There’s another Vintage Base Ball game this weekend at Fort Vancouver. We’ll be there and will have plenty of photos of the fort and game.

While doing some research for the Civil War Daily Gazette, I came across this picture:

I’d like to use it for the CWDG, but since it’s pre-election, it’s unlikely that I’ll find a place for it. However, I found it too wonderful to just ignore.

Pictured are the four Presidential candidates from 1860. From left to right (as it should be read), we see John Bell, former senator of Tennessee and candidate for the Constitutional Union Party. Their platform was simple – ignore the question of slavery and keep the Union together no matter the cost. His belt reads “Union Club” and he’s holding a bat with “Fusion” written upon it. He sums up the situation thusly: It appears to me very singular that we three should strike “foul” and be “put out” while Old Abe made such a good “lick.”

The short fellow is Stephen Douglas, the northern Democrat’s candidate. He was short and is always portrayed as really short. He answers Bell, saying “That’s because he had that confounded rail to strike with, I thought our fusion would be a “short stop” to his career.” The words “Little Giant” are upon his belt, while his bat reads “Non Intervention.” The northern Democrats wished for the territories (and new states) themselves to decide whether slavery would or would not be allowed – the federal government would not intervene.

The gentleman holding his nose and running away is Vice-President John Breckinridge. “Disunion Club” says his belt and his bat is for “Slavery Extension.” “I guess I’d better leave for Kentucky, for I smell something strong around here, and begin to think that we are completely ‘skunk’d’.” The southern Democrats, who nominated Breckinridge, were for the extension of slavery into the new states and territories.

Last up in Old Abe standing upon home base. “Gentlemen, if any of you should ever take a hand in another match at this game, remember that you must have a ‘good bat’ and strike a ‘fair ball’ to make a ‘clean score’ and a ‘home run.’” Abe’s good bat is a rail (this image was often used since he was known as a simple country rail splitter), reading, “Equal Rights and Free Territory.” His belt reads “Wide Awake.” The Wide Awakes were a Republican campaign organization during the 1860 election.

Candidates did not campaign themselves, they had parties and organizations to do that for them (Douglas, however, was the exception).

The caption is sort of wrong when it claims that baseball (actually base ball) wasn’t called the “national game.” It was called that by 1856.

Tomorrow’s match between the Vancouver Occidentals and the Fort Vancouver Shermans takes place on the Fort Vancouver Parade Grounds in Vancouver, Washington. I’ll report back with the results and photos. Huzzah!

I’m going to talk a bit about this Civil War blog that I’ll be starting in November. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve mentioned it before, so if you have no idea what I’m talking about, go here.

Basically, the blog is called The Civil War Daily Gazette and will follow the war, day-by-day as the 150th anniversary passes from 2010 – 2015 (I’m starting with the November 1860 election).

Inspiration for this came from reading Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative, which I’m still making my way through (I’m in the middle of Volume 3, the last volume). I had never read it before, which is odd since it’s a very nice overview of the conflict. In reading it, I took notice of so many things happening at the same time that I wondered what it would all look like in a timeline, which got me thinking that such a thing would be fun to create, but would take a very, very long time.

So I decided to take my time, every day examining that same day 150 years ago. This will, of course, take me to April or May of 2015. Four an a half years is a long time from now. This will take dedication and commitment, as well as hard work and research.

How do I keep it interesting? How do I come up with something on days where there’s “nothing”? How do I decide what to leave out when there are too many things happening? How detailed should I get? There are so many questions that I can’t even begin to answer.

Just today I was reading about General Sherman in Georgia, Forrest in Tennessee, Grant in Virginia, Early in another part of Virginia and stuff happening in Brazil and Vermont. While these things may not have happened all in the same day, especially in 1864, there was a lot going on at once. I got a little panicked and even second guessed my whole idea. But then I realized that 1864 (or rather, 2014) is a long way away. If I make it to that stage of the war, I’ll be a veteran myself. Just as the soldiers were able to deal with it because they had suffered through the war from the beginning (well, some of them), I’ll be able to much more easily cope with my own worries because I’ve been writing about it for three or so years.

