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Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War
During the Civil War, Americans from homefront to battlefront played baseball as never before. While soldiers slaughtered each other over the country's fate, players and fans struggled over the form of the national pastime. George Kirsch gives us a color commentary of the growth and transformation of baseball during the Civil War. He shows that the game was a vital part of the lives of many a soldier and civilian--and that baseball's popularity had everything to do with surging American nationalism.
By 1860, baseball was poised to emerge as the American sport. Clubs in northeastern and a few southern cities played various forms of the game. Newspapers published statistics, and governing bodies set rules. But the Civil War years proved crucial in securing the game's place in the American heart. Soldiers with bats in their rucksacks spread baseball to training camps, war prisons, and even front lines. As nationalist fervor heightened, baseball became patriotic. Fans honored it with the title of national pastime. War metaphors were commonplace in sports reporting, and charity games were scheduled. Decades later, Union general Abner Doubleday would be credited (wrongly) with baseball's invention. The Civil War period also saw key developments in the sport itself, including the spread of the New York-style of play, the advent of revised pitching rules, and the growth of commercialism.
Kirsch recounts vivid stories of great players and describes soldiers playing ball to relieve boredom. He introduces entrepreneurs who preached the gospel of baseball, boosted female attendance, and found new ways to make money. We witness bitterly contested championships that enthralled whole cities. We watch African Americans embracing baseball despite official exclusion. And we see legends spring from the pens of early sportswriters.
Rich with anecdotes and surprising facts, this narrative of baseball's coming-of-age reveals the remarkable extent to which America's national pastime is bound up with the country's defining event.
By 1860, baseball was poised to emerge as the American sport. Clubs in northeastern and a few southern cities played various forms of the game. Newspapers published statistics, and governing bodies set rules. But the Civil War years proved crucial in securing the game's place in the American heart. Soldiers with bats in their rucksacks spread baseball to training camps, war prisons, and even front lines. As nationalist fervor heightened, baseball became patriotic. Fans honored it with the title of national pastime. War metaphors were commonplace in sports reporting, and charity games were scheduled. Decades later, Union general Abner Doubleday would be credited (wrongly) with baseball's invention. The Civil War period also saw key developments in the sport itself, including the spread of the New York-style of play, the advent of revised pitching rules, and the growth of commercialism.
Kirsch recounts vivid stories of great players and describes soldiers playing ball to relieve boredom. He introduces entrepreneurs who preached the gospel of baseball, boosted female attendance, and found new ways to make money. We witness bitterly contested championships that enthralled whole cities. We watch African Americans embracing baseball despite official exclusion. And we see legends spring from the pens of early sportswriters.
Rich with anecdotes and surprising facts, this narrative of baseball's coming-of-age reveals the remarkable extent to which America's national pastime is bound up with the country's defining event.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published February 25, 2003
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August 22, 2022
Baseball and the Civil War, together -- it seems as though this book should have had the crossover potential to become a bestseller. It did not, but that fact does not take away from the merits of George Kirsch's Baseball in Blue and Gray.
In order to chronicle the history of The National Pastime During the Civil War (the book's subtitle), Kirsch, a professor of history at Manhattan College, begins by describing how, during the antebellum period, a game known as "townball," loosely based on the English game of rounders, developed in Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia -- all places where baseball would hold a reasonable degree of importance in times to come. Kirsch suggests that “Early baseball was an urban phenomenon, better suited to the values and needs of merchants, clerks, journalists, skilled workers, and other townspeople than to those of slave masters or rural folk” (p. 25).
The game's importance, by the time of the 1860 election, is made evident by a Currier & Ives print from the post-election period that celebrated Abraham Lincoln's electoral victory with a caption that read "THE NATIONAL GAME. THREE 'OUTS' AND ONE 'RUN', Abraham Winning the Ball" (p. 18) -- a clever reference to Lincoln's defeat of three separate rivals in that hotly contested election.
Soon enough, of course, the firing on Fort Sumter plunged the entire nation into war. Surprisingly, however, the war that absorbed the energies and attention of the American people did not altogether discourage interest in baseball. “In the world of sports, the events of 1861 and 1862 proved to be very disruptive, but by 1863 there were signs of revival for athletics in general and baseball in particular” (p. 51). The reasons for this revival of baseball fandom in a war-torn nation, Kirsch states, include “[t[he wartime prosperity in several northeastern cities and the ability of many men to avoid military service” (p. 50), along with a growing awareness among newspaper editors that there was money to be made off the growing interest in baseball.
