The Nashville Base Ball Club Send One of Their Own Off to That Garden in the Heavens Above

William "Willie" Howell: A Brief Sketch of a Nashville Base Ball State Champion

Mount Olivet Cemetery sits about two miles east of downtown Nashville. It is the final resting place of many prominent Tennesseans—governors, U.S. and state Supreme Court justices, suffragists, country musicians, and scores of men who fought both for and against the United States in the American Civil War. In the summer of 2020, I finally got a chance to visit Mount Olivet. I arrived about a week after a tornado had blazed a path through East Nashville and dozens of large trees were uprooted throughout the cemetery. I had compiled a long list of individuals to visit. Among the first names on my list was William Henry Howell, who was laid to rest in the Arnold family plot marked only by a rather unassuming obelisk. A casual cemetery tourist couldn’t be faulted for passing this grave and not giving much thought to the names inscribed around the obelisk. But for this taphophile, I was well aware that I was standing above the earthly remains of a young Tennessean who won the 1868 state baseball championship as a member of the Nashville Base Ball Club.

If you look closely at the obelisk, you will see that William Henry Howell, known as “Willie” to his friends, did not live a long life. Born September 9, 1850, nine days prior to the passage of the notorious Fugitive Slave Act that influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe’s bestselling novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” and was but one of five legislative proposals comprising the so-called Compromise of 1850 (in actuality an armistice or sellout), Willie did not live to see his nineteenth birthday. A short life lived requires one to dig deep, to explore a variety of sources, which are limited in this case, to flesh out as much details as we can of young Willie’s life.

Born too late for the 1850 Census, this means that Willie only appeared in a single census—the 1860 Census. That Census reveals that the Howells lived in Nashville’s 4^th ward, that he had two younger sisters—Mary and Harriet who went by their middle names “Ella” and “Annie” respectively—and that his mother, Martha, was the head of the household. The family was by no means counted among Nashville’s elite families, but they were well off. Martha owned property—both in land and in persons (the 1860 slave schedule reveals that Martha owned two slaves). Apparently, the Howells had owned additional slaves prior to 1860. An 1858 advertisement in the newspaper listed Martha as the owner of a 10-year-old slave boy, named Matthew, that she hoped to sell to help pay off her dead husband’s debts. It is this ad that helps identify Martha as a widow and provides us with the name of Willie’s dad—William H. Howell. Thus, Willie was, in fact, a Junior. There were also two other individuals listed as residing in the Howell home—William Patterson, a 23-year-old student surveyor and Nancy Maxey, a mulatto who is also listed as 23 years of age. Both Willie and Ella attended school, whereas their youngest sister, Annie, was only 4 years old at this time. Identifying whether Willie had a job is made much more difficult because he was only 18 at the time of his death. That said, the 1869 Nashville city directory, the only one in which Willie appeared and which butchered the spelling of his last name, listed him as a surveyor. Perhaps he had studied with William Patterson when he resided with the Howells? 

1860 Census

As for tracing Willie’s baseball career, so far as I can ascertain from the extant sources available, that can only be done by looking exclusively at Tennessee newspapers for the time in which he played. Willie appears in the historical record as having played for only one base ball club and for only a single season. As a member of the Nashville Base Ball Club, one of the most prominent clubs of Tennessee's amateur era of baseball that can in fact be traced over a number of seasons with box scores listing its various ball players by name, it is reasonable to say with a high degree of certainty that Willie Howell joined the Nashville Base Ball Club in 1868 at the age of 17 and although he played for only a brief time, possibly as few as two to three months, he played a key role in helping the club win the state championship that season. 

The first box score in which Willie appears for the Nashville Base Ball Club is in an early August match with the Lightfoot Club of Clarksville on the latter club’s home grounds. The box score reveals that Nashville was clearly the superior club, dominating the Lightfoot and winning by nearly 50 runs. The Nashville boys did not miss a single attempt at catching a ball on the fly, whereas the Lightfoot failed to snag 50% of the fly balls that they attempted to field. While a few home runs were not uncommon in barehanded baseball games during this era, the 7 four-sackers tallied by Nashville suggests that the Lightfoot either did not post their scouts in the field well or it is indicative of both an outfield and infield struggling to field any and all balls. If this match was indeed, Willie’s first match, then his game statistics make sense, as they are representative of the learning curve for an average baseball player on being introduced to the national game. An analysis of Willie's statistics indicates that while he managed to tally 5 runs, he was tied with another teammate for both the least number of runs scored and most outs recorded. Still, Willie's 5 runs constituted one run more than any of the Lightfoot players managed.

Nashville Republican Banner, Aug 11, 1868

Following this match, the Nashville Base Ball Club began to tune up for a match with the Phoenix Club for not only the bragging rights to be called the champions of Davidson County, but also to face the defending 1867 state champions, the Holston Club of Knoxville, for the 1868 state title. The Phoenix, which had previously challenged the defunct Holston Club to a match, lost the opportunity to become the 1868 state champions when they suffered defeat at the mighty bats of the Nashville Club. As the new Davidson County champions, the Nashville Club’s officers submitted a challenge to the Holston Club to play for the state title. The Holstons, which had only recently reorganized and were playing a number of exhibition matches against local junior clubs, quickly accepted the challenge and agreed on the parameters for a best of 3 state championship series. Match 1 was scheduled for September 12 on Nashville’s home grounds. A two-week break was agreed upon and then Matches 2 and 3 would follow with another 2-week break in between both with the games played on the grounds of the Knoxville Knoxvilles on Gay Street and on the Union Grounds in Chattanooga respectively. The Nashville Club then recruited a few of the best players from Davidson County to stack their club, poaching a couple from the Phoenix, as well as the Moses brothers and another ballplayer from the Morgan Club. When the Nashville Club’s officers drafted up their First 9 to play the First 9 of the Holston Club in Match 1, Willie's name was included on the roster, indicative of the fact that the Club considered him to be counted among their best 9 members to represent them in the state championship. 

