Category: Basil Duke

Basil Duke

6/24/2015

Speaking of members of the Cyclone Club and favorites of mine, today we have Basil Wilson Duke. I have a whole page here at the website full of information about the man and you should check that out. But what I want to do here is post these:

These are print ads for Old Crow Whiskey that I found online probably ten years ago and you can see Duke in both of them. I'm not sure when the ads were published but, if I had to guess, I'd say mid to late 1960s. And doing a quick search, it looks like they come from the early 1960s, so I wasn't off by much.

And why was Old Crow using these images to sell whiskey in the early 1960s? First, I'd note that Old Crow was made in Kentucky so there's a connection with Duke and the war. Second, the early 1860s marked the centennial of the war and you saw increased interest in the period at that time. So, the more you think about, the ads really aren't as odd as they appear to be at first glance. But I'd also add that there was probably something else going on with these images and that had something to do with Southern reaction to the Civil Rights movement. Old Crow was invoking images of the Lost Cause to appeal to Southerns unhappy or uncomfortable with what was going on in the country.

These ads are a product of their time and place and you wouldn't see anything like this today. Can you imagine any company today producing advertising that featured Nathan Bedford Forrest?

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I'm Back With A Great Picture Of Basil Duke

8/3/2014

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Basil Wilson Duke

I'm back. Did you miss me?

We're going to continue on with the Civil War stuff and finish off 1862 this week and start on 1863. But before we do that, I have a post up tomorrow about Benton Barracks and the St. Louis Fairground in August 1861. I just found some information about all of that in Sarah Hill's Civil War memoirs and I wanted to share that because it's rather significant. So, Benton Barracks, wrapping up 1862, and on to 1863.

While I was watching the Cards game today, I was cleaning up my bookmarks and found a link to Katherine Sandoz's website that included the above picture of Basil Duke. I can't remember if I ever posted this pic or not (and I'm too lazy to check) but Sandoz is an amazing artist. I love her work and her taste in subject matter. Head on over to her site to check it out.

I got a couple of great books in the mail in the last week or so. The first is the above mentioned memoirs of Sarah Hill, which I'm enjoying Immensely. The second is The History of Morgan's Cavalry by the above mentioned Basil Duke. See what I did there. I haven't gotten into Duke's book just yet but I'm looking forward to it.

I also found an online copy of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. This is rather significant because it prominently mentions two members of the Cyclones - Alex Crosman and Orville Matthews. In fact, it includes Crosman's report of his actions around James Island, S.C., in 1865. As I've mentioned before, when I first got out of college, I lived on James Island for awhile so I've always been interested in Crosman's activity in the area. I'm digging through the book and looking up all kinds of stuff about the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the fall of Charleston in February of 1865. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this because it's only tangentially related to St. Louis baseball but I may write something up and post it. At the very least, I'll probably end up posting Crosman's report.

Anyway, come back tomorrow and we'll talk about how the Union Army kept occupying the best baseball grounds in St. Louis during the Civil War.

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: Preparations For War

6/16/2014

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The Call For Volunteers

The Arsenal seems to have been the attraction for some time past, and thousands have gone there to see the preparations for war. The first battle to be fought this season in this place will be between the married and single men of the Commercial, Cyclone and Morning Star Base Ball Clubs, at Lafayette Park, this afternoon at 3 o'clock. The nine selected on each side are first rate players, and we have no doubt but the game will be highly exciting, and we would advise those who are fond of this sport to go to the Park and witness the game. The married men will no doubt take their wives along, and we think it nothing more than right that the young ladies should go out and encourage the single men with their divine presence. Seats for the accommodation of any number of persons will be prepared.

-Missouri Republican, May 7, 1861

On May 3, 1861, Lincoln made a second call for volunteers. In April, he had called for 75,000 volunteers to serve in state militias for three months and this time he called for an additional 42,000 to serve for three years. Lincoln's actions were of questionable legality but later in the summer the Congress passed a resolution approving them while also calling for 500,000 more volunteers. The Union was quickly building what would become the most formidable military force in the world.

On May 6, Arkansas and Tennessee seceded.