Gamblers, in an ominous development, were interested in making money off baseball as well: “Wagering on baseball was a nearly universal practice during the sport’s formative years, even though the NABBP [National Association of Base Ball Players] prohibited participants from betting” (p. 103). In 1865, three players for the Mutual baseball club of New York were found to have conspired to “throw” a game against the Brooklyn Excelsiors, and were expelled from the club, in an incident that “remains the only documented example of a fixed contest during this period” (p. 104). The perceptive student of baseball’s history will immediately draw a link forward to 1919, and to the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” in which eight players for the heavily favored Chicago White Sox were implicated in a plot to “throw” the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds for the benefit of gamblers. What is past is prologue.
Students and alumni of Princeton University will no doubt be pleased to know that “The premier college baseball team of the war years represented Princeton, then known as the College of New Jersey” (p. 74); Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Bowdoin, Tufts, Fordham, Seton Hall, and New York University were among the other Northeastern colleges and universities where baseball took hold. It was interesting to hear about this, and I was happy for these young men who did not find themselves sent to fight on battlefields like Antietam; but I kept asking myself, “What is happening to those young men in the armies, down at the war, while these lads are enjoying a nice game of baseball?”
The answer, of course, is that baseball players, mainly in the North but also including a few in the South, joined the Civil War armies. These men played ball in training camps and prison camps, and in peaceful farm fields that would one day become bloody battlefields. And yes, in case you're wondering, included among the book’s illustrations is Otto Boettischer's famous drawing of Union prisoners and rebel guards competing in a baseball game at the Confederate prison camp in Salisbury, North Carolina. Suffice it to say that the filthy, squalid reality of life at the Salisbury prison camp did not match the bucolic quality of Boettischer's drawing.
Readers who think that commercialism in baseball is something that only came along with the TV age may be persuaded otherwise by the sober manner in which Kirsch observes that "The commercialization of baseball followed naturally from the long-accepted practice of charging admission fees for popular amusements in general and sporting events...in particular" (p. 108). A final chapter even looks ahead to how the issues of race that had brought on the war would continue to affect the game of baseball for more than 80 years after Appomattox, chiefly through the rigid segregation that took hold in baseball after the Civil War and was not done away with until Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April of 1947.
Baseball in Blue and Gray is well illustrated with photographs and illustrations. It is a short book - 135 pages, in its Princeton University Press hardcover edition - and is a stately rather than a compelling read; but then again, baseball is a stately game. Both baseball fans and Civil War enthusiasts may find something to enjoy Baseball in Blue and Gray.
In order to chronicle the history of The National Pastime During the Civil War (the book's subtitle), Kirsch, a professor of history at Manhattan College, begins by describing how, during the antebellum period, a game known as "townball," loosely based on the English game of rounders, developed in Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia -- all places where baseball would hold a reasonable degree of importance in times to come. Kirsch suggests that “Early baseball was an urban phenomenon, better suited to the values and needs of merchants, clerks, journalists, skilled workers, and other townspeople than to those of slave masters or rural folk” (p. 25).
The game's importance, by the time of the 1860 election, is made evident by a Currier & Ives print from the post-election period that celebrated Abraham Lincoln's electoral victory with a caption that read "THE NATIONAL GAME. THREE 'OUTS' AND ONE 'RUN', Abraham Winning the Ball" (p. 18) -- a clever reference to Lincoln's defeat of three separate rivals in that hotly contested election.
Soon enough, of course, the firing on Fort Sumter plunged the entire nation into war. Surprisingly, however, the war that absorbed the energies and attention of the American people did not altogether discourage interest in baseball. “In the world of sports, the events of 1861 and 1862 proved to be very disruptive, but by 1863 there were signs of revival for athletics in general and baseball in particular” (p. 51). The reasons for this revival of baseball fandom in a war-torn nation, Kirsch states, include “[t[he wartime prosperity in several northeastern cities and the ability of many men to avoid military service” (p. 50), along with a growing awareness among newspaper editors that there was money to be made off the growing interest in baseball.
Gamblers, in an ominous development, were interested in making money off baseball as well: “Wagering on baseball was a nearly universal practice during the sport’s formative years, even though the NABBP [National Association of Base Ball Players] prohibited participants from betting” (p. 103). In 1865, three players for the Mutual baseball club of New York were found to have conspired to “throw” a game against the Brooklyn Excelsiors, and were expelled from the club, in an incident that “remains the only documented example of a fixed contest during this period” (p. 104). The perceptive student of baseball’s history will immediately draw a link forward to 1919, and to the infamous “Black Sox Scandal” in which eight players for the heavily favored Chicago White Sox were implicated in a plot to “throw” the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds for the benefit of gamblers. What is past is prologue.
Students and alumni of Princeton University will no doubt be pleased to know that “The premier college baseball team of the war years represented Princeton, then known as the College of New Jersey” (p. 74); Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Bowdoin, Tufts, Fordham, Seton Hall, and New York University were among the other Northeastern colleges and universities where baseball took hold. It was interesting to hear about this, and I was happy for these young men who did not find themselves sent to fight on battlefields like Antietam; but I kept asking myself, “What is happening to those young men in the armies, down at the war, while these lads are enjoying a nice game of baseball?”