Nashville Republican Banner,
Sep. 13, 1868

A nearly full-page article covering Match 1 in the Nashville Republican Banner provides perhaps the most detailed baseball game ever recorded in Tennessee’s amateur baseball era. Nearly two thousand spectators crowded around the Nashville Club’s home grounds to watch the first game for the 1868 state championship. Both clubs exuded a sense of American patriotism in the garden as their colors—red, white, and blue—represented the nation’s flag. As was the custom of the times to place the best players at the top of the roster, Willie's lack of experience likely explains his position as the 8^th player in the lineup. Still, he had proven himself to the Club to be named to the First 9 and he was positioned at 1^st base, which suggests that his teammates considered him to have one of the best set of hands on the teams to be able to field hard thrown balls from his infielders to get the striker out at first. The Holstons won the field on the coin toss and thus the Nashville players prepared to hit first. The Nashville Club’s bats were ready to be awakened from their slumber and do battle against the Holston Club's pitching. Nashville quickly scored three runs and Willie came to the dish with runners on second and third with two outs. Willie struck a ball deep to center, scoring one run and advancing the other to third. Willie wasted little time and stole second base. Lee Moses, the 9^th hitter in the lineup then hit a fine daisy-cutter that skipped through the infield, over second base, and into center field providing Willie safe passage around third to score the 6^th run of the inning. When Howell took the field in the bottom of the first inning, he beautifully fielded a ball thrown his way by the shortstop to record an out. Willie’s next three at bats did not go as well. He lined and fouled out for the two and then foul tipped the third back to the catcher who snagged it to retire him. In the bottom of the third, Howell and the Nashville second baseman E.H. Johnson connected for two outs, one of which was a nice “pickle” play as the two caught a Holston napping when he attempted to make 2^nd base on a high ball that was fielded on the fly. Willie suffered his first error in the fourth inning when he muffed a ball that his pitcher had stopped and sent his way for the out at first. Willie’s bat caught fire again in the 7^th inning when he sent a sharp daisy-cutter to center, scoring a run. Moreover, he exhibited his speed around the sacks by stealing second base once again, putting him in scoring position as Lee Moses batted him in on the next pitch with a home run. Howell batted a second time later in the inning, this time sending a ball deep to right field that scored another run. The rest of the match was a rather quiet affair for Willie. He ended the match scoring 2 runs and being put out a total of 5 times. While he may have tied two other teammates for the least number of runs scored, he had confirmed his position on the team with his strong defensive play at first. The match ended with the Nashville Club taking the first victory in the best of 3 state championship series, besting the Holston Club 34 to 10.  

Nashville Daily Press and Times, Sep. 14, 1868
1st Game 1868 State Championship

Unlike Match 1, the articles in the various newspapers covering both Matches 2 and 3 are limited in coverage; however, box scores do provide some insight into the games themselves. Match 2 saw the Holston Club eek out a one-run victory, 30 to 29, over the Nashville Club. This match ended after only 8 of the 9 innings were played as an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in and then lingered well into the early evening hours as darkness prevented a possible Nashville rally. Interestingly, Willie was placed at second instead of first base. Still, he managed to catch one fly for an out and, at the dish, he went one better than Match 1, scoring a total of 3 runs. 

Knoxville Press and Messenger, Oct 1, 1868
2nd Game 1868 State Championship

For the third and deciding match in the series, which was played on the Union Grounds in Chattanooga, Willie did not appear in the lineup. It is quite possible that Nashville, after having made no changes to their First 9 in the first two matches, opted to change things up in the hopes of adding more firepower to their lineup as the two players they rotated out had scored the Club’s fewest runs. This minor change to the Nashville lineup stood in stark contrast to the Holston Club's decision to make numerous changes to their First 9 in all three matches, drawing from their large pool of club members. Like the previous game, the rubber match in the series went down to the end with the Nashville Club prevailing 21 to 18 to wrest the title as Tennessee championship club for 1868 from the defending champions.

On November 10, the Nashville Base Ball Club celebrated their state championship title in style with a festive ball that they held at the county courthouse. Tickets were made available for both men and women to purchase for $1 a ticket. Following this grand affair, the historical record for the Club goes silent. Though games continued to be played in Nashville and around Davidson County, the elite amateur base ball clubs around the state had already decided to call it quits for the season. In fact, the Holston Club and Knoxville Knoxvilles, which decided to host a grand tournament in their city in November, attempted to draw the best amateur clubs from around the state; however, not one club from outside East Tennessee decided to make the trip.

Nashville Republican Banner, Apr. 9, 1869

Publicly, the Nashville Base Ball Club remained dormant until a decision was made in early April 1869 to publish an announcement in the newspapers that members would meet to reorganize and elect new officers for the 1869 season. Perhaps Willie attended the meeting—perhaps not. We simply do not know as there is no follow-up report of the meeting in the papers and thus no news of who was elected to fill the various official positions within the Club. In fact, the next time either the Nashville Base Ball Club or Willie were mentioned in the newspaper, it was a reference to the tragic news that William "Willie" Howell had passed away. 

On May 26, 1869, both the Nashville Union and American and the Republican Banner published articles announcing Willie's death. Both members of his team and the Athletic Club, formerly known as the Phoenix, were called to meet later that day at 2 p.m. at the Nashville Metropolitan Police Headquarters for Willie’s funeral. The police headquarters was likely chosen because Willie’s stepfather, John M. Arnold, served there as a veteran officer. There was no follow-up to these two notices in either newspaper, nothing to suggest where Willie’s remains were to be buried.