I guess that maintaining the blog won’t be as difficult as starting it. I don’t know that for sure, of course, since I’ve done neither, but that’s my suspicion.

For now, I’ve gotten the blog up and running, have sorted my categories, planned, done some research and have a general idea of a start date – right before the November 6th election. Generally histories of the Civil War start with Fort Sumter, April 1861. I’m starting four months prior to it, attempting to explain how the election of a president can lead a country to split in two and then draw blood. Lots and lots of blood.

If I can’t explain how, I can at least explain the events that happened. Most of all, however, I’m just excited for this to start. I can’t wait to dig into the research and writing (which I’ll be starting in the next week or so). I can’t wait for the first posts to appear and the ball to get rolling. I’m not sure how all this will play out, but I’m excited to find that out too.

The 150th anniversary of the American Civil War is next year. The war started in 1861 and lasted until 1865. That’s 150 years as of 2011.

I wanted to do something to commemorate that. I thought about visiting each major battlefield on its own anniversary, I thought about doing some big Civil War tour, I thought about a lot of fun ideas. And who knows, maybe I’ll even do some of them.

But still, even though these ideas were fun, it just wasn’t quite what I wanted. Then, while reading (well, listening to) Shelby Foote’s three-volume classic, The Civil War: A Narrative, I was amazed how so many events, large and small, happened on the same day. In fact, over the four years of the war, nearly every day held some heroic or tragic exploit.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to follow the war, day-by-day, as it unfolded, as it trudged bloodily through the years through victory and defeat? And wouldn’t it be even more interesting to write about it myself?

That’s when I decided to start (and try to keep) the Civil War Daily Gazette. It will be a blog follows the war, 150 years later. Each day’s post will be a recalling of what happened on that day during the war. This will be more than just a sentence or two with a few random battle names. Hopefully, this will give a better picture of how the war and time flowed.

I was unsure when to start. The first major battle was Manassas on July 21, 1861. That’s a logical start date. The firing upon Fort Sumter was even earlier, on April 12 – also a nice start date. But that would miss the build up, the secession, the election of Lincoln.

So maybe that’s it! Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860. The day after that, all hell broke loose. Over that fall and winter, America was torn in two. The seeds of this rebellion were planted as long ago as the Revolution, it’s true. But the straw that brought it all down was the reaction to the election of Abraham Lincoln.

November 6, 2010 will be the 150th anniversary of the election of the 16th president of the United States. He would not take office until March 4th of the next year. These months are extremely important, not only to the war, but to the history of America. How can any study of the Civil War not include them?

And that is where I’ll start. November 6, 2010 will be my first (official) post on CivilWarDailyGazette.com. I’ve got research, organization, research, planning and research to do prior to that date.

My biggest concern is whether I’ll be able to keep it up until the end of the war.

There will be more about this as I go, I’m sure. But for now, I just thought you should know.

I’m not really a baseball fan. I think it’s generally boring and the professional players are paid too much. Ryan, however, loves it. I’ve always wanted to like it – yet another fun thing to do with Ryan is always great. So when I heard about such a thing as Civil War era Base Ball (yes, it was two words then), I wasn’t sure what to make of it. On one hand, I’m a huge Civil War buff, but on the other, I really don’t care for baseball. But if you combine the two, making it Base Ball instead of Baseball, perhaps I could at least sit through it.

And wow was I wrong. Apparently, I love Base Ball!

This vintage game is played twice a year on the Fort Vancouver grounds in Vancouver, Washington. It pits the Fort Vancouver Shermans against the Vancouver Occidentals – both teams existed in the 1860s.

The 1860 rules are a bit different than modern rules. First of all – no gloves. The teams had uniforms, of course, but those uniforms did not include gloves. Those came in the 1870s and 1880s.

Now, the rules… a striker (that’s batter) can be called “out” if the ball is caught, even on the first bounce. If there are runners on base and the ball is caught on the fly (before it bounces), no runners may advance, but if it’s caught on a bounce, they may advance one base.