The answer, of course, is that baseball players, mainly in the North but also including a few in the South, joined the Civil War armies. These men played ball in training camps and prison camps, and in peaceful farm fields that would one day become bloody battlefields. And yes, in case you're wondering, included among the book’s illustrations is Otto Boettischer's famous drawing of Union prisoners and rebel guards competing in a baseball game at the Confederate prison camp in Salisbury, North Carolina. Suffice it to say that the filthy, squalid reality of life at the Salisbury prison camp did not match the bucolic quality of Boettischer's drawing.
Readers who think that commercialism in baseball is something that only came along with the TV age may be persuaded otherwise by the sober manner in which Kirsch observes that "The commercialization of baseball followed naturally from the long-accepted practice of charging admission fees for popular amusements in general and sporting events...in particular" (p. 108). A final chapter even looks ahead to how the issues of race that had brought on the war would continue to affect the game of baseball for more than 80 years after Appomattox, chiefly through the rigid segregation that took hold in baseball after the Civil War and was not done away with until Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April of 1947.
Baseball in Blue and Gray is well illustrated with photographs and illustrations. It is a short book - 135 pages, in its Princeton University Press hardcover edition - and is a stately rather than a compelling read; but then again, baseball is a stately game. Both baseball fans and Civil War enthusiasts may find something to enjoy Baseball in Blue and Gray.
July 9, 2022
Baseball in Blue & Gray is a misleading title. It implies that the book is a history of baseball as played by soldiers in the American Civil War. One chapter, titled battlefront, is devoted to baseball as it was played in the military and prison camps of that war, but the remainder of the book is better captured by its sub-title - The National Pastime During the Civil War. As a history of how baseball developed, progressed, and grew into the American National Pastime during the first half of the 1860s, this book does a fine job. But if you are looking for a book full of Civil War baseball antidotes, you will find this book a disappointment.
The book begins with a quick history lesson on the origins of baseball. The author holds that the game is rooted in the English game of rounders, not the more famous English bat and ball game cricket. Rounders underwent a major transformation in America, and emerged as the game of townball, a unique American version of the game that was widely played throughout the country in the antebellum years. In the 1840s, a New York club, the Knickerbockers, developed rules of play for townball that qualified it as the earliest form of baseball. This New York style of play became quickly popular, and by the 1850s had spread all over the region and beyond. Kirsch claims that the soldiers in the Civil War helped to spread the new form of the game around the country, but has little more than antidotal evidence for this claim.
The real virtue of Baseball in Blue & Gray is not its Civil War tie in, put the wealth of knowledge on the early development of baseball in the days before professional leagues. Kirsch shows how the game progressed from being an amusement of a few gentlemen's clubs in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston in the 1850s, to having an honest claim to the title of the National Pastime by 1870. He tells how men like Henry Chadwick and Albert Spalding help to shape what the game became, and shows why their names are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
At 135 pages, Baseball in Blue & Gray is a brief book. It is written in a clear and concise manner, and is easy reading. Anyone interested in the history of the origins and development of baseball should find it worthwhile, although those who are searching primarily for the Civil War angle may find it a bit disappointing, as it was somewhat of a stretch to market this baseball history as Civil War literature.
The book begins with a quick history lesson on the origins of baseball. The author holds that the game is rooted in the English game of rounders, not the more famous English bat and ball game cricket. Rounders underwent a major transformation in America, and emerged as the game of townball, a unique American version of the game that was widely played throughout the country in the antebellum years. In the 1840s, a New York club, the Knickerbockers, developed rules of play for townball that qualified it as the earliest form of baseball. This New York style of play became quickly popular, and by the 1850s had spread all over the region and beyond. Kirsch claims that the soldiers in the Civil War helped to spread the new form of the game around the country, but has little more than antidotal evidence for this claim.
The real virtue of Baseball in Blue & Gray is not its Civil War tie in, put the wealth of knowledge on the early development of baseball in the days before professional leagues. Kirsch shows how the game progressed from being an amusement of a few gentlemen's clubs in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston in the 1850s, to having an honest claim to the title of the National Pastime by 1870. He tells how men like Henry Chadwick and Albert Spalding help to shape what the game became, and shows why their names are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
At 135 pages, Baseball in Blue & Gray is a brief book. It is written in a clear and concise manner, and is easy reading. Anyone interested in the history of the origins and development of baseball should find it worthwhile, although those who are searching primarily for the Civil War angle may find it a bit disappointing, as it was somewhat of a stretch to market this baseball history as Civil War literature.