Nashville Republican Banner, May 26, 1869

Then, on June 25, the Nashville Union and American published “A Memoriam” to Willie signed by “A Friend” and dated June 22, 1869. Willie’s “friend” provided only the barest of details of a brief life, noting his Davidson County birth and that he had had a peaceful death on May 24. Willie was described to be “sprightly and intelligent, a most-dutiful child, an affectionate brother, and genial companion and faithful friend.” This sketch revealed that Willie had suffered from an illness, that “though long and painful” it had been “borne with calm resignation.” Willie had spent his last moments with family and friends, bidding them farewell and hoping that they would meet once again in heaven. As life gradually departed his body, he slipped into a permanent sleep. Weeping, Willie’s brothers with the Nashville Base Ball Club carried him to his final resting place at Mount Olivet Cemetery. And there his earthly remains lie in the Arnold plot, in Section 2, in the northwest corner of the cemetery.

Nashville Union and American (June 25, 1869)

Hardly a year passed before Willie’s mother, Martha, followed him in death after succumbing to her bout with consumption. Five years later, his baby sister Annie joined both her brother and mother in eternal sleep as well.

Willie’s stepfather, John M. Arnold, a veteran policeman, part-time carpenter, and the namesake for the family plot, died tragically in the winter of 1885 after he was shot attempting to arrest W. J. “Buck” Brown, a well-known desperado from Hickman County. Officer Arnold had been called to track down and arrest both Brown and an accomplice, John Isler, who had broken into a home, fired a shot, violently attacked a woman and stole her jewelry. Arnold caught up with both men as they were eating breakfast at a local store and asked them to accompany him to the police station. In the process, Isler attacked Arnold, knocking him down into the street. Brown, much larger than Arnold and, at 28, much stronger than the 57-year-old officer, held the officer down while Isler escaped. Brown then released his grip on Arnold and fled the scene. Arnold was informed that both men were attempting to flee Nashville on a Chattanooga bound train. It was at the depot that Arnold caught up with Brown and proceeded to make an arrest. However, Brown asked if he could first retrieve his personal belongings from inside a passenger car. Arnold reluctantly agreed, but he carefully followed him inside. As Brown reached down for his items, he grabbed his .38 caliber Indian Bulldog patterned pistol. Arnold fired three shots, missing both Brown and anyone else in the vicinity. But Brown returned three shots of his own, one piercing Officer Arnold’s right shoulder, fracturing the bone, before he fled the scene. Arnold lingered for over a month before dying as a result of an illness that he acquired shortly after he was shot. Brown was arrested, but was released from jail soon thereafter posting a thousand dollar bond. William T. Easley, a Hickman County neighbor of Brown, who just happened to witness the shooting of Arnold was the state’s star witness in Brown’s trial. However, as Brown’s trial was scheduled to begin in October 1885, Brown and Easley got into a verbal, profuse altercation that resulted in Brown shooting and killing Easley with the very same .38 caliber pistol he had shot Arnold. As a result of Easley’s death and a number of successful delaying tactics employed by Brown’s lawyer, the Hickman desperado walked free. In mid-December 1885, Brown was ambushed by an unknown assailant who was hiding in some bushes outside his home. Though Brown was shot with buckshot that shattered his leg, he managed to survive despite developing an infection that sidelined him, further postponing his legal troubles for another nine months. And yet Brown would never see the inside of another courtroom. In September 1886, Brown got into another altercation with a man named Henry Warren, who pulled a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson pistol out and shot Brown once, the ball entering his bowels and passing through his spine before exiting his body. He lingered on for another day before death came for him. It is said Brown spent his last hours preparing for death by confessing his sins to a minister and in front of his family and friends in an effort to get right with God before his ultimate demise.  

   

Finding Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds in Nashville

Nashville "base ball" began in earnest in 1866. Although informal practices and matches had been played on "the flats" of Edgefield (present day site of Nissan Stadium) as early as 1860 and Edgefield would become one of the premier sites for the national game in the post-Civil War era as the home grounds of the Rock City and Phoenix Clubs of Nashville, Nashville's other prominent 1860s base ball grounds was the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds.

Fort Gillem, a strategic defensive point to secure Nashville from advancing Rebel forces during the American Civil War, is long gone. It was located in the vicinity of present day Jackson Street near 17th and 18th Avenues, to the northwest of the Capitol building. The fort, built by Gainesboro (Jackson County), Tennessee native General Alvan Cullem Gillem and his 10th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment (USA) , was about 120 feet square with narrow ditches, walled with stone, 6 feet high, with emplacements for eight artillery pieces.

Gillem had cut his teeth in the Third Seminole War following his graduation from West Point in 1851. Thereafter, he was stationed on the western frontier of Texas. The Civil War brought him back to Tennessee where he spent the bulk of the war serving in Union occupied Nashville before taking the field and serving in various East Tennessee campaigns in 1864 to secure the region for its loyal Unionists from Rebel incursions. His most notable Civil War exploits involved driving Confederate forces led by John C. Vaughn out of Morristown, and the state for that matter, as well as surprising and killing Rebel cavalryman John H. Morgan in Greeneville. Although the fort that came to be bear his name was officially renamed Fort Sill in early 1863 in honor of Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed at the Battle of Stones River, Nashvillians continued to refer to the earthworks as Fort Gillem.

