Category: Lacledes

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: War Is Hell

9/10/2014

William Tecumseh Sherman

A match game of base ball came off on Thursday afternoon, between the Laclede and Young Commercial Base Ball Clubs, which resulted in a victory for the former.

A match game was also played yesterday afternoon on Gamble Lawn, between the St. Louis and Missouri Base Ball Clubs, which resulted in the defeat of the former.

-Missouri Republican, May 7, 1864

So we have a couple of games, another reference to the St. Louis Club and the first known reference to the Missouri Club. That's great. Let's talk about Sherman.

On the day that this all appeared in the Republican, William Tecumseh Sherman began the Atlanta campaign, which was the prelude to the March to the Sea. Sherman happened to have been a baseball fan. In 1874, while serving as General of the Army, he moved his headquarters to St. Louis and, while living in the city, was known to frequent the Grand Avenue Grounds. The Union Club noticed this and named him an honorary member. So, officially, Sherman was a member of the Union Base Ball Club of St. Louis. He also happened to have been living in St. Louis at the beginning of the war and witnessed the Camp Jackson Massacre.

Sherman loved St. Louis, owned a house on North Garrison, and, while he moved around quite a bit during his life, always seemed to return here. His wife was buried at Calvary Cemetery in 1888 and it was Sherman's wish to be buried next to her.

Sherman's grave

Edmund Tobias described Sherman as "that grim old warrior" and I just love that. He's the man who coined the phrase "War is hell." You've no doubt heard that but you need to read the whole quote:

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

There is nothing ironic in Sherman's quote. War IS hell and he knew that as well as anyone. How can you not love this guy?

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Fourth Of July

7/1/2014

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Base Ball. - Married vs. Single. - This match which took place at Gamble Lawn, on the morning of the 4th, resulted in a decided victory for the married men. The players were selected from all the senior organizations of the city, which fact imparted an unusual interest in the result of the game, as was shown by the large number of spectators present. The play on both sides was highly commendable - in the field, as well as at the bat - and resulted in a score of 55 for the married and 32 for the single men...

-Missouri Republican, July 7, 1861

Baseball on the Fourth of July is a wonderful tradition and this had to have been the first match game played in St. Louis on the Fourth. I think that it's a bit ironic that the first Fourth of July baseball game in St. Louis took place during the Civil War, just weeks after the Battle of Boonville and just one day before the Battle of Carthage.

The thing that I find just absolutely amazing about all of this is how, in the midst of this great calamity, normal life just went on. The country had fallen apart. War was at hand. Union troops had fired on a crowd in St. Louis, killing men, women, and children. And here we find the people of St. Louis celebrating the Fourth of July with a baseball game.

I understand that the war wasn't all Lincoln and Grant and Lee and huge battles and emancipation but those are the things that hold our interests. I enjoy reading about the Civil War in the western theater and the actions of the navy during the war. I like some of the more obscure things about the war and I've been studying this period for a long time. But I find it almost impossible to imagine day-to-day life in America during the Civil War. Not the life of the soldier but the life of someone like Edmund Tobias, who was living in St. Louis in 1861 and played in the game mentioned above.

I know Tobias, at the time, was working as a salesman and was a member of the Commercial Club. He was about twenty-five years old and still single. But what I don't understand is how the war effected him. What did he think about it? He was born in New York state, so I assume he was pro-Union but I don't know for sure. I'm sure that he knew people who were killed during the war. What did he think about Fremont declaring martial law in St. Louis? How did that change his life? I don't know and I find it impossible to put myself in his shoes because his experiences during the war are just so alien to me.

The very idea of a bloody American civil war is alien to me and that must be one of the reasons why the period fascinates me. It must be one of the reasons I continue to read about and study this era of American history. I just don't understand it and I'm not sure if I ever really will.

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Laclede Base Ball Club of St. Louis

6/11/2014

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Base Ball.—A meeting of the Laclede Club will be held at No. 109 Chestnut street, between Fifth and Sixth, on Thursday evening, 4th inst., at 7 ½ o’clock. All members desiring to participate in the exercise of the coming season are earnestly requested to be present. By order of the President.

Wm. H. Hayden, Secretary.

-Missouri Republican, April 2, 1861

The Lacledes are a club that I don't know a lot about and I think I have only one other contemporary reference to them. There is a reference to them playing a match in May of 1864, so it's possible that they were active throughout the war years. However, that's just me speculating.

Both Al Spink and E.H. Tobias mention the Lacledes in their work. Spink wrote in The National Game that the Lacledes were one of the early opponents of the Empire Club and Tobias wrote the following in the November 9, 1895 issue of The Sporting News:

The Laclede was the name of an early club made up from master mechanics who played on a lot one block north of Easton Avenue between Jefferson and Garrison. Among its members were William John and Thomas Barron, Jno. McCardy, T.D. Turner, A. Jones, Jacob S. Williams, William Hayden and Jno. Nichols, the latter the best catcher then in the city and an extraordinary active man though then of middle age.

Tobias also mentions a Laclede Club that was active in 1871 and was a member of the state association but it's rather unlikely that this was the same club as the one that was active during the Civil War era.

One thing that just occurred to me is that Tobias gives us the club name, the location of their grounds and the names of eight members (one of which is confirmed by the April 1861 Republican squib). That's a lot of information and I should be able to find more about this club based simply on that. There is no reason that I don't know more about the Lacledes other than the fact that I haven't done the work.

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St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: War Is Hell

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Fourth Of July

St. Louis Baseball and the Civil War: The Laclede Base Ball Club of St. Louis

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