July 16, 2019
Interesting look at baseball in the 1860’s
While professional baseball began in earnest inn1869 with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were plenty of organized teams and (roughly) leagues in the game before that team had its initial season. While there were soldiers playin the game during downtime on the Civil War battlegrounds, this book only touches that aspect of the game briefly. The better description of this book is baseball as a whole during the middle of the 19th century. Even so, this is a good quick read on the sport.
While professional baseball began in earnest inn1869 with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were plenty of organized teams and (roughly) leagues in the game before that team had its initial season. While there were soldiers playin the game during downtime on the Civil War battlegrounds, this book only touches that aspect of the game briefly. The better description of this book is baseball as a whole during the middle of the 19th century. Even so, this is a good quick read on the sport.
December 2, 2025
This brief little book covers baseball in the 1860s, both at home and in military camps. Although primarily about the war years, author George Kirsch often refers to the 1850s to give better context. Baseball was not quite the sport as we know it here, but its head was definitely breaching. Kirsch offers a brief overview of the origins of baseball — the popularity of stick-and-base games in England, their migration to America and subsequent evolution of proto-baseball games with varying rules — before charting the progress of baseball through the war. The game was a popular, not professional sport back then: schools, workplaces, and fraternal organizations had their own teams of ‘nine’ that would play against one another, but no one was ‘paid’ — not officially, anyway.
Despite so many men being off at war, baseball became an increasingly popular spectator sport during the conflict, possibly as people sought relief from the war news. When the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania in hopes of forcing a defeat on the Yankee army to end the war, Pennsylvania newspapers nontheless published article after article about Philadelphia’s team playing a series against New York squads. At this time there were still different baseball rules, but the “New York” rules that modern baseball is based on became the standard during the war years. Baseball was also a constant diversion for soldiers, both on campaign and in prison camps, and the bringing together of men from different parts of the country together helped the sport spread from the northeast and midwest where it was most popular to across the country in general. Officers supported the game, since it promoted ‘good martial virtues’, and presumably was a healthier way to keep the men entertained than drinking and gambling. Soldiers tended to use more informal rulesets than the New York approach, given the problem of supplies (especially for southerners) and the chaotic nature of war. Kirsch reports one instance of a ballgame being interrupted by an attack, in which the outfielders were shot and taken prisoner, but the infielders managed to get back to the safety of their lines. Informative but short!
Despite so many men being off at war, baseball became an increasingly popular spectator sport during the conflict, possibly as people sought relief from the war news. When the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania in hopes of forcing a defeat on the Yankee army to end the war, Pennsylvania newspapers nontheless published article after article about Philadelphia’s team playing a series against New York squads. At this time there were still different baseball rules, but the “New York” rules that modern baseball is based on became the standard during the war years. Baseball was also a constant diversion for soldiers, both on campaign and in prison camps, and the bringing together of men from different parts of the country together helped the sport spread from the northeast and midwest where it was most popular to across the country in general. Officers supported the game, since it promoted ‘good martial virtues’, and presumably was a healthier way to keep the men entertained than drinking and gambling. Soldiers tended to use more informal rulesets than the New York approach, given the problem of supplies (especially for southerners) and the chaotic nature of war. Kirsch reports one instance of a ballgame being interrupted by an attack, in which the outfielders were shot and taken prisoner, but the infielders managed to get back to the safety of their lines. Informative but short!
June 24, 2024
I first encountered this book during a “History of Baseball” course at Temple University, where I read only the required chapters. Since then, my love for baseball has grown immensely (Go Phils), prompting me to dive into the intriguing history of the sport as America’s pastime.
Kirsch excels in analyzing the role of ball and stick games in early 19th-century America. He connects the leisurely sport to everyday citizens, both soldiers and civilians, providing historical insight into the pageantry and nationalism that emerged from regional and national sectarianism. This connection reinforced baseball as a truly American sport, solidifying its cultural significance both domestically and internationally.
One of the most compelling aspects of Kirsch’s work is his exploration of regional differences in baseball before the turn of the century. The evolution of rounders and cricket into the modern New York game is a captivating story that any baseball enthusiast would appreciate. As a Philadelphian, I was particularly enthralled by Kirsch’s account of Octavius V. Catto’s efforts for civil rights and the integration of baseball decades before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. This historical narrative kept me engaged from beginning to end.
Overall, Kirsch’s book is a remarkable historical exploration of baseball’s evolution and its entrenchment in American mythology and popular culture. While the book is highly informative and engaging, a more balanced critique might have highlighted areas for improvement, such as more detailed explanations of certain historical terms and a bit more critical analysis of the sport’s darker aspects. Nonetheless, it remains an essential read for any baseball lover.