Other fun rules are – no balls. Ever. The pitcher can throw what we’d call “balls” all day – there’s no walking (the 1864 rules changed that, allowing the umpire to decide if the pitcher is being a jerk). If a ball is struck, hits the ground in play and then rolls or bounces into the foul area, it is still a fair ball. There’s no catching the ball with your hat, either. Oh, and a striker can only “strike” if it’s a swing and a miss. If the pitcher throws good balls, the strikes does not have to swing at them (the ump can choose to override this, but has to warn the striker first).

There are other rules and you can read them here.

That brings me to my next point. There is a Vintage Base Ball Association. There are two such organizations, actually. Mostly east coast. In fact, on the same day as this game, there was a tournament in Gettysburg featuring six teams (one of the teams was actually called The Somerset Frosty Sons of Thunder!).

So anyway, with this game, I wasn’t sure who to root for. The Shermans had players with great names like “Tiny” (who was huge) and “The Coffin Maker.” The Occidentals, however, had great uniforms. Clearly, I was going to have to wait to see who would become the underdog.

After just two innings of play (just like today, there are nine), The Shermans were up 8 to 1. I guess it was time to root for the Occidentals. Good thing too.

Over the next few innings, the Occidentals got their crap together, stopping The Shermans from scoring so much and even scoring a bit themselves. By the 5th inning (I believe) the score was 9 to 5. Then, in the 7th, The Occidentals poured it on, scoring run after run with two outs on the board. Bully for them!

During the game, sometimes the crowd got a little rowdy, hurling a jib/jab at the players. A member of the Occidentals, being the recipient of such a remark, called out to the heckler’s wife, “Ma’am, may I ask where did you get your talking mule?” The mule spoke again and the player loudly remarked, “Now ma’am, I’ve seen a talking mule before, but never one quite so ugly!” Fun!

The score at the bottom of the 8th was Occidentals 12, Shermans 10. And with the Shermans at bat at the top of the 9th, striking three balls, all of which were caught on the first bounce, that’s how the game ended! (I could be a bit off on the scores.)

So there we go, my first Vintage Base Ball game. I was won over and excited! I’ve been to tons of Civil War reenactment and have never saw anyone play a game of base ball. Why not? What a great way to pass an afternoon.

There is another game this year, same teams, same field. It’s in August and I’m most definitely going.

You folks on the east coast, however, have it lucky. There are vintage teams all over the place. You can check that out here. Not surprisingly, it seems to be big in the Chicago area. New York also has some teams (hear that, Ryan?). Ohio too! There is (was?) a Pacific Northwest Vintage Base Ball organization, but the website seems to not have been updated in years. Such a shame! I admit, I have dreams of Ryan returning to Seattle, he and I putting on some floppy uniforms and playing some ball.

Well, either way, though I can’t enjoy it as often as those in the mid west and east coast, I’ll have to settle for enjoying it just as much, but only twice a year.

I took some photos of the game – you can see them here.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting another blog. One that I could keep up with daily and that would give me a bit of research to do. I thought seriously about a music blog and even designed it. But then I figured out that I pretty much already have a music blog (this one right here!).

So then I got to thinking about the Civil War and though I really enjoy learning about it, I am not exactly what you’d call an expert. But then I figured, what if I didn’t present myself as one? It would be hard (for me) to sustain a blog full of professional-level research into the minutia of troop movements, politics, leaders, etc etc etc of the Civil War.

However, I could do little snippets of information, day-by-day accounts. This may or may not be possible, but I think it’s worth a shot.

The 150th anniversary of all things Civil War is coming up. December 20th will be the 150th anniversary of the secession of South Carolina, for example. It’s important and pretty much anyone doing a blog like this about the war would cover it. However, I’d also want to hit some minor points that most folks wouldn’t catch.

Today, for instance, is the 147th anniversary of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. It’s the day that made Devil’s Den, The Wheatfield and The Peach Orchard household words for anyone with even a passing interest in US history. It’s the day that made the 20th Maine the stuff of legends.