General Alvan Cullem Gillem (USA)

Gen. Gillem, Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville

The fort was abandoned by Union troops after the war; however, due to the surrounding lands having been largely cleared for its construction, it was not long before a rising class of professional Nashvillians found a new use for the grounds. Throughout 1866 and 1867, the remnants of Fort Gillem was claimed as the home grounds of the Cumberland Base Ball Club. It was here, on the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds on the afternoon of April 21, 1866, according to the extant sources, that the first organized base ball match in Nashville was to be played between the Rock City and Cumberland clubs. It should be noted, however, that a search of the city's newspapers have failed to yield the outcome of the April 21 match. A newspaper report later in the season lists a total of four matches between the two clubs, but does not mention April 21. Was it a friendly scrimmage between two "green" clubs instead of an official game? Was it called off due to rain or something else? Who knows? But if the two clubs did play (and a survey of non-digitized Nashville newspapers could yield the answer), it would represent the first known organized base ball match in Nashville and might be presumed that the Cumberland Club claimed the victory. In fact, in every instance in which the two teams are reported to have played, the Cumberland never lost at the hands of the Rock City, winning by an average of 40.5 runs.

Announcement of first organized base ball game in Nashville, Union and American, April 21, 1866

A number of prominent matches were played on the Fort Gillem Base Ball Grounds in the immediate postwar years (which, by the way of a disclaimer, is the extent of my research into Nashville base ball). Rock City and Cumberland vied for the first Davidson County championship during the spring and summer season of 1866 with the latter taking the title. On July 31, 1866, Fort Gillem hosted the first match in what was billed as the "Championship of the South" between the Cumberland and Louisville Base Ball Clubs. In this first game, as in the second and deciding match in the series, the Kentucky state champs won an easy victory, this one, 39-23 over the Tennessee ballists.

Before long, scores of base ball grounds sprung up around the city, some on the grounds of former Union forts such as Fort Houston, where the Nashville Base Ball Club began their successful state championship run in 1868 against the Knoxville Holston Base Ball Club. As other grounds were fitted up for base ball, the American Missionary Association and a number of prominent educators had designs for Fort Gillem in the summer of 1867. Their vision included building a school with the expressed purpose of training teachers to help educate both children and adults among the South's nearly four million recently freed people. From that idea came Fisk University. In 1876, the institution's first permanent academic building, Jubilee Hall, was finally completed on what was Fort Gillem. Funds to erect the building had been raised in large part due to the Fisk Jubilee Singers' widely popular tour of Europe in 1873.



Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee

Next time I'm in Nashville I plan to finally visit Fisk University and take a stroll of the campus. Just maybe, if I strain my ears, I'll hear the sounds of a bat striking a ball, the three cheers given for the ladies in attendance, and the sounds of corks beginning to pop as the Cumberland and Louisville Base Ball Clubs set aside any hard feelings incurred over the first game for the 1866 "Championship of the South" to celebrate one's company, which, was a significant part of the nineteenth century amateur game, an admirable quality that distinguished what was once, albeit briefly, a largely gentleman's game from that of the hypercompetitive modern game.

Sources: A Question of Manhood: A Reader in U.S. Black Men's History and Masculinity, Vol. 1 (Indiana Univ. Press, 1999, 558; Tennessee State Library and Archives

"Let Us Have Base Ball Clubs": A Brief Sketch of Rock City Base Ball Club & the Origins of Base Ball in Tennessee

After publishing my brief biographical sketch on Cornelius "Con" Cassidy earlier this week, Christopher "Books" Ryland suggested that Cassidy may have been the same "Cassidy" that appeared on the roster of the Rock City Base Ball Club (1866-1867). I immediately checked my Nashville files and sure enough, a "Cassidy" or "Cassady" appeared in two Rock City box scores that ran in the Nashville Republican Banner and another in the Union and American in 1866. I had checked the Nashville City Directories for 1865-1870 before and Cassidy appeared as early as 1866, but listed as "C.C. Cassady." Subsequent directories list him as C.C. Cassidy and no other Cassadys appear in city directories or Nashville newspapers during this period. Given other extant sources, it is reasonably safe to presume that the Cassady on the Rock City roster is indeed Cornelius C. Cassidy and that the newspaper editor and whoever compiled the list of names for the city directory simply misprinted an "a" for an "i" in his name.


Cornelius C. Cassidy, 1st Lt 136th NY

As a native New Yorker, where base ball was played widely before the war, and someone who served in the Union Army, where base ball was frequently played in camp, one wonders if Cassidy might have been exposed to the national game and its rules prior to his arrival in Nashville. One could let their mind wonder further to conjure up thoughts of Cassidy perhaps being one of the founding fathers of the Rock City Base Ball Club. Unfortunately, a survey of the Nashville newspapers in 1866, which did cover numerous games that were played in and around the city, does not seem to yield any origin stories for the Rock City Club. Moreover, these reports typically consisted only of a few sentences with the names of both clubs who played and on whose grounds, the score and possibly even a box score with last names only, and a few other nuggets of information. Perhaps further research will yield fruit on Rock City's origins; however, for now, a very brief sketch of the Rock City Club and some of Nashville's earliest clubs that they played can be developed.