Kirsch excels in analyzing the role of ball and stick games in early 19th-century America. He connects the leisurely sport to everyday citizens, both soldiers and civilians, providing historical insight into the pageantry and nationalism that emerged from regional and national sectarianism. This connection reinforced baseball as a truly American sport, solidifying its cultural significance both domestically and internationally.
One of the most compelling aspects of Kirsch’s work is his exploration of regional differences in baseball before the turn of the century. The evolution of rounders and cricket into the modern New York game is a captivating story that any baseball enthusiast would appreciate. As a Philadelphian, I was particularly enthralled by Kirsch’s account of Octavius V. Catto’s efforts for civil rights and the integration of baseball decades before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. This historical narrative kept me engaged from beginning to end.
Overall, Kirsch’s book is a remarkable historical exploration of baseball’s evolution and its entrenchment in American mythology and popular culture. While the book is highly informative and engaging, a more balanced critique might have highlighted areas for improvement, such as more detailed explanations of certain historical terms and a bit more critical analysis of the sport’s darker aspects. Nonetheless, it remains an essential read for any baseball lover.
February 10, 2024
Not the worst . At times felt like I was reading a DBQ
April 5, 2014
Baseball and the Civil War -- it seems as though this book should have had the crossover potential to become a bestseller. It did not, but that fact does not take away from the merits of George Kirsch's Baseball in Blue and Gray.
In order to chronicle the history of The National Pastime During the Civil War (the book's subtitle), Kirsch, a professor of history at Manhattan College, begins by describing how, during the antebellum period, a game known as "townball," loosely based on the English game of rounders, developed in Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia -- all places where baseball would hold a reasonable degree of importance in times to come. The game's importance, by the time of the 1860 election, is made evident by a Currier & Ives print from the post-election period that celebrated Abraham Lincoln's electoral victory with a caption that read "THE NATIONAL GAME. THREE 'OUTS' AND ONE 'RUN', Abraham Winning the Ball" (p. 18) -- a clever reference to Lincoln's defeat of three separate rivals in that hotly contested election.
Soon enough, of course, the firing on Fort Sumter plunged the entire nation into war; and baseball players, mainly in the North but also including a few in the South, joined the Civil War armies. These men played ball in training camps and prison camps, and in peaceful farm fields that would one day become bloody battlefields. Back home, at least in the North, baseball continued to become more organized around specific clubs, and to draw an increasingly fervent following. There were even the beginnings of championship-series events, looking ahead to the World Series of today.
Readers who think that commercialism in baseball is something that only came along with the TV age may be persuaded otherwise by the sober manner in which Kirsch observes that "The commercialization of baseball followed naturally from the long-accepted practice of charging admission fees for popular amusements in general and sporting events...in particular" (108). A final chapter even looks ahead to how the issues of race that had brought on the war would continue to affect the game of baseball for more than 80 years after Appomattox, chiefly through the rigid segregation that took hold in baseball after the Civil War and was not done away with until Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April of 1947.
Baseball in Blue and Gray is well illustrated with photographs and illustrations -- and yes, in case you're wondering, included among those illustrations is Otto Boettischer's famous drawing of Union prisoners and rebel guards competing in a baseball game at the Confederate prison camp in Salisbury, North Carolina. (Suffice it to say that the squalid reality of life at the Salisbury prison did not match the bucolic quality of Boettischer's drawing.) It is a short book -- 135 pages, in its Princeton University Press hardcover edition -- and is a stately rather than a compelling read; but then again, baseball is a stately game. Both baseball fans and Civil War enthusiasts should enjoy George Kirsch's Baseball in Blue and Gray.
In order to chronicle the history of The National Pastime During the Civil War (the book's subtitle), Kirsch, a professor of history at Manhattan College, begins by describing how, during the antebellum period, a game known as "townball," loosely based on the English game of rounders, developed in Northern cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia -- all places where baseball would hold a reasonable degree of importance in times to come. The game's importance, by the time of the 1860 election, is made evident by a Currier & Ives print from the post-election period that celebrated Abraham Lincoln's electoral victory with a caption that read "THE NATIONAL GAME. THREE 'OUTS' AND ONE 'RUN', Abraham Winning the Ball" (p. 18) -- a clever reference to Lincoln's defeat of three separate rivals in that hotly contested election.
Soon enough, of course, the firing on Fort Sumter plunged the entire nation into war; and baseball players, mainly in the North but also including a few in the South, joined the Civil War armies. These men played ball in training camps and prison camps, and in peaceful farm fields that would one day become bloody battlefields. Back home, at least in the North, baseball continued to become more organized around specific clubs, and to draw an increasingly fervent following. There were even the beginnings of championship-series events, looking ahead to the World Series of today.