However, it’s also the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Hunterstown. It’s noted as a separate battle from Gettysburg, though, happening only a few miles away, impacted it greatly. The Confederates plan of attack included a move against the right flank of the Union army, positioned on Culp’s Hill. If the attack were to succeed and the hill taken, it would render much of the very strong Union position untenable. The attack got off late, allowing Union reenforcements to rush to the scene. Also, darkness fell, putting an end to the attack.

One of the big reasons that it was held up was due to lack of Calvary support. Rebel calvary were headed through Hunterstown to assist in the assault. They were held up by General George Armstrong Custer (later of Little Big Horn “fame”). Union calvary were stationed to the left of the Confederate line of battle and since there was no cavalry support (due to the Battle of Hunterstown taking place when they were needed most), the Confederate commander had to dispatch a brigade (about 3,000 men) to keep the Union Cavalry in check. If those men were to help in the assault upon Cemetery and Culps Hills, the positions may very well have been carried and held, quite possibly changing the outcome of the battle.

For more information on Hunterstown, check this out.

I like to focus on the little-known things, tying them into the larger picture.

Anyway, it’s a thought. I’ll ponder it over the next few months. If the 150th anniversary idea is too much, I could aways do a simple day-by-day blog, ignoring all sesquicentennial events.

While most Americans are celebrating the birth of the nation over the July 4th, I swoosh ahead four score and seven years to the tiny Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg.

In years past, I was fortunate enough to be on the battlefield on the anniversary of the largest battle of the Civil War. For the first three days of July, Northern and Southern armies battled through and around the town of Gettysburg. Around 170, 000 men fought it out, leaving nearly 50,000 dead, wounded or captured.

Ever since I was a little kid, I simply loved Gettysburg. And every anniversary I was there taking the ranger-guided tours over every nook and cranny of the battlefield. I explored the Wheatfield, the Round Tops, Devil’s Den, Culps Hill and Cemetery Hill. The tours, especially in early July, were crowded and sticky with Pennsylvania humidity.

Usually I’d stay at a state park ten or so miles west of town and ride (or drive) to the park, spending the whole day hopping from one two hour tour to the next. I’d tramp miles through tall grass, over rocks, jumping across streams and generally following whichever ranger was leading the tour.

The normal tours at Gettysburg cover the basics. They’re well done and enjoyable by pretty much anyone with even half an interest in history. But the tours over the anniversary delve deeper into the fray. They cover specific regiments, little known areas of the field, even theories as to what might have been.

Living in Seattle, of course, I’ve had to limit my trips to Gettysburg. I’ve not been back to Pennsylvania since leaving in October of 2008. Thankfully, the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) is there for the tours, records them and then broadcasts them on their channel later that day. And thankfully, they also broadcast online.

So starting today, July 1, at 9pm (midnight for you east coasters), PCN will begin to air the 2010 Gettysburg Battlewalks.

Here’s their schedule…

Thursday, July 1
2010 Gettysburg Battlewalk – Day 1
9 p.m. – Joseph Davis’ Brigade (Hartwig)*

Friday, July 2
2010 Gettysburg Battlewalk– Day 2
9 p.m. – Willard’s New York Brigade (Atkinson)*

Saturday, July 3
2010 Gettysburg Battlewalk– Day 3
9 p.m. – Meade’s Intentions Revisited (TROY)*

Sunday, July 4
2010 Gettysburg Battlewalks – Day 1 and Day 2
11 a.m. – Joseph Davis’ Brigade (Hartwig – Day 1) [rerun]
1:30 p.m. – Daniel’s North Carolina Brigade (Hieser – Day 1)
4:00 p.m. – Willard’s New York Brigade (Atkinson – Day 2) [rerun]
7:30 p.m. – Barkdale’s Mississippi Brigade (Angie Atkinson – Day 2)
9 p.m. – The First Battlefield Park (Tim & Gary – Day 2)
11:30 p.m. – Meade’s Intentions Revisited (Troy – Day 3) [rerun]
2:00 a.m. – The 137th New York & Culp’s Hill (Archer – Day 3)

Now, I have some obvious complaints about this year’s schedule. Firstly, they are no rerunning old tours (they usually do), also the times – midnight on the east coast – are ridiculous. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the actual anniversary dates of the battle, feature only one tour each day ( and that’s at midnight!). Sunday, July 4, a day when most people will be tending to family obligations, they air a marathon – featuring three reruns – from 2pm (eastern) to 7am on Monday morning (the last one starts at 5am Monday morning!)

