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General Abner Doubleday, Monument, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photo

General Abner Doubleday, Civil War Battlefield Monument, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photo

Monument on the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Civil War battlefield honoring General Abner Doubleday, placed in his honor by the State of New York. As the second in command at Fort Sumter, he fired the first cannon shot in defense of the fort at the beginning of the Civil War. The high point in his military career came for his actions in leading troops during the 1863, Battle of Gettysburg. He was afterward promoted to Brevet Major General for his actions. After the end of the Civil War, Doubleday was stationed in San Francisco where he is credited with the creation of the cable car railway system in that city.

In times past, Doubleday was widely credited with the invention of the game of baseball in 1839 at Cooperstown, New York. Baseball historians now regard this as an unfounded myth. Regardless, the Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown, New York in honor of Doubleday.

Abner Doubleday was born June 26, 1819 at Ballston Spa, New York. Doubleday died of heart disease on January 26, 1893 at Mendham, New Jersey. He was 73 years old. His remains were buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

The plaque on the Gettysburg battlefield monument reads:

Abner Doubleday
Major-General U.S.V.
1819-1893
Commanded First Corps Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg
July 1, 1863
Cadet U.S.M.A. Sept. 1, 1838; Brevet Second Lieut. Third U.S. Artillery July 1, 1842; Second Lieut. First Artillery Feb. 24, 1845; First Lieut. March 3, 1847; Captain March 3, 1855; Major Seventeenth Infantry May 14, 1861; Lieut. Colonel Seventeenth Infantry Sept. 20, 1863; Colonel Thirty-Fifth Infantry Sept. 15, 1867; Unassigned March 15, 1869; Assigned to Twenty-Fourth Infantry Dec. 15, 1870; Retired Dec. 11, 1873.

Brigadier-General U.S.V. Feb. 3, 1862; Major General Nov. 29, 1862; Honorably mustered out of volunteer service August 24, 1865.

Commanding Second Brigade, First Division, Third Corps (McDowell's) at Manassas (1862); First Division, First Corps, at South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, and Third Division, First Corps, at Chancellorsville.

Brevetted Lieut.-Colonel U.S.A. Sept. 17, 1862, "For gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Anteitam, MD."; Colonel U.S.A. July 2, 1863, "For gallant and meritorious services at the Battle of Gettysburg, PA."

Brevetted Brigadier-General and Major General U.S.A. March 13, 1865, "For gallant and meritorious services during the war."

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