Readers who think that commercialism in baseball is something that only came along with the TV age may be persuaded otherwise by the sober manner in which Kirsch observes that "The commercialization of baseball followed naturally from the long-accepted practice of charging admission fees for popular amusements in general and sporting events...in particular" (108). A final chapter even looks ahead to how the issues of race that had brought on the war would continue to affect the game of baseball for more than 80 years after Appomattox, chiefly through the rigid segregation that took hold in baseball after the Civil War and was not done away with until Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers in April of 1947.
Baseball in Blue and Gray is well illustrated with photographs and illustrations -- and yes, in case you're wondering, included among those illustrations is Otto Boettischer's famous drawing of Union prisoners and rebel guards competing in a baseball game at the Confederate prison camp in Salisbury, North Carolina. (Suffice it to say that the squalid reality of life at the Salisbury prison did not match the bucolic quality of Boettischer's drawing.) It is a short book -- 135 pages, in its Princeton University Press hardcover edition -- and is a stately rather than a compelling read; but then again, baseball is a stately game. Both baseball fans and Civil War enthusiasts should enjoy George Kirsch's Baseball in Blue and Gray.
November 21, 2025
George B. Kirsch's well researched book is not properly named. Perhaps the title, "Origins of Baseball from 1840s New England Townball to America's Pastime in Three Decades," might be more appropriate. For a title that teases us about "Blue and Gray," with the inference of it being the Civil War, there is remarkably very little about the Civil War in here. There is even less about the "gray" when it comes to Confederates, or non-Yankees in Confederate States taking up the pastime. The bulk of the research and writing is centered on the northeast - primarily Boston, New York (including Brooklyn), New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, very little is covered.
This is a dry academic work, but it is an important work. Where Kirsch excels is busting myths about the origins of the game. He blows past the claim that Union General Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, N.Y., explains how the myth was created, and then sets our path straight on the correct story of what happened. This is actually the strength of the book. However, because the Doubleday myth involved the Civil War, Kirsch continued even though it's pretty clear that he didn't want to. This is where things got off track for him.
He tried getting things back on track for the ending but didn't quite get there. He needed to reach back to Doubleday, Spaulding, Chadwick, and some of the other early characters and bring their visions forward to 1876 and the signing of the National Agreement that resulted in the creation of what we now call Major League Baseball. Kirsch stopped a half decade early without tying everything together.
Important book for the early history and myth busting. Great information, well-researched. Pretty dry read. Organization and writing could have been focused better. Three stars. Not bad. Could have been better.
This is a dry academic work, but it is an important work. Where Kirsch excels is busting myths about the origins of the game. He blows past the claim that Union General Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, N.Y., explains how the myth was created, and then sets our path straight on the correct story of what happened. This is actually the strength of the book. However, because the Doubleday myth involved the Civil War, Kirsch continued even though it's pretty clear that he didn't want to. This is where things got off track for him.
He tried getting things back on track for the ending but didn't quite get there. He needed to reach back to Doubleday, Spaulding, Chadwick, and some of the other early characters and bring their visions forward to 1876 and the signing of the National Agreement that resulted in the creation of what we now call Major League Baseball. Kirsch stopped a half decade early without tying everything together.
Important book for the early history and myth busting. Great information, well-researched. Pretty dry read. Organization and writing could have been focused better. Three stars. Not bad. Could have been better.
October 26, 2019
I have a couple of issues with this book. First, it is dry as hell. Feels like reading a text book at times. I get the feeling the author would wear that "complaint" as a badge of honor too. Second, it is very much a primary source only kind of text. It seems like periodicals of the period were the only resources used extensively. Which will color any attempt at a complete story. Speaking of coloring a story, the author also seems to be looking at early baseball with rose colored glasses. Wishing that the game went back to when it was "fun." That is of course projection and conjecture, but that is my impression while reading. Finally (although possibly not only), I will mention that I have a problem with his extensive use of the word nationalism in this book. I understand he is using it in the context of the Unionists trying to keep the country together and be "proud" of the Union soldiers, but that term has so many more modern implications that I think an author just can't ignore in a book written in 2003. A different word perhaps? or, at least mentioning your stance? I dunno.
Lots of interesting facts amid the constant talk of the New York game, but not a keeper for me.
Lots of interesting facts amid the constant talk of the New York game, but not a keeper for me.
July 30, 2019
Going to save you some time. Spoilers ahead:
Baseball developed from a game called townball (and some believe it also has roots in cricket). Different cities had their own versions of baseball, notably Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By the late 1850s and early 1860s, the New York version of baseball became the most prominent rule set, and clubs were springing up all over the country playing by these rules. During the Civil War, military troops would pass their time at camp playing baseball. After the war, African American clubs starting popping up, but there wasn't much integration with the White clubs. Baseball continued to gain popularity throughout the rest of the 19th century.