This is just a preposterous schedule. Lucky for me, I’m on the west coast, so everything airs three hours earlier and I don’t have to stay up to 2am each night. But for the majority of viewers, this is just dumb. PCN really dropped the ball here.

If you miss one, however, you can also buy the DVD-R of it for a whopping $30. Dumb, PCN! If they’d lower the price, more people would buy them and they’d make more money!

But I digress. I’ll be here, in front of the computer, watching the tours as PCN airs them, even skipping out on Seattle’s fireworks to see them! I’m most looking forward to Tim and Gary’s history of the Gettysburg Park and Troy Harman’s revisiting of General Meade’s intentions.

This is all pretty geeky, but I’ll enjoy it royally.

I miss Gettysburg and wish so badly that I could be there.

Back east, one of my favorite summer time things was going to Civil War reenactments. Sure, they’re often silly, completely inaccurate and full of scary right wing/borderline racist politics, but they were also taken seriously by many who attended, very historically accurate by some and contained zero modern day politics if done for the right reasons.

I was able to ignore all the bad and focus on the good for a lot of the time. Besides, they had hand cooked kettle corn. If that’s bad, I don’t want to know what good is.

But that was the east coast. I knew there were reenactments on the west coast, but dared not venture out to one. That is, until this weekend.

A gal at the print shop and her boyfriend are into reenacting (and also play in a metal band). We were invited and accepted. This is the biggest event of the year for them.

“The West” in Civil War Reenacting circles is generally Missouri and Tennessee. The actual West isn’t really considered. And Pacific Northwest is barely a footnote. It’s like an island out there. A very under populated island.

Anyway, this event was their biggest and there were maybe 300 reenactors total (in uniform). That would qualify as a pretty small event back east. But back east is where the history is, so I get that. I was actually surprised that there’d be this many reenactors here.

I took a few pictures (30ish) and you can check them out here… It’s a bit different this time, I did it as a slide show (you can undo that too, if you like).

And now that you’ve done that, let me move on.

I used to be a reenactor, portraying Union artillery. I liked firing the cannon, of course, but really disliked just standing around wearing something blue. I wanted to go as Confederate infantry, but never really got around to it.

See, my “problem” is that if I’m going to do this, if I’m going to shell out the cash to buy the uniform and gun, etc etc etc, I want to do it right. Very right. If I’m portraying the 26th North Carolina, I want to research exactly what that unit wore. Which uniforms were they issued? Which period of the war would we be portraying, which guns did they use? How about hats, vests, shoes, shirts? These are all just as important as knowing the history of the war, the battles, the regiment, etc. If you look as authentic as possible and you act as authentic as possible, it makes the whole experience much more enjoyable to you as well as the spectators.

So if I were to get back into “the hobby” (as it’s called), I’d want to do it very right. However, from what I saw yesterday, most folks aren’t really doing that so much. That’s fine, to each their own. To do this, you kind of need a friend so you don’t stand out as the jerk who’s trying to be better than everybody else. That’s really not why I’d be doing it. I’d be doing it because if I’m going to drop the coin on such a thing, I’d like to buy the right stuff (rather than just wearing something blue or gray).

There’s not a whole lot of units to join up with. There are zero Virginian regiments in Washington, but there is the 26th North Carolina. Thankfully, much research has already been done for their uniforms. In Oregon, there’s a 4th Virginia company that’s doing their best to be more focused on historical accuracy. I like that, but it might be a bit too far to travel for events.

Ideally, I should be back east for this. But I’m not. If I want to do this, I’ll have to do it here. Could be fun and interesting. I’m still considering it. We shall see.