually since 2000 on the Sunday closest to the

date of General Lytle’s death at the Battle of Chickamauga, except for 2013 when the Lytle monument on the Chickamauga,

Georgia battlefield was rededicated by Brothers of the General Lyle Camp, on September 20, 2013 at 1:30 PM, exactly 150 years to the day and the hour of General Lytle’s death.

General William Haines Lytle was a prodigy, a poet, a politician and a patriot. He is best remembered by most of us as

a military man – which is just as it should be. But we should remember, too, that he was also a man keenly interested in the law, in politics, and, perhaps surprisingly, in poetry. He was

sometimes referred to as “the soldier-poet,” and is best known

for his poem Anthony and Cleopatra.

Fellow Ohio Brothers,

I would like to take this opportunity to inform everyone of a couple of Ohio events. The first event was the Central Regional Association of Allied Orders of the Grand

Army of the Republic which took place on October 7th at the Westlake DoubleTree Hotel.

A very productive meeting took place with 28 members from five different states representing three of the Allied Orders. We were honored to have the SUVCW

Commander-in-Chief in attendance all the way from Virginia. After the meeting, everyone enjoyed a “taste of Cleveland” lunch that was planned by Sister Sue Freshley, then a special tour of the Cleveland Lakeview Cemetery, which is home to the James A. Garfield

Memorial and Tomb plus many other famous individuals who are buried there. Just a note, as a Past Commander of the CRA, I would like to see more Ohio involvement from

all the Allied Orders. The second event is the upcoming 2019 National Encampment which will be taking

place on August 7, 2019 through August 11, 2019 at the Independence DoubleTree

Hotel. We have selected some of the key Local Site Committee members: Chairman: Ken Freshley, Treasurer: Dave Britton, Fundraising: Sue Freshley, Printing: Mark Britton, and Medals: Tim Graham. These are just to name a few with many more to be assigned

in the future. I have also assigned Sister Sue Freshley as the Allied Orders Liaison for the 2019 National Encampment. This way all requests, requirements and needs are sent and

compiled by one person, then that person will be bring these to the 2019 Local Site Committee. We held our first official meeting on October 7th and I am sure that we will have many more.

In Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty,

Brother Ken Freshley, PCinC

Pictured in front of General Lytle’s memorial are (left to

right): Brothers David Stockdale, Kerry Langdon, Michael Mershon, Rob Kidd,

Jim Crane, Larry Collins Peter

Sturdevant, Sister Wanda Langdon, Brothers Jim

Houston, Richard Davis, Harry Schmidt and (kneeling)

Brother Philip Kidd.

Page 7

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE

HELP SAVE OHIO’S CIVIL WAR HERITAGE

By Robert E. Grim (PCinC)

Solder’s Point Veterans Memorial in Wilmington which put us on the path to HB 48.

The time has come for everyone in the Ohio Department to step forward and help protect

Ohio’s Civil War cannons that are in danger of being lost. You can do your part by simply contacting your state representative and asking him or her to support HB 48, and asking all your friends and relatives to do the same thing.

On February 8, 2017, General William T. Sherman’s birthday, State Representative Tim Schaffer (R) 77th Ohio House District introduced HB 48 officially called the Ohio Veterans’ Heritage Protection Act. This proposed legislation will “prohibit Civil War artillery pieces located on public property or on the property of a cemetery association from being sold or otherwise disposed of, or destroyed, relocated, removed, altered, or otherwise distributed, except under certain circumstances.”

Brother Don Grant lives in Representative Schaffer’s district and invited him to the Department of Ohio Mid-Winter Meeting in January 2013 to see if he could help with the Department’s efforts to save two Civil War cannons offered for sale by the Sugar Grove Cemetery Association in Wilmington, Ohio. Since that time Brother Grant, Past Department Commander Fred Lynch, Past Commander-in-Chief Robert Grim and Brother Henry Shaw have worked with Rep. Schaffer in drafting HB 48.

When the Bill was introduced in February it was not limited to Civil War cannons. It included all war memorials. However, this past spring the controversy over Confederate memorials erupted, and when the Criminal Justice Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives held its first hearing on HB 48 Rep. Schaffer decided it would have a better chance of passing if he amended it to cover only Civil War cannons.

This past summer we had a great turn out of Department members at the statehouse when the Criminal Justice Committee held its first hearing on HB which gave Rep. Schaffer an opportunity to tell the committee why we need this legislation. Now we need to get the committee to hold a second hearing on the Bill, which will give supporters of the Bill a chance to convince the committee that the Bill should be approved and sent to the full House of Representatives for a vote. If this doesn’t happen right away then we will have to start all over again next year.

