PODCAST · arts

Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61 (version 2) by Abner Doubleday (1819 - 1893)

by LibriVox

Abner Doubleday was a busy man. He rose to be a major general during the American Civil War, started the first cable car company in San Francisco, and is credited (though perhaps erroneously) with inventing the game of baseball.In 1861, he had the distinction as a captain to be second-in-command of Ft. Moultrie, one of the harbor defenses of Charleston, SC.. When that state seceded from the Union, Doubleday and the garrison of artillerists manning the fort were cut off from supplies and reinforcements. Through a tumultuous period, during which the command transferred to Ft. Sumter and soon found the Secessionists building batteries all around it, Doubleday had an additional target painted on him, as he was known as the only "Black Republican" in the fort and the mobs wanted to tar and feather him.Doubleday walks us through a day-by-day account of the final weeks before the new Confederacy opened fire on Ft. Sumter to begin the Civil War. Our busy man sighted the