Now imagine reading variations of this same information over and over again for about 150 pages.
Congratulations: You've now read Baseball in Blue and Gray.
Baseball developed from a game called townball (and some believe it also has roots in cricket). Different cities had their own versions of baseball, notably Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By the late 1850s and early 1860s, the New York version of baseball became the most prominent rule set, and clubs were springing up all over the country playing by these rules. During the Civil War, military troops would pass their time at camp playing baseball. After the war, African American clubs starting popping up, but there wasn't much integration with the White clubs. Baseball continued to gain popularity throughout the rest of the 19th century.
Now imagine reading variations of this same information over and over again for about 150 pages.
Congratulations: You've now read Baseball in Blue and Gray.
January 26, 2022
Some interesting moments, but many of the claims, like how baseball helped easy sectional tensions during Reconstruction, are not well supported and could be more developed. Would love to read more about baseball and role in imperialism in the Caribbean and East Asia, which is mentioned in the conclusion without a footnote.
April 17, 2023
There’s some interesting anecdotes and some great research and information here. However, I found the presentation to be rather dry - like reading a history textbook. I’d have liked a little more of a narrative style.
There’s also quite a lot of repetition (which is further exacerbated by the fact that this book is only 135 pages).
There’s also quite a lot of repetition (which is further exacerbated by the fact that this book is only 135 pages).
June 5, 2025
Arduous to say the least. The book is incredibly disorganized, repetitive and just monotonous. Great info but it is so scattered that it becomes difficult and somewhat frustrating to follow. Each chapter starts strong but quickly becomes mired in circular descriptions and overly detailed repetitious scores. Good pictures though!
December 2, 2019
Very little in terms of baseball and the Civil War. It was an interesting book, but quite vague.
April 19, 2021
Very very good!
An exhaustively researched giving me new info on the start of baseball and how important the Civil War was in spreading the game
An exhaustively researched giving me new info on the start of baseball and how important the Civil War was in spreading the game
October 1, 2016
There has traditionally been a theory that baseball became the "national pastime" during the Civil War when soldiers from the Northeast where the game had its start in the 1840's would interact with their comrades from other parts of the country and play ball during lulls between battles. George B. Kirsch maintains that that is only part of the story. Kirsch gives the origins of baseball (spoiler: it wasn't Abner Doubleday) and traces the games evolution and progression, especially in its hotbed cities of Boston and particularly New York. The game quickly took off, however, and even before the war, some newspapers were calling it, although probably hyperbolicly, the national game. It can't be disputed, however, that matches between top clubs were attracting hundreds of spectators even before the war. Kirsch gives us an overview of the game during the war in the military and also on the homefront. He also discusses the issues of social class and race and their impact on the game and vice versa. He also looks at how the game became commercialized as the 1860's went on and eventually professional by the 1870's. This is a short book that is trying to do a lot, but at the same time feels bloated. Kirsch writes in an academic style that really feels like a lecture hall and does not bring much life to the characters. The book is at times as dry as dust. Don't get me wrong, in terms of treating the subject, Kirsch does the job, although simplifying some things, I suspect. But the read is a real slog.
September 24, 2013
The title is misleading, in that very little of the book really relates to baseball's connection to the Civil War, but it's still interesting.
The real meat of the book is the history of baseball from the 1850s to 1869, which is when the game began to seriously turn professional. For me, the most interesting part is the reasoning as to why the New York version of the game surpassed the other regional variations that had been popular up until the period covered by the book. While I agree with the author's reasoning, it seems to me that the other versions were either too cricket-like or too chaotic, and that the New York version of baseball managed to be both athletic and fun to watch.
While the book briefly mentioned the ups and downs of the history of the game during the period covered, the book was so brief that it couldn't go into detail on anything.
Kirsch did point out that many of the supposed Civil War ties to baseball are unlikely or totally apocryphal, and his suggestions as to why this happened were interesting.
Worth reading if you're interested in the history of baseball, less so if you're mainly a Civil War buff.
The real meat of the book is the history of baseball from the 1850s to 1869, which is when the game began to seriously turn professional. For me, the most interesting part is the reasoning as to why the New York version of the game surpassed the other regional variations that had been popular up until the period covered by the book. While I agree with the author's reasoning, it seems to me that the other versions were either too cricket-like or too chaotic, and that the New York version of baseball managed to be both athletic and fun to watch.
While the book briefly mentioned the ups and downs of the history of the game during the period covered, the book was so brief that it couldn't go into detail on anything.
Kirsch did point out that many of the supposed Civil War ties to baseball are unlikely or totally apocryphal, and his suggestions as to why this happened were interesting.
Worth reading if you're interested in the history of baseball, less so if you're mainly a Civil War buff.
