Baseball  "Just Like School Boys"

Baseball was a very popular sport with Civil War soldiers of both the North and the South. The game was played without gloves and with a soft ball, which sometimes was nothing more than a hickory nut wrapped with yarn. The bat may have been little more than a tree branch or a section of fence rail. Soldiers turned out in large numbers to watch the games played on the parade field or in meadows near their camp.

Regimental rivalries were common, and the spectators cheered and taunted the players "just like school boys". "To put a base runner out," recorded a Vermont soldier, "he had to be hit by the ball, thrown by the pitcher." A Texas Ranger told of a team member who "could throw harder and straighter than any man in the company. He came very near knocking the stuffing out of three or four of the boys, and the boys swore they would not play with him."

Zouave Pvt. Charles Johnson recorded the excitement of the games in his diary:
 

"The other day, while I was walking my post on General Getty's quarters, a member of the Fifty-first Regiment came down to our guard for the purpose of seeing one Freed, who is an enthusiast in the game of baseball, to make arrangements with him for a challenge from our regiment... Frank Hughson, President of the Hawkins Zuoaves Baseball Club, lost no time in calling the members together... and sent the challenge, and immediately proceeded to the necessary selection of a "Nine". And they were now straining every nerve to beat the Fifty-first in this exciting field sport, in the presence of a vast number from both Regiments... I was out there about a half hour ago, and it looked unfavorable for us, but since, we have gotten our innings and made fourteen runs. Our boys are now in and the game is in the third inning.

Just returned from the field. The game is now in the sixth inning and we are six ahead, eighteen to twenty four."

Johnson's regiment won the game 34 to 31. "It is likely that this will not be the last game which will be played between these teams", he added.

Fascinating Fact:  The two teams played again four days later. Again Johnson's "Nine" won, this time with a score of 58 to 19.


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