Officer, Artillerist · Union
Abner Doubleday
1819 – 1893
Anderson's second-in-command at Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, who aimed and ordered the first Union shot of the war.
Charleston
The secession of South Carolina found Doubleday at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island as second-in-command to Major Robert Anderson. When the garrison slipped across the harbor to Fort Sumter the day after Christmas 1860, Doubleday went with it — and when the fort replied to the Confederate bombardment on the morning of 12 April 1861, it was Doubleday who aimed and ordered the first Union shot of the war.
Life
His grandfather fought in the Revolution; his father was a New York congressman who helped him to West Point, where he graduated in 1842. He fought in Mexico and in Florida before being posted to the Atlantic coastal forts. He finished the war a major general, and on the first day at Gettysburg took over the I Corps when John Reynolds was killed and held the ground west of town through the afternoon.
He did not invent baseball. The story was manufactured in 1907 by a commission with an interest in giving the game an American birthplace, and it has outlived every attempt to kill it. What Doubleday actually was, was a professional soldier in the middle of the war's opening scene.
Service
- Captaincommissioned1st U.S. Artillery, artillery · Union armyuntil 26 December 1860Fort MoultrieDavis & Melton 2020
- Captaincommissioned1st U.S. Artillery, artillery · Union army26 December 1860 to 14 April 1861Fort SumterDavis & Melton 2020
Each rank is the rank held at the time described. A later promotion is shown only in its own dated entry.
Places
Stationed at Fort Moultrie
until 26 December 1860 · confirmed
Stationed at Fort Sumter
26 December 1860 to 14 April 1861 · confirmed
Burial
Not yet documented.
Photographs
What is established, and on whose authority
- verifiedBorn 26 June 1819; died 26 January 1893.Davis & Melton 2020
- verifiedGraduated from West Point in 1842.Davis & Melton 2020
- verifiedSecond-in-command to Major Robert Anderson at Fort Moultrie, and went with the garrison to Fort Sumter the day after Christmas 1860.Davis & Melton 2020
- verifiedAimed and ordered the first Union shot of the war, on the morning of 12 April 1861.Davis & Melton 2020
- verifiedDid not invent baseball; the story was manufactured in 1907.Davis & Melton 2020
- not establishedBurial place.no source
- verifiedThe portrait plate catalogued here as “The Wife Who Went Away” shows this person.Library of Congress
Identity: verified. Last checked 31 August 2026.
Corrections to this record are welcome through the publisher.