The Arsenal, mentioned above, was the St. Louis Arsenal, which housed the largest supply of arms and ammunition in Missouri. The Federal government had another arsenal in Liberty, Missouri, but it had been seized by pro-Confederate forces on April 20 and, if you remember, Basil Duke had planned to seize the St. Louis Arsenal in March. To ensure the safety of the Union's property and that the Arsenal's arms did not fall into the hands of the enemy, Captain Nathaniel Lyons, who was temporarily in command of Union forces in St. Louis, had the stockpile of arms and ammunition transported across the river to Alton, Illinois.

The Arsenal

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The Civil War Reminiscences Of General Basil W. Duke, C.S.A.

6/6/2014

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I'm adding a Civil War page to the website, which will eventually contain the "St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War" archive. For the moment I've added a few things of interest, including an excerpt of Basil Duke's Civil War memoir.

At the old website, I wrote that the "true significance of Duke's memoir...is that it gives historical context to the beginnings of the pioneer baseball era in St. Louis. The game came to St. Louis, was established in St. Louis and began to flourish in St. Louis as the Civil War was breaking out in the United States. One can not separate the origins of baseball in St. Louis from the history of the Civil War...Basil Duke was a member of the first baseball club in St. Louis history and a participant in the first games played in St. Louis using the New York rules. He's a significant figure in the history of St. Louis baseball and his memoirs, while not specifically mentioning the game, are a significant document."

I recommend that you take a look at Duke's memoirs because the man has a great story to tell and he paints a vivid picture of St. Louis at the very beginning of the Civil War.

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St. Louis Base Ball and the Civil War: A Singular Piece Of Patch-Work

6/5/2014

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Basil Wilson Duke

Our citizens displayed much taste yesterday in the flag line. Quite a spirited competition was kept up during the day between different parties, whose only ambition seemed to be to hang out the oldest piece of cloth. The Union men, who have the State Convention under their especial charge, flung to the breeze the time-worn Star-Spangled Banner, across the Mercantile Library Hall to the opposite side of the street. It wafted proudly and gloriously, and thrilled the heart of every true lover of his country that gazed upon it. Other American flags were displayed at different points in the city by patriotic citizens.

The Missouri Minute-Men flaunted from their Headquarters, corner of Fifth and Pine streets, a singular piece of patch-work, which excited much interest. It reminded one very strikingly of a fancy patch-work quilt, manufactured by a young miss of thirteen summers for the premium at a County Fair. This quilt, however, we judge, would not even be entered as a competitor for the second premium. If it was intended as a burlesque on the Palmetto flay, it was a good one; but if the author and finisher of this cloth supposed he was making a genuine States-rights-Palmetto-Southern-Confederacy flag, he is vastly mistaken. The ground work of the flag was nearly black; on one corner was a crescent, in the centre a cross turned upside down, and in the other corner a single star-a bad looking star-in fact the whole thing was ill-starred. Whether admirable or not, this singular looking flag drew a very large crowd of persons around it, some of whom wanted to pull it down, but no one seemed to have the audacity to attempt it.

Another flag was seen floating from the Courthouse dome at a very early hour, which some of the Republican officials seeing, supposed to be a secession banner. Mr. James Quigley, the accomplished keeper of the Courthouse, was immediately ordered to go up and pull it down. He did as commanded, but the flag turned out to be a very innocent affair after all-nothing but the coat-of-arms of the State of Missouri pinned to a piece of yellow muslin...

-Missouri Republican, March 5, 1861

The 1861 baseball season in St. Louis opened on March 6, as we saw yesterday. One member of the Cyclone Club who probably wasn't at the game was Basil Duke, who was busy running an armed militia, formenting rebellion, and plotting to seize the United States armory in St. Louis. He was a little too busy to play baseball and was responsible for the secessionist banners flying over the city on March 4 - an act which came very close to causing a violent clash between Duke's pro-secessionist Minute Men and the pro-Union Home Guard. One can only imagine what Merritt Griswold, a member of the Home Guard, thought of his clubmate's actions.

The Missouri Republican downplays the actions of Duke and his Minute Men but, if you read Duke's memoirs, you get a very real sense of the potential for violence. As the baseball season opened, war was imminent and people were choosing sides.

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Basil Duke

I'm Back With A Great Picture Of Basil Duke

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: Preparations For War

The Civil War Reminiscences Of General Basil W. Duke, C.S.A.

St. Louis Base Ball and the Civil War: A Singular Piece Of Patch-Work

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