Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-61

by Abner Doubleday

Excerpt from Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-61
Now that the prejudices and bitter partisan feeling of the past are subsiding, it seems a fitting time to record the facts and incidents connected with the first conflict of the Rebellion. Of the eleven officers who took part in the events herein narrated, but four now survive. Before the hastening years shall have partially obliterated many circumstances from my memory, and while there is still an opportunity for conference and friendly criticism, I desire to make, from letters, memoranda, and documents in my possession, a statement which will embody my own recollections of the turbulent days of 1860 and 1861.

Genres: Civil War, American Civil War

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

A similar game to modern baseball predates American army officer Abner Doubleday, traditionally considered its inventor.

Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. Although Doubleday achieved minor fame as a competent combat general with experience in many important Civil War battles, he is more widely remembered as the supposed inventor of the game of baseball, in Elihu Phinney's cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Even though considerable evidence disputes this claim and despite the lack of solid evidence linking Doubleday to the origins of baseball, Cooperstown, New York became the new home, today the national baseball hall of fame and museum in 1937.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_D...

Reviews

[Sully Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars out of 5 - I read a download from The Guttenberg Project on my iPad Mini during rare downtime in Key Largo and then on the flight back home. It's an excellent brief retelling of the events during the few months before South Carolina Secessionists started the Civil War by firing on Fort Sumter, told by an army captain who was the second most senior line officer in the minimal garrison of Fort Moultrie which became the garrison of Fort Sumter - they moved over because Sumter was marginally more defensible. Doubleday is best known for inventing baseball, which he didn't. But he's also known for having risen to the rank of Major General during the Civil War, which he did. Well worth reading if you're interested in the Civil War. I plan to download Doubleday's other book, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, one of these days so as to have it ready for some future trip.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1876, fifteen years after the fact, Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie by Abner Doubleday is a rare look at the preamble to the war that would cost so many American lives during five years of hell. This account has an advantage over others compiled and written by historians in the years since the Civil War. I say this because I give more credence to an eye witness’s report over that of scholars. The commencement of hostilities took much longer than one would imagine. The numerous battles and campaigns of that conflict has pushed this, rather minor but oh so significant engagement, into the position of footnote. The unwillingness from both sides to fire the first shot is described by the author, one of the officers stationed first at Fort Moultrie and later of Fort Sumter. All lovers of American history….or history of anywhere should read this book. You won’t regret it!

[Jacob Houck · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY interesting viewpoint on the start of the Civil War, by a Union officer who was at the first conflict in it.

I was surprised to learn that it wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be; the Southerners let the families of the Union soldiers stationed in the fort leave before the fighting began.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abner Doubleday is credited for inventing baseball, but really didn't. However, he did create the trolly car. He writes of his experiences leading up to the Civil War in South Carolina. It is a good first hand account looking back on the events.