Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday , was a career
U.S. Army officer and
Union general in the
American Civil War. 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. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his relief by
Maj. Gen. George G. Meade caused lasting enmity between the two men.
In
San Francisco, California, after the war, he obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs there. In his final years in
New Jersey, he was a prominent member and later president of the
Theosophical Society.
Encyclopedia
Abner Doubleday , was a career
U.S. Army officer and
Union general in the
American Civil War. 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. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his relief by
Maj. Gen. George G. Meade caused lasting enmity between the two men.
In
San Francisco, California, after the war, he obtained a patent on the cable car railway that still runs there. In his final years in
New Jersey, he was a prominent member and later president of the
Theosophical Society. His most lasting claim to fame is that some believe he should be credited with the invention of
baseball, although he himself made no such claim.
Early years
Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York. His grandfather had fought in the
American Revolutionary War and his father represented Connecticut for four years in the
United States Congress. Abner practiced as a surveyor and civil engineer for two years before entering the
United States Military Academy in 1838, from which he graduated in 1842, 24th in a class of 56 cadets, and was commissioned a brevet
second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery.
Military career
Early commands and Fort Sumter
Doubleday initially served in coastal garrisons and then in the
Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848 and the
Seminole Wars from 1856 to 1858. In 1852 he married Mary Hewitt of Baltimore. In 1858 he was transferred to
Fort Moultrie in
Charleston harbor, but by the start of the Civil War, he was a captain and second in command in the garrison at
Fort Sumter, under
Major Robert Anderson.rigade and division command in Virginia
Doubleday was promoted to major on May 14, 1861, and commanded the Artillery Department in the Shenandoah Valley from June to August, and then the artillery for Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's division of the Army of the Potomac. 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. His first combat assignment was to lead the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, III Corps of the Army of Virginia during the Northern Virginia Campaign. In the actions at Brawner's farm, just before the Second Battle of Bull Run, he took the initiative to send two of his regiments to reinforce Brig. Gen. John Gibbon's brigade against a larger Confederate force, fighting it to a standstill. His men were routed when they encountered Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's corps, but by the following day, August 30, he took command of the division when Hatch was wounded, and he led his men to cover the retreat of the Union Army.leday again led the division, now assigned to the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac, after South Mountain, where Hatch was wounded again. 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."ettysburg
At the start of the
Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, Doubleday's division was first infantry on the field to reinforce the cavalry division of Brig. Gen.
John Buford. When his corps commander, Maj. Gen.
John F. Reynolds, was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps. His men fought well in the morning, putting up a stout resistance, but as overwhelming Confederate forces massed against them, their line eventually broke and they retreated back through the town of
Gettysburg to the relative safety of
Cemetery Hill south of town. 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. Seven of those brigades incurred casualties that ranged from 35 to 50 percent, indicating the ferocity of the Union defense. But on Cemetery Hill, the I Corps could muster only a third of its men as effective for duty and the corps was essentially destroyed as a combat force for the rest of the battle; it would be decommissioned in March 1864, its surviving units combined into other corps.[July 2]], Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen.
George G. Meade replaced Doubleday with Maj. Gen. John Newton, a more junior officer from another corps. The ostensible reason was a report by XI Corps commander Maj. Gen.
Oliver O. Howard that Doubleday's corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse, but Meade also had a long history of disdain for Doubleday's combat effectiveness, dating back to South Mountain. 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.ashington
Doubleday assumed mostly administrative duties in the defenses of Washington, D.C., where his only return to combat was directing a portion of the defenses against the attack by Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Also while in Washington, Doubleday testified against George Meade at the United States Congress Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, criticizing him harshly over his conduct of the battle of Gettysburg.stbellum career
After the Civil War, Doubleday mustered out of the volunteer service on August 24, 1865, reverted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and became the colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry in September 1867. He was stationed in San Francisco from 1869 through 1871 and he took out a patent for the cable car railway that still runs there, receiving a charter for its operation, but signing away his rights when he was reassigned. In 1871 he commanded the 24th U.S. Infantry, an all African-American regiment, in Texas.
Doubleday died of heart disease
Doubleday published two important works on the Civil War: Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie , and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg , the latter being a volume of the series Campaigns of the Civil War.leday's indecision as a commander earned him the uncomplimentary nickname "Forty-Eight Hours."bship honor|name=Abner Doubleday|type=his}}
See also
References
- Beckenbaugh, Terry L., "Abner Doubleday", Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, Heidler, David S., and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds., W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- Coddington, Edwin B., The Gettysburg Campaign; a study in command, Scribner's, 1968, ISBN 0-684-84569-5.
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Gomes, Michael, , Sunrise magazine, April/May 1991.
- Kirsch, George B., Baseball in Blue and Gray : The National Pastime during the Civil War, Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-691-05733-8.
- Langellier, John, Second Manassas 1862: Robert E. Lee's Greatest Victory, Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-84176-230-X.
- Tagg, Larry, , Savas Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
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Notes
External links