First, it must be noted that base ball was not a new phenomenon that arrived in Nashville after the American Civil War, as it did in many other Southern cities and towns (many returning Rebels had first witnessed the game as prisoners of war in Union camps and many former Union soldiers who had played base ball settled in the South after the war). Base ball was played in Southern cities such as Louisville, Richmond, New Orleans, as well as both Memphis and Nashville prior to the commencement of hostilities in April 1861. Although it is impossible to discern how often base ball was played in Nashville prior to the Civil War, there is evidence that practices and/or unorganized games were held in Edgefield, which was located on the east bank of the Cumberland River directly opposite the city of Nashville. According to the July 25, 1860 issue of the Republican Banner (see image below), "a party" of young men were engaged in the sport of base ball. It is interesting that the editor noted that the "early closing of the stores gives fine opportunity to the young men engaged in mercantile pursuits." One facet of the origins of the national game in the antebellum North is that those who were the first to formally organize base ball clubs tended to be white males in their twenties and thirties who were among the professional class or rather the middle and upper class of society. And these early base ballists only played matches against clubs comprised of ballists of a similar class, race, and age. In time, however, other clubs consisting of various classes, ages, and races appeared but they tended to play among themselves. That facet of amateur base ball held true through the end of the Civil War and into the first couple years of Reconstruction. But that quickly evolved in the post-Civil War era as newspaper accounts document people of all classes, races, and ages engaged in the game. Still, wherever base ball was first organized, even in the immediate post-Civil War years in the South, one typically sees evidence of the national game being first organized by the city and town's elites, before other non-elite clubs were organized shortly thereafter. This pattern that characterized the amateur era of base ball rings true in Tennessee as the national game suddenly appeared and reappeared, as in the case of both Memphis and Nashville, between late 1865 and the Spring of 1867.     


Nashville Republican Banner, July 25, 1860

No doubt Con Cassidy would have been considered among the professional middle class by the time he arrived in Nashville. His father had managed to eek out a comfortable living in Mount Morris, NY in the western part of the state and was able to send all of his children to school where they received a good education. It is difficult to say with any certainty what professional track Cassidy might have been on when the Civil War broke out, but he was momentarily living in the home of Reuben P. Wisner, a prominent lawyer and Western NY railroad magnate, who possibly sponsored him as he came of age on the eve of the American Civil War. Cassidy enlisted in the 136th NY and rose up the ranks to become a 1st Lt. by the time he was mustered out of service in June 1865. Perhaps his educational training and work for Wisner played a part in his obtaining a position as a clerk for a local mercantile interest when he arrived in Nashville in late 1865 or 1866. But more so, his service as an officer in the Union Army might have contributed as well. Nashville may have been home to a sound majority that chose to secede from the Union in June 1861 and thus fought for or sympathized with the Confederacy; however, at war's end the Unionists firmly controlled the city's government and had ever since the Union Army took the city in early 1862. Moreover, Cassidy's military service no doubt aided him in securing a position on the exclusive Nashville Metropolitan Police Force in October 1867.

The first evidence of the Rock City Base Ball Club to appear in the historical record is the mention of the organization of the Cumberland Base Ball Club, which would become the premier club in the city in 1866. The April 21, 1866 edition of the Nashville Daily Union notes only the formal structure of the Cumberland Club's officers, but concludes with a mention that a match game is to be played later that day between the Cumberland and Rock City Clubs. Thus, the Rock City Club, for which Nashville was known as the "Rock City" in the 19th century, predated the Cumberland Club. It may be assumed that the Rock City Club was the first to formally organize in the city after the American Civil War. While there appears no follow-up on this match (a survey of newspapers not digitized on Newspapers.com, however, may yield results), later editions of Nashville newspapers reveal that the Rock City and Cumberland Clubs, both organized and fielded by members of the city's professional class, played several games against one another. It may be that these were the only two clubs for much of the spring and early summer of 1866 and it is in keeping with the custom of amateur antebellum that they would play one another until another club comprised of local professionals was organized. Yet the national game evolved much quicker in the South in the post-Civil War era than it had in the North in the antebellum era. What played out between 1865 and 1867 in the South was essentially the evolution of the game from the mid-1840s-1861 in the antebellum North. By 1868, in Tennessee and elsewhere, the "elite" clubs began to play teams comprised of members from the laboring class as well as juveniles. But, even as African Americans organized their own base ball clubs, as early as 1867 in Tennessee, the national game remained very much a segregated game.

Con Cassidy's performance as a Phoenix ballist in 1868, which led to him being awarded a prize belt valued at twenty-five dollars by his teammates for the most runs scored for the club that season, might also be explained by the fact that base ball may not have been new for Cassidy as a member of the Phoenix Club. It is quite possible that if Cassidy did indeed play a season of base ball for the Rock City Club in 1866, then he had acquired a knowledge of the game that translated to his abilities with a bat at the dish in 1868 (I should note here, for the record, that no evidence of Cassidy appears in any 1867 reports/box scores after the Rock City Club disbanded). According to the historical record, the Rock City Club did not do so well against the Cumberland Club who dominated them in a series of matches that played out between April and September 1866. In fact, the April 21 match aside, since no report on its outcome exists, Rock City lost every single match they played against the Cumberland Club by an average of 40.5 runs per game. Available box scores reveal that Cassidy, on average, either led the club or tied in most runs scored per match. Thus Cassidy was a quick and successful learner of the national game.

Nashville Republican Banner, May 22, 1866

Nashville Union and American, May 23, 1866

Another standout ballist on the Rock City Club alongside Cassidy was Charles Theodore Flagg, who had arrived from Chicago at war's end. Flagg had served in Company A of the 19th Illinois, engaged in heavy fighting at both the Battles of Stones River and Chickamauga, which suggests that the Rock City Club might have been formed mostly of former Union soldiers considering Cassidy and a couple of other Rock City ballists have been identified as having served in the Union Army. Once in Nashville, Flagg worked as a coopersmith, who, tragically died while on a job in Clarksville in a freak railroad accident in late September 1868 when his head struck a bridge, killing him instantly.

