General Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) is best known as the man who "invented" baseball, but his admirable service on behalf of the Union earned him a reputation as a solid commander and patriot. He saw action at Fort Sumter where he aimed the first gun fired against the rebellion; at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, where he lead the First and later the Third Divisions of the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac; and finally at Gettysburg, where he commanded the entire First Corps after the death of General Reynolds early in the morning of the first day. Facing powerful...

"This was the very life I had been desirous of leading. To mix with the Mexican rancheros and see more of their manner of living.
"When the news came that a treaty of peace had actually been signed with Mexico we joyfully turned our face homewards that is towards the sea coast, taking with us the heavy guns which had been an object of so much care and solicitude in the past."
Often thought of as the inventor of baseball, Abner Doubleday was first and foremost a soldier. Graduated from West Point in 1842 (where his record characterizes him as "correct in his deportment, social and...

Abner Doubleday was an 1842 graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the Mexican war when he was assigned to Fort Moultrie in the summer of 1860. A Captain of Artillery, he served as second in command of the garrison at the historic fort when the curtain rose on the dramatic events leading to the outbreak of the War Between the States. Doubleday also had the distinction of aiming the first cannon fired in response to the bombardment of Fort Sumter. From letters, memorandum and documents, Doubleday writes of his own recollections of the turbulent days of 1860 and...

This is volume six of the sixteen-volume series aabout the Army and the Navy in the Civil War.

An account of two of the great battles of the Civil War
The author of this book was present at-indeed he was literally the target of-the firing of the first hostile shots of the American Civil War. As a regular U. S. Army officer of artillery he was stationed at Forts Moultrie and Sumter as the political disputes between the Northern and Southern states exploded into armed conflict. He has left us, in another book, a memorable account from the sharp end of those momentous events which is also available from Leonaur. Doubleday was in an ideal position to view the events described in this...

The first shots destined to tear a nation apart
This is an essential and riveting book by one who was literally at the heart of the events that heralded the great conflict between the states. Although Doubleday was certainly a Union soldier from his perspective, for many of the events he tells of, he was simply an officer of the United States Army-since there was no other. The action takes place, of course, beyond Charleston in what would become the Confederacy. Doubleday and his men garrisoned Fort Moultrie on the mainland before the 'phoney war' with its antipathy from the local...

An account of two of the great battles of the Civil War
The author of this book was present at-indeed he was literally the target of-the firing of the first hostile shots of the American Civil War. As a regular U. S. Army officer of artillery he was stationed at Forts Moultrie and Sumter as the political disputes between the Northern and Southern states exploded into armed conflict. He has left us, in another book, a memorable account from the sharp end of those momentous events which is also available from Leonaur. Doubleday was in an ideal position to view the events described in this...

The first shots destined to tear a nation apart
This is an essential and riveting book by one who was literally at the heart of the events that heralded the great conflict between the states. Although Doubleday was certainly a Union soldier from his perspective, for many of the events he tells of, he was simply an officer of the United States Army-since there was no other. The action takes place, of course, beyond Charleston in what would become the Confederacy. Doubleday and his men garrisoned Fort Moultrie on the mainland before the 'phoney war' with its antipathy from the local...