July 1, 2008
I finished this book this past weekend. It was informative but dry. I had a hard time getting through it. This is somewhat disappointing because as my earlier post says, it combined two of my favorite interests. Something that was surprising to me was how life continued fairly normal for the north (i.e. being able to still field baseball teams) during this horrific war. Just goes to show that sometimes apathy about war is not such a new thing ...
You know me and my love of baseball! Here's another baseball history book that also incorporates my love of Civil War history - who would have thought I could find a book that incorporated both! Started reading it on the plane yesterday after my trip home from Georgia (bought this book at one of my favorite places: Ft. Pulaski) and am enjoying it so far.
You know me and my love of baseball! Here's another baseball history book that also incorporates my love of Civil War history - who would have thought I could find a book that incorporated both! Started reading it on the plane yesterday after my trip home from Georgia (bought this book at one of my favorite places: Ft. Pulaski) and am enjoying it so far.
February 24, 2014
A fun book that combines 2 of my passions-baseball and history. This explores the history of baseball from the early 1800's to around 1870. I thought I knew much about baseball's early years, but learned more. There were two branches of baseball that came out of Rounders. The NY school and the Massachusetts school. The Mass. School played on a square, not the current diamond. Allowed an out to be made by hitting the runner with the ball and an inning was over when the first player got out.
The writer credits the Civil War for the spread of baseball. As the North moved South, the game followed. Games in the prisoners camps and during lull in fighting helped spread the game. One case where a star of one of the NY teams joined the Union as a surgeon and then switched to the Confederacy helped spread the game to Richmond.
A fun read.
The writer credits the Civil War for the spread of baseball. As the North moved South, the game followed. Games in the prisoners camps and during lull in fighting helped spread the game. One case where a star of one of the NY teams joined the Union as a surgeon and then switched to the Confederacy helped spread the game to Richmond.
A fun read.
April 30, 2013
I was a bit disappointed in this book. It's sort of a dry read, to begin with. Furthermore, only about two chapters legitimately focus on baseball during the civil war; in the rest of the book, the war seems to be an afterthought. Much of the book is filled with phrases like "nothing much changed after the civil war in regards to club participation" or "most likely people saw . . .". The book is more accurately a discussion of baseball in the 1850s and 1860s. What is notable about the book, however, is its wealth of primary sources discussing baseball and nation.
August 19, 2014
George Kirsch has produced a well-focused account of the development of baseball during the era surrounding the Civil War. As a period more frequently the subject of baseball myth than fact, this book provides a good deal of clarity.
Kirsch manages to convey his information, frequently culled from newspaper reports, as well as the occasional diary entry, in a manner that is more entertaining than some previous works I've read on early baseball history.
If you're interested in how baseball came to be the American National pastime, this is a good place to turn.
Kirsch manages to convey his information, frequently culled from newspaper reports, as well as the occasional diary entry, in a manner that is more entertaining than some previous works I've read on early baseball history.
If you're interested in how baseball came to be the American National pastime, this is a good place to turn.
May 19, 2010
Very scholarly, which translates to rather dry, but very interesting history of the beginnings of baseball. From roundball in England to townball in Philadelphia to the baseball rules started by the NY Knickerbockers that is the basis of what is played today, the entire story is here up until the game became known as America's sport in the late 1860's. Civil War history in the book is very sparse, though, as the title suggests, the majority of this story takes place during the war.
February 13, 2013
Baseball was on the fast track to becoming the national pastime before the Civil War broke out. Despite a slowdown during the war's early going, the sport regained traction, finding popularity on the battlefront, where soldiers played ball between skirmishes, while becoming a mainstay of entertainment for those at home. This book chronicles baseball's evolution, the players and the Civil War's impact on the sport.
February 12, 2009
A history of baseball in the early years in which it grew from a regional game played in New York and Massachusetts into a national pastime, carried around the nation by soldiers during the war.
Frankly, I found it lacking in detail; so while I found it useful, it was not the in-depth reference I was hoping for.
Frankly, I found it lacking in detail; so while I found it useful, it was not the in-depth reference I was hoping for.
January 18, 2013
Lots of interesting facts about the history of the sports, but reads to much like an essay or report. I wish there would have been more stories about real events, as opposed to so many lists of dates and locations.
August 7, 2008
A little hard to follow because it jumps around quite a bit. However, it has some very informative and interesting information.
December 3, 2009
Interesting read for the Baseball fan. It was pretty cool to learn how Baseball got its start.
January 11, 2014
I am an avid baseball fan. I learned some new things from this book but I think the reader must be a real baseball fan to really enjoy it.
February 25, 2015
Unbelievable anecdotes and quite a lot of information I didn't know about the creation of baseball and the parallel at that time between baseball and the Civil War.
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