Nashville Republican Banner, November 21, 1866

Besides their main rivals, the Cumberland Club of Nashville, Rock City played two matches against the Stonewall Club. The latter club were determined to claim the championship of Davidson County and challenged Rock City, even though the Cumberland Club boasted that they had earned that title by besting Rock City in a series of matches earlier in 1866. The Stonewall Club exhibited their prowess in the garden soundly beating Rock City by an average of 16 runs in two reported matches. The Cumberland agreed to play Stonewall on November 30, 1866 to determine which club was the best in Davidson. Although not billed as a best of three county championship series, Cumberland defeated Stonewall 56 to 43. The Cumberland Club then disbanded with a perfect record against Tennessee clubs. The only defeats Cumberland ever suffered in the garden came at the hand of the much superior Louisville Base Ball Club. In a series billed as the "Championship of the South," the champion ball clubs of both Tennessee and Kentucky met first in Nashville on the grounds of the Cumberland with Louisville winning 39 to 23. Two weeks later, the two clubs met in Louisville where the Cumberland suffered a brutal defeat, losing 71 to 11. Prior to the second and what would be the deciding game for the "Championship of the South," a friendly "rag tag" game was played between members of three Louisville clubs on one side and a combination of Cumberland and Rock City ballists on the other team. A delegation of three members of the Rock City Club (not named in the newspapers) had accompanied the Cumberlanders to Louisville for the second, and what would be deciding, match.

In the end, the records reveal that the Rock City ballists played at least ten matches with either a simple final score or complete box score included in newspaper reports for eight of those ten games. Of those eight games, Rock City compiled a 2-6 record. Rock City's only victories came at the expense of two relatively inexperienced teams, the Eureka and Flynn Base Ball Clubs (another pattern of 19th century amateur base ball that holds true is that it often took a club to get a couple matches under their belt before a team of "green" ballists would begin to catch on to the rules and nuances of a barehanded game).

One last question not yet explored in this sketch that circles back around to the first recorded account of base ball being played in Nashville, and, for that matter, the state of Tennessee, is the question "Where did the Rock City Base Ball Club play?"

Considering that they were likely the first base ball club to organize in Nashville in the post-Civil War era, it is not surprising that their club, once organized, would establish their home grounds on the same ground that the earliest practices and/or unorganized matches were played--across the Cumberland River in Edgefield. It was in Edgefield, on "the flats" along the east bank of the Cumberland River, that the garden was prepared by the ballists themselves, and which the Rock City and later Phoenix Clubs of Nashville would call their home grounds. Although the historical record indicates that the first match between the Rock City and Cumberland Clubs scheduled for the afternoon of April 21, 1866 was to be played elsewhere (more in a future post!), it still holds true that the ground on which Nissan Stadium stands today, the home of the Tennessee Titans professional football team, can be claimed to be the site on which base ball was first played in 1860--even if unorganized--in not only Nashville (assuming we have annexed 1860s Edgefield for Nashville--sorry you Edgefieldians!), but also the state of Tennessee.

Satellite view over looking Nissan Stadium, the site where base ball was first played in Tennessee

As early as 1866, Nashville newspapers offered clear clues that can help point us directly to the site on which the Rock City (April 1866-May 1867) and Phoenix Clubs (1867-1868) would play base ball. After playing their first match on the home grounds of the Cumberland, Rock City and Cumberland played both the second and third matches in their rivalry in Edgefield, on the Rock City Club's home grounds. The May 22, 1866 edition of the Republican Banner is the first to note that the game was played near the Suspension Bridge, a significant clue as Nashville in 1866 had only three bridges over the Cumberland River; two of which were railroad bridges and the third, a suspension bridge. A quick survey of maps of Nashville in 1866, as well as skimming histories of Nashville, reveals that the suspension bridge was located to the east of the capitol building and connected the city with Edgefield. Moreover, the third match report that appeared in the June 22, 1866 edition of the Republican Banner (see image below) adds further clarity in confirming the location of the field by noting that the two clubs played on "the flats on the right of the Suspension Bridge." If one was standing on the Nashville bank of the Cumberland River, looking across the river and to the right of the suspension bridge at Edgefield, today, one would be looking at Nissan Stadium or possibly its parking lot. This is the site of the Edgefield Base Ball grounds where the Rock City and Phoenix Clubs played their home matches and it is the site of where base ball originated in the state of Tennessee in 1860.  

Nashville Republican Banner, May 22, 1866



Nashville Republican Banner, June 22, 1866



A view of the suspension bridge looking towards Nashville from Edgefield. The caption on the photo itself is difficult to read but it appears to have been taken in the early 1800s. 
I can't believe I am about to cite this, but I found this image on Pinterest!

A view of the bridge from Nashville looking eastward towards Edgefield, TSLA

Brief history on the suspension bridge connecting Nashville and Edgefield:
In 1850, a suspension bridge was designed by architect Adolphus Heiman, which was to be 700 feet long and 110 feet above the Cumberland River's low water mark. This structure was built at the present day Woodland Street Bridge. It was, however, destroyed in 1862 as Rebel armies cut the suspension cables as they fled the city ahead of the arrival of advancing Union forces. Shortly after the war, a new bridge was built using the same support towers that remained standing. The new bridge to Edgefield opened in June 1866, thus making it much easier for residents of Nashville to attend the games in Edgefield. The suspension bridge stood until a newer, much durable bridge was erected in 1886. This bridge was christened the Woodland Street Bridge and remained in service 80 years until a new Woodland Street Bridge, the current one, opened on December 1, 1966. This was the first Cumberland River bridge built under the Metropolitan Government.

