VOICES FROM THE STANDS . . . - May 1998 Civil War Times Feature

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VOICES FROM THE STANDS

In our February issue, we asked readers to send us their thoughts on baseball and its connection to the Civil War. Here is a sampling of what we received.

All men have a hidden desire to compete and win. Baseball is a sport played for the fun of it, and the final score is soon forgotten. War is fought on an extremely serious level, and the outcome is etched in our souls forever.

Victor M. Wein
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

You pick up a bat and your back yard becomes the site of the final game of the World Series. It’s the bottom of the ninth, the game is tied, and you are the batter, the pitcher, and the announcer all at once. You throw the ball in the air, swing, and drive it past the spot of dirt that is second base. You round that spot with your arms held high and celebrate the possibility of knowing such joy.

Now, you’re at Gettysburg. You stand on Seminary Ridge and look out across those fields and wonder, “Would I have climbed the fence along the Emmitsburg Road and kept going?” Those who did were average people, and perhaps you, too, could have risen to such heroic heights. You walk toward the copse of trees and quietly celebrate the possibility of that kind of commitment.

Austin E. Gisriel
Williamsport, Maryland

I see the hitter at the plate, all alone, facing nine opponents. Yet he remains part of a team. In the Civil War, the Rebs and the Yanks stood in lines, firing away at the other side. Each was a part of a team–a company, regiment, or brigade–but they faced the enemy as individuals, each with his own doubts and fears.

C.J. Calenti
Poughkeepsie, New York

In baseball and in war, two distinct teams compete on a field with a set of rules that are fairly static, but open to interpretation. Strategies are employed to win that often evolve during the course of the conflict. The two teams could be from opposite ends of town, the country, or even the world. But, cultural, ethnic, and racial differences aside, they react the same way: from both we learn about ourselves.

James Dossey
Baker, Louisiana

Soldiers on both sides, at least those who survived the war, stood in later years and cheered baseball’s early legends and told their sons about the game. Baseball was played near battlefields grown still by the passage of time, and baseball, like those veterans, will always be remembered.

Bo Bourisseau
Mountville, Ohio

After the Civil War, the veterans returned to Hendricks County, Indiana, just west of Indianapolis, taking with them a new game they called townball. My great-grandfather, Jesse Thompson, had had five sons born before he left for the war. Upon his return, a sixth son was born–my grandfather, William. These six boys became the nucleus of Danville’s team, the Browns. In 1884, a scout from Detroit visited the area to see one of these boys, Cyrus, play ball. The scout, however, became enamored with the ability of Cyrus’s brother, Sam, who was only playing that day because the team agreed to pay him $2.50, the same amount he would have made building a roof.

The scout enlisted Sam as a player for Evansville in the Western League, and his professional career began. The next year he was playing in Indianapolis, and by July 1885, he was a member of the Detroit Wolverines. That was just the start. By the time he ended his career as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898, he had amassed hitting records that took decades to break. Sam Thompson, who died in 1922, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Don A. Thompson
Mesa, Arizona

The Battle of Gettysburg was like a game in the World Series. In order to win the championship, the undefeated Rebels once again had to defeat the Yankees. The Rebels were confident, even though the Yankees had home-field advantage this time. The game ended in a tie, but the Yankees viewed it as a victory, and the Rebels could no longer be considered unbeatable. But it is not who wins or loses that matters. It is how the game–or the war–is played, and the Rebels played very well against all odds.

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