28 Facts About Abner Doubleday

Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War.

In 1908,15 years after his death, Doubleday was declared by the Mills Commission to have invented the game of baseball.

Doubleday, the son of Ulysses F Doubleday and Hester Donnelly, was born in Ballston Spa, New York, in a small house on the corner of Washington and Fenwick streets.

Abner Doubleday's maternal grandfather Thomas Donnelly had joined the army at 14 and was a mounted messenger for George Washington.

Abner Doubleday spent his childhood in Auburn and later was sent to Cooperstown to live with his uncle and attend a private preparatory high school.

Abner Doubleday practiced as a surveyor and civil engineer for two years before entering the United States Military Academy in 1838.

Abner Doubleday graduated in 1842,24th in a class of 56 cadets, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd US Artillery.

Abner Doubleday aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot in answer to the Confederate bombardment on April 12,1861.

Abner Doubleday subsequently referred to himself as the "hero of Sumter" for this role.

Abner 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 Major General Nathaniel Banks's division of the Army of the Potomac.

Abner Doubleday 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.

Abner Doubleday was replaced by Brigadier General John P Hatch.

Abner Doubleday again led the division, now assigned to the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac, after South Mountain, where Hatch was wounded again.

Abner Doubleday received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army for his actions at Antietam and was promoted in March 1863 to major general of volunteers, to rank from November 29,1862.

When his corps commander, Major General John F Reynolds, was killed very early in the fighting, Doubleday found himself in command of the corps at 10:50 am.

The ostensible reason was a false report by XI Corps commander Major General Oliver O Howard that Abner Doubleday's corps broke first, causing the entire Union line to collapse, but Meade had a long history of disdain for Abner Doubleday's combat effectiveness, dating back to South Mountain.

Abner 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.

Abner Doubleday's staff nicknamed him "Forty-Eight Hours" as a compliment to recognize his tendency to avoid reckless or impulsive actions and his thoughtfulness and deliberateness in considering circumstances and possible responses.

In recent years, biographers have turned the nickname into an insult, incorrectly claiming "Forty-Eight Hours" was coined to highlight Abner Doubleday's supposed incompetence and slowness to act.

Abner Doubleday assumed administrative duties in the defenses of Washington, DC, where he was in charge of courts martial, which gave him legal experience that he used after the war.

Abner Doubleday 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.

Abner Doubleday died of heart disease in Mendham Township on January 26,1893.

Abner Doubleday's body was laid in state in New York's City Hall and then was taken to Washington by train from Mendham, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia.

Abner Doubleday was a cadet at West Point in the year of the alleged invention and his family had moved away from Cooperstown the prior year.

Abner Doubleday was a high-ranking officer, whose duties included seeing to provisions for the US Army fighting throughout the south and border states.

Doubleday Field is a 9,791-seat baseball stadium named for Abner Doubleday, located in Cooperstown, New York, near the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 2004, the Abner Doubleday Society erected a monument to Doubleday in Iron Spring Park, Ballston Spa, near his birthplace.

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Abner Doubleday was named in his honor.