Bridge source information: Debie Cox, nashvillehistory.blogspot.com

Cornelius "Con" C. Cassidy: Phoenix Club of Nashville Ballist

In the summer of 1868, the Phoenix and Nashville Base Ball Clubs vied for supremacy of Davidson County. The Nashville Club was the defending county champions having soundly defeated the Phoenix 53-29 in the deciding match of the 1867 series. Naturally, these two rivals, the best clubs in the county, challenged one another to a best of three series for the 1868 championship that was played over the course of five weeks. Custom of the time dictated that for a championship each club would play on their own home grounds for the first two matches with the third, if necessary, to be played at a neutral site. Moreover, each match was to be scheduled approximately two weeks apart from one another. The first two matches in the 1868 series were split, with the Phoenix taking the first 42-32 and the Nashville Club roaring back in the second match for a 63-43 victory. The third match was played on neutral ground in Edgefield. This time the Phoenix claimed the title of Davidson County besting their rival 38-33. Despite the Phoenix having won the championship, both clubs would seek a state championship series against the defending state title holders, the Knoxville Holston Base Ball Club.

 

The Phoenix were first to issue their challenge; however, the Holstons were not an active club at the time. They had disbanded following their 1867 state championship over the Mountain City Club of Chattanooga with the members devoting their time to their individual business interests. A local Knoxville editor, essentially a Holston booster given the amount of coverage he gave the Holstons in his paper in 1867, began running a host of articles in an attempt to entice the Holstons to come out of retirement. It must have worked because by the late summer of 1868, the Holstons were practicing on a weekly basis and soon returned to the garden in a series of matches with juvenile clubs to shake off the rust. By the time the Holstons were ready to defend their state title, they accepted the challenge from the Nashville Club instead of the Phoenix. The current Davidson County champs must have been incensed by the Holston Club's decision to play the Nashville Club because the Phoenix immediately sent word via the press that they were ready to play their Nashville rivals to confirm that they were indeed the state's superior club after the Holstons received a thumping from Nashville 34-10 in the first match of the 1868 state championship. Whether the Phoenix Club ever got satisfaction by playing the Nashville Club after the latter wrestled the state title from the Holstons in the third and final match is unknown. Though no matches have been found between the two Nashville rival clubs following the 1868 state championship series, the sources indicate that the Phoenix continued to meet semi-monthly in their room at Police Headquarters throughout the summer and into the fall. It was at Police Headquarters, where Cornelius ("Con" as he was known) C. Cassidy worked as a member of the Metropolitan Police Force, that the Phoenix ballists awarded their teammate a fine prize belt valued at twenty-five dollars for having tallied the most runs for the 1868 season.

 

Nashville Republican Banner, August 6, 1868

Although I have spent most of my time researching "base ball" in East Tennessee and have compiled a number of names along with biographies for ballists with both the Knoxville Holstons and Knoxville Knoxvilles, a scarcity of box scores for matches played in and around Nashville in 1867 and 1868 have made it difficult to identify specific ballists who played for the Phoenix. Besides the club's secretary, H.F. Roll, who announced club meetings in the press and issued challenges to various clubs, the only Phoenix ballist I have been able to identify at this point in time is Con Cassidy thanks to a brief mention in the newspaper of the belt being awarded to him. I am sure further research by either myself or another will yield more results; however, armed with the name of Con Cassidy linked to the Phoenix Base Ball Club as reported in the Nashville Republican Banner, I was able to commence a quick survey of my two favorite databases--Ancestry and Newspapers.com--to produce a brief biographical sketch of this Phoenix ballist.

 

Census records reveal that Cornelius Cassidy was born in 1841 in Allegany County, New York, located in a southern tier of the western portion of the state. He was born to Daniel and Catherine Cassidy, who, like hundreds of thousands of Irish, emigrated to the United States in the 1830s and especially the 1840s in the wake of the potato famine. The Cassidys arrived in Allegany County prior to the potato blight and, after a few years, moved northward and settled in the town of Mount Morris in Livingston, New York. There Daniel and Catherine remained for the rest of their lives, raising, depending on the source, somewhere between seven and twelve children. Neither Daniel nor Catherine could read or write; however, Daniel was able to carve out a decent living on a modest salary as a laborer to purchase some land on which he built his home and was able to send each of his children to school.

 

As Cornelius came of age, he began working for Reuben Porter Wisner, a local attorney and capitalist who became the president of a railroad that brought prosperity to the western regions of New York. Wisner played an instrumental role in further developing what was the village of Rochester into a significant city that became home to prominent abolitionist and women's rights reformers such as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. When the American Civil War broke out, Wisner became colonel of the 58th NY while Cornelius would later enlist in late August 1862 as a private in Company F of the 136th NY Infantry Regiment. 

Col. Reuben Porter Wisner

Con Cassidy and the men of the 136th NY received their baptism by fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. The regiment was lucky, losing only a few men in what was a Confederate victory. It would be the only significant loss (battle/campaign) for the 136th NY during the American Civil War. That said, the 136th would not be so lucky in their next engagement, nearly two months later at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They fought valiantly in the first two days of the battle, holding back advancing Rebel lines to maintain the high ground; however, that defense came at a huge cost--109 men killed, wounded, and/or missing. Following Union victory at Gettysburg, the 136th NY was dispatched to the Western Theater and Chattanooga, Tennessee where they fought at Missionary Ridge. They then followed General William T. Sherman and his Union army's advance to Atlanta, fighting a series of battles at Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, Dallas, and Kennesaw Mountain before beginning the siege of Atlanta. Next came the "March to the Sea" as Union armies cut a one hundred mile swath through Georgia before taking Savannah in December 1864. Sherman's massive army, the 136th NY included, then turned northward, trekking through the Carolinas before meeting General Joseph E. Johnston and his Rebel army at Bennett Place in North Carolina. There, in late April 1865, Johnston agreed to Sherman's terms of surrender.