(Continued on the following page)

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE Page 8

(Help Save Ohio’s Civil War Heritage continued) The efforts of the SUVCW to save Civil War cannons go back more than two decades. A fellow

named Kenneth P. Watterson incorporated The Civil War Artillery Museum in Emmaus, Pennsylvania and with the help of Bruce Stiles they traveled the country buying up Civil War cannons and replacing them with plastic replicas. AP writer Kevin Rivoli exposed their operation in an August 14, 2005 news article in USA Today.

The SUVCW was involved in helping recover cannons in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania and Kendell, New York. The SUVCW was also involved in situations in Iowa and Indiana. In 2004 these guys appeared in Milford, Ohio and offered $30,000 for two cannons in Greenlawn Cemetery in Milford. Fortunately, Brother Jim Houston intervened and the City of Milford passed a Resolution to keep the cannons. However, a situation developed in Wilmington, Ohio that has

led us to HB 48. Five years ago, in the summer of 2012 the SUVCW learned that the Sugar Grove Cemetery

Association which owned and operated the primary cemetery in Wilmington, Ohio had placed for sale two Civil War cannons that were part of a GAR memorial located in the cemetery. The Cemetery Association was in desperate need of funds to operate the cemetery. The plan was to sell the cannons and replace them with plastic replicas.

Past Commander-in-Chief Robert E. Grim lives about 15 miles from Wilmington and was asked to see what could be done to save the cannons. Grim informed cemetery officials that the Civil War Memorial, which includes the two cannons, and is now known as Soldier’s Point, is the property of the SUVCW and not the cemetery. Grim said the Morris McMillian Post No. 58 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) bought and paid for the memorial and had it placed in the cemetery.

SUVCW member Jim Yahle with the help of Kay Fisher, Director of the Clinton County Historical Society, completed extensive research on the Soldier’s Point Memorial several years ago and the Historical Society holds a variety of documents showing how the local GAR Post raised the money for the memorial and erected it in 1927.

Grim and Dr. Richard Davis from the Gen. William Lytle Camp met with cemetery officials but was unable to get the cemetery officials to recognize the SUVCW’s claim to ownership of the cannons, so Grim obtained help from the Bryant Law Office in Wilmington who assigned attorney Jason A. Besser to represent the SUVCW without charge on a pro bono basis.

Besser, a U.S. Air Force Reservist was transferred out of town and recommended attorney Michael Daugherty who agreed to help the SUVCW without charge, again on a pro bono basis. The Cemetery Association continued their efforts to sell the cannons so Daugherty filed suit against the cemetery on December 27, 2013 asking the Clinton County Common Pleas Court to declare the SUVCW the legal owners of the cannons and issue a permanent injunction preventing the cemetery from selling or disposing of the cannons.

In July, 2014 the cemetery association transferred ownership of the cemetery to the City of Wilmington. After several months of negotiations, the SUVCW and the City of Wilmington

reached an agreement. On July 6, 2015 Common Pleas Judge John W. Rudduck issued a court order that permanently enjoins the City of Wilmington from “selling, destroying, or otherwise removing the Soldier’s Point Memorial and/or Civil War Cannons which are a part of said monument without the express consent of the Department of Ohio, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.”

Daugherty noted that both parties achieved their goal which was to keep the cannons in the Sugar Grove Cemetery as a memorial to the men who served in the Civil War. Daugherty and his father Joe have both since joined Henry Casey Camp No. 92 which meets in Washington Court House and Michael Daugherty has been elected Clinton County Municipal Court Judge.

Now, it is your turn. Contact your local state representative and ask him or her to support HB

48 and use their influence to get the Criminal Justice Committee to present the Bill for a vote.

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE Page 9

Baseball, an American Tradition

Patriotic Instruction for October 2017 By Mike Spaulding, Department of Ohio Patriotic Instructor

It’s October, the month for the baseball playoffs and World Series. For many, baseball is the most

American of American sports, as in “as American as baseball and apple pie.” And luckily, so far at

least, baseball has escaped the unfortunate politicization that has infected the NFL.

It’s called the American pastime, and “as part of the fabric of American culture, baseball is the

common social ground between strangers, a world of possibilities and of chance, where ‘it’s never over

till it’s over.’” Rooted in the American Spirit, rich in legends, folklore and history, it is ultimately a

timeless tradition where every game is a new nine-inning chapter and every participant has the

chance to be a hero.1

You have probably heard the legend that baseball was “invented” by Abner Doubleday in 1839,

before he became a Civil War General. It’s just not true: Doubleday was at West Point in 1839, and

other than being a spectator, he apparently never had anything to do with baseball.2

So if baseball was not invented by a Civil War General, what does it have to do with the Civil War?

Albert J. Spalding (a very distant cousin of mine), the founder of the sporting goods company that

still bears his name and inventor of the Doubleday fantasy, explained: “Modern baseball [was] born in

the brain of an American soldier. It received its baptism in the bloody days of our Nation's direst

danger. It had its early evolution when soldiers, North and South, were striving to forget their foes by

cultivating, through this grand game, fraternal friendship with comrades in arms.”

