Saturday, August 8, 2020

The Only Lincoln vs Douglas Base Ball Game Occurred on Tuesday, July 24, 1860, in Chicago.

On April 7, 1858, while Abraham Lincoln was arguing legal cases in Bloomington and planning for his upcoming campaign to challenge Stephen Douglas, a small story appeared in his hometown Illinois State Journal. Buried between stories of a ballooning accident in Louisiana and a glowing report of the Illinois wheat crop was a story announcing that “The National Association of Base Ball Players” had been organized in New York a week earlier. It went on to announce that the group had adopted a constitution and that Judge William H. Van Cott had been elected its first president.
From the “Illinois State Journal,” April 7, 1858.
While many people tend to think of base ball as a purely 20th-century invention, it actually is firmly rooted much earlier in our nation’s history. Although historians disagree about exactly when and where it originated, they agree that by the 1840s there were numerous clubs in major cities playing variations of the game we know today.
From “Harper’s Weekly,” October 15, 1859.

In Illinois, one of the earliest games occurred between two amateur teams from Joliet and Lockport in August 1851. To the southwest, in St. Louis, the first club was organized on August 1, 1859, with more quickly to follow. As enthusiasm for the sport grew, it evolved from pick-up games in open lots to purpose-built fields, and eventually, perhaps as early as 1861, into formal stadiums similar on a reduced scale to what we know today.

Just as important as the physical aspects of the game was the role that base ball began to take on within our culture. Displays of masculinity, athletic prowess, and regional pride were key components of the sport’s growing popularity, but its adaptability to other aspects of daily life further expanded its reach. Nowhere was this truer than in the coming together of base ball and politics. In 2012, author Stacy Pratt McDermott provided a remarkable example of this in an essay entitled Base Balls and Ballots: The National Pastime and Illinois Politics during Abraham Lincoln’s Time. 

In the late 1850s, there were three or four base ball clubs in Chicago. The Excelsior club is the most prominent one and was one of the pioneer clubs. In fact, the Excelsior club was formed in 1857 and played games in 1858. McDermott explained how in the summer of 1860 the players of the Excelsior’s were divided into their support for Lincoln or for Douglas during the 1860 Presidential contest. Rather than debate the merits of their respective candidates or their political platforms, the players decided that the President should be determined on the diamond.

On the afternoon of July 24th, the two teams took the field before an estimated 1,200 fans. The game was tight, but in the end, the Douglas team edged out the Lincoln team by a score of 16-14. [Time-Period Rules]
In the following day’s Chicago Tribune Newspaper:
Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, July 25, 1860.
No evidence exists that either Lincoln or Douglas acknowledged the outcome of this contest. However, it becomes clear that even within the anxious political climate of 1860, base ball had firmly established itself within our culture.

“Four Score and Seven” Magazine
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Union Lincoln Assassin Sympathizers Face Punishment, April 15, 1865.

Not all Union men mourned the loss of their leader, President Lincoln.
A group of arrested Union Army Lincoln assassin sympathizers being guarded by Union soldiers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, April 15, 1865.
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NOTE: The pencil inscription on the face of the picture mat says: "Assassination Sympathizers at Chattanooga on Receipt of the Assassination of Pres. Lincoln April 15th 1865."
The Nashville Press described this image shortly after it was taken on April 15, 1865. “We saw a photograph yesterday of ten men who were arrested at Chattanooga, Tennessee, last Sunday for expressing pleasure at hearing of the death of President Lincoln,” reported a correspondent, who added, “Upon the breast of each man was a tin plate with the words ‘Assassin Sympathizer’ painted on it.” The men were sentenced to labor on the streets in Chattanooga by day while wearing the placards, and by night they were confined in irons.

The Press identified the men by name. They were a mix of soldiers, government contractors, and citizens. The order of the men in the picture is unknown.
Government employees: E. Jones, R.C. Jones, and James Martin.
18th Ohio Infantry privates: David Alspaugh, Cyrus Leight, Moses H. Matheny, and Henry D. Metzer. 
Citizens: C.G. Moxley (Blacksmith), and S. Moxley
The soldiers were all late war recruits: Leight, Metzer, and Alspaugh were substitutes who mustered into Company K during the last week of March 1865. Matheny mustered into the regiment in February 1864, making him the veteran of the group. 

The four men eventually received honorable discharges. They also hailed from Ohio, the same state as U.S. Congressman Clement Vallandigham, the leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats, and a powerful opponent of the Lincoln administration.

A fragmentary period pencil inscription on the back of the mount notes that a lieutenant presented the photograph to a major general.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Contributer JSTOR