Good Man, Abner Doubleday
This blog is on vacation this week, barring any earth-rattling news.
As some of my regulars may remember from last week, I'm on vacation this week. Touring around Charleston a bit this morning I learned something I hadn't known, which is that the Abner Doubleday, the self-safe Doubleday who invented baseball, fired the first Union shot at Ft. Sumter. Good man, Doubleday! Gave those yellow-bellied traitors a strong wihff of the grape. (Actually, not really, but he tried.)
Turns out Doubleday was quite a fellow. He was there at Gettysburg, gallantly leading outnumbered Yankee divisions before suffering a neck injury. He then took over the defense of the nation's capital. He rode with Lincoln on the president's train up to the Gettysburg dedication that November. After the war, he moved to San Francisco. All he managed to do there was to patent the cable car!
Anyway. Charleston is beautiful, of this there is no doubt. It still feels a little strange down here. I couldn't believe along I-95 that I still saw a billboard for Pedro's South of the Border that used the word "Sometheeng," spelled just like that. I thought those billboards were racist in 1981, the last time I saw them.
So this is it for this week unless some truly earth-rattling news event takes place. Talk amongst yourselves about Ft. Sumter, baseball, the South, whatevah.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.