The Abner Doubleday memorial sign is at the foot of Doubleday Hill at the corner of Commerce and Salisbury Streets in Williamsport, Maryland (39° 35.934′ N, 77° 49.52′ W; map)
Abner Doubleday
Major General – United States Army
Occupied this site 1861
While a Captain in the Union Army, during the Civil War, he crossed the Potomac River, at Williamsport, in 1861 and built a breastwork, mounting three siege guns, on this hill, now known as Doubleday Hill.
He is credited witih inventing the game of baseball in 1835.
About Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday probably had nothing to do with the invention of baseball. He never mentioned the game or any connection to it in any of his writing, and the individual who made the claim – 14 years after Doubleday’s death – ended up in a mental institution.
What Doubleday was known for was firing the first shot on the Union side in the Civil War. An artillery officer who was second in command at Fort Sumter, Doubleday fired the first shot in reply to the Confederate barrage, which had been going on for two hours.
After the garrison surrendered Doubleday was assigned to an artillery battery with Patterson’s militia army who crossed the Potomac at Williamsport to move into Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The campaign was a failure but Doubleday’s West Point training (USMA 1842) led to his being assigned to an infantry brigade and then a division. At the Battle of Gettysburg he took temporary command of the Union 1st Corps on July 1st when General John Reynolds was killed.
But army commander George Meade had no confidence in Doubleday’s abilities as a corps commander and brought in an outsider of lower seniority to command the corps. Doubleday, who had been lightly wounded in Pickett’s Charge, took sick leave and never returned to the Army of the Potomac. He spent the rest of the war in administrative and rear area posts, an implacable enemy of George Meade. His statue stands at Gettysburg where he saw the high point of his military career.
(return to the Doubleday Hill page)