Although a rudimentary form of baseball was played in some big cities before the War, it did not

achieve widespread popularity until after the war started. Officers on both sides promoted baseball to

improve morale in camp. Baseball relieved boredom and created team spirit among the men. In

regimental baseball games, officers and enlisted men played on the same teams, and soldiers earned

their places in the batting order based on their baseball talent, not their military rank. Often, the

teamwork displayed on the baseball diamond translated into teamwork on the battlefield. Some

soldiers wrote home of these games because they were much more pleasant to write about than the

horrors of battle. America’s love affair with baseball truly started during the Civil War.3

During the Civil War, baseball was played in army camps and prisons on both sides. Already in

1861, an amateur team from the 71st New York Regiment defeated the Washington Nationals

baseball club 41–13. When the 71st New York later returned to man the defenses of the capital in

1862, the teams played a rematch, which the Nationals won 28–13. Unfortunately the 71st Regiment’s

loss was partly because some of its best athletes had been killed in the first Battle of Bull Run.

One of the earliest known photographs of a baseball game was of members of the 48th New York

Volunteer Infantry taken at Fort Pulaski, GA in 1862.4 And, on Christmas Day 1862, the 165th New

York Volunteer Regiment (Zouaves) played at Hilton Head, SC against a team of players from other

Union regiments. Allegedly a crowd of 40,000 watched the game, one of the largest sporting crowds in

the entire 19th century.5

In 1863, in Falmouth, VA, John G. B. Adams of the 19th Massachusetts Regiment recounted that

“base ball fever broke out” with both enlisted men and officers playing. The prize was “sixty dollars a

side,” meaning the winning team paid the losers that amount. “It was a grand time, and all agreed it

was nicer to play base than minie ball.” Adams also reported that Union soldiers sometimes watched

Confederate soldiers playing baseball across the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg.

George T. Stevens of the New York Volunteers said that in Falmouth, “there were many excellent

players in the different regiments, and it was common for one regiment or brigade to challenge

another regiment or brigade. These matches were followed by great crowds of soldiers with intense

interest.” Around the same time, Union soldier Mason Whiting Tyler wrote home that baseball was

“all the rage now in the Army of the Potomac.”

(Continued on the following page)

THE BUCKEYE BUGLE Page 10

Captured Union soldiers playing “base ball” in the Confederate prison camp yard at Salisbury, North

Carolina. The original lithograph by Otto Botticher was published by Sarony, Major & Knapp in 1863.

(Baseball, an American Tradition continued)

One game in 1863 in Texas was interrupted by a surprise attack. Union soldier George Putnam

described a game that was “called-early” because of an attack by the Confederates: “Suddenly there

was a scattering of fire, which three outfielders caught the brunt; the centerfield was hit and was

captured, left and right field managed to get back to our lines. The attack . . . was repelled without

serious difficulty, but we had lost not only our centerfielder, but . . . the only baseball in Alexandria,

Texas.”

Baseball was also played in prison camps as a means of fighting the boredom that confronted the

POWs. When Confederate Salisbury Prison in North Carolina was established in 1861, the prison had

a spacious prison yard. In the months before the prison became overcrowded, a favorite POW activity

was baseball. In his diary, prisoner Charles Carroll Gray recorded that prisoners played baseball

nearly every day if the weather permitted. In fact, these may have been the first baseball games

played in the South. In his memoirs, another Salisbury prisoner, Sgt. William J. Crossley of the 2nd

Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry, wrote that “the great game of baseball generated as much enjoyment

to the Rebs as the Yanks, for they came in hundreds to see the sport.”

In both prison camps and in the field, baseball was an escape from the war and helped improve the

morale of both Union and Confederate troops. After the war, men from both sides returned home to

share the game that they had played while in the army. Eventually organized baseball grew in

popularity and helped bring together a country that had been torn apart by the Civil War.

Today, our country again faces great divisions, but we still have baseball as the great American

pastime, one of the legacies of the Civil War. Luckily, the sport still offers us an escape from our

divisions, or, if we must have divisions, let them be National League fans versus American League

fans, not political divisions. As you watch the World Series this year, remember that you are part of a

long tradition popularized and spread by our Civil War ancestors.

------------------------------ 1 The Pictorial History of Baseball, John S. Bowman and Joel Zoss, quoted at http://www.baseball-

almanac.com/articles/aubrecht2004b.shtml 2 http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-baseball 3 http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/aubrecht2004b.shtml 4 https://www.nps.gov/fopu/learn/news/independence-day-weekend-2011.htm 6 http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/aubrecht2004b.shtml. (This interesting website is also the source of most of the

information that follows.)