Cornelius C. Cassidy, 136th NY Infantry Rgt. Co. F

Cassidy quickly rose up the ranks to Sgt. Major before being promoted to First Lieutenant at the close of the war. By all accounts, Con Cassidy served with great distinction and avoided any serious illness or wounds during his thirty-four months in the service of his country. Once Johnston had surrendered to Sherman, Cassidy and the men of the 136th NY marched to Washington, D.C. where they participated in the second day of the Grand Review of the Union Army. Two weeks later, Cassidy and the 136th NY were officially mustered out of service on June 13, 1865. Cassidy returned home to his family and worked in Mount Morris for a brief stint before leaving for the South. Whether he left on his own accord or followed other former Union soldiers who were welcomed in Southern cities such as Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville in Tennessee after the war is unknown, but he soon appeared in Nashville in 1866 working as a clerk. Within a short span of time Cassidy joined Nashville's Metropolitan Police Force and was quickly regarded as one of the city's finest policeman. Cassidy appeared in several articles in which he might have gained both a positive and negative reputation for his participation in the arrests of high-profile criminals as well as some violent encounters. It was not uncommon for Cassidy to drag someone in who had been on the losing end of a fist fight. For example, one individual's face, in the words of the editor of the Republican Banner, "looked like a badly lithographed copy of the battle-field of Chicamauga [sic], torn up by impossible and erratic cannon balls." Cassidy's luck in surviving the horrors of war on the battlefield appears to have carried over into his work as an officer on the beat. On one occasion, a drunkard named John White called Officer Cassidy over towards him. As Cassidy neared, White raised up his right arm to reveal a Derringer pistol in his hand. White fired, but the ball narrowly missed Cassidy who quickly apprehended the drunk man. Interestingly, Cassidy refused to prosecute White and let him go.

 

Cassidy was also known to engage in horse racing. He had a horse named "Waybill" that he entered in "trotting races" for prizes as high as $75 (about $1450.00 in today's money). Cassidy appears to have served on the police force for about two years before taking a position as a bookkeeper for a local firm. For reasons unknown, Cassidy abruptly left Nashville in either late 1869 or early 1870 and returned home to Mount Morris, New York. It can be assumed that the cause of his departure was a sudden illness because sources indicate that Con Cassidy passed away at the age of twenty-nine on May 14, 1870 as a result of consumption, a common term in the 19th century for wasting away of the body, particularly from pulmonary tuberculosis (note: find-a-grave incorrectly lists Cassidy as having died in 1871. It is difficult to see from the blurry photograph posted on that site, but it is possible that the headstone incorrectly states 1871).

 

Cornelius C. Cassidy's Grave, Old Cemetery, Mount Morris, NY

Both of Con Cassidy's parents outlived him, Daniel passing away also of consumption on December 18, 1893 and his mother, Catherine, living to the age of eighty before passing on November 5, 1902.

 

Perhaps more research into Nashville's newspapers will reveal additional Phoenix ballists. I have managed to compile a list of ballists along with some biographical information for those who played on the 1868 Nashville Base Ball Club and will possibly write on a few of them in the coming days or weeks. But for now, my agent informs me that I need to get that article on the origins of base ball in Knoxville completed!          

The Civil War Monument Destined for the Magic City of Southern Appalachia that was Never Built

As the sun prepared to hide its face behind the tall mountains to the west, a group of well-dressed, graying Civil War veterans sat on the porch of the newly opened Middlesborough Hotel. A few miles to their southeast was Cumberland Gap. The gap was a deep cleavage in Cumberland Mountain, a high ridge about one thousand feet above the surrounding countryside that stretched some forty miles across Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. For more than a century, migrants had bypassed the rugged terrain and bowl-like depressions on each side of the gap in favor of lands to the west of the Appalachian Mountains, thus making it largely a sparsely populated, undeveloped terrain. But the quiet, sterile old fields of the Cumberland Gap surrounded by picturesque mountains were becoming lively. Now the sound of the saw, the hammer, the trowel, and almost every other implement of industry could be heard reverberating throughout the once silent landscape.

The "Magic City" of Middlesborough was the vision of Alexander Alan Arthur, a Scotsman taken by the natural beauty and industrial potential of the region. He had enlisted European investors to create the American Association, which purchased thousands of acres around the gap, constructed a railroad to link the region with the North and South, and planned an industrial city in the large bowl on the Kentucky side of the gap. Some five thousand people rushed to Middlesborough within weeks of the first lots being sold in 1889. By June 1890, a number of the newcomers included Northern and Southern capitalists who came in the hope of striking it rich in Appalachia. Among these American captains of industry were Civil War veterans that gathered at the Middlesborough Hotel.

Alexander Alan Arthur, the man behind Middlesborough 

On the evening of June 7, 1890, a group of former Union and Confederate soldiers were earnestly discussing the effort by officials in New York City to ensure that Union General Ulysses S. Grant was permanently entombed in an edifice in their city worthy of his legacy. Grant had been dead nearly five years; however, the campaign to raise the necessary funds to complete the monument to stand alongside the Hudson River at Riverside Park in Upper Manhattan had stalled. The veterans felt somewhat ashamed to read the distressing news that the monument may not be built to honor the "American Ulysses."


Knoxville Daily Journal, June 8, 1890

Prior to 1865, Americans had commemorated significant events and persons in history; however, the sheer scale of tragic death and heroic sacrifice in America's Civil War drove participants on both sides of the war to honor their leaders and ordinary soldiers by erecting statues and other structures in public and private venues. A relatively small number of monuments were dedicated in the 1860s and 1870s. But a rapid expansion of building Civil War monuments in the mid-1880s and 1890s was precipitated by the children of veterans who began dying during this time. Moreover, the greatest number of monuments, which were erected in Southern cemeteries and public spaces, was a product of cementing the Confederacy's Lost Cause narrative of the war, one which downplayed the role of slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War in favor of a carefully constructed narrative of battlefield glory and one in which Southerners, staunch advocates of states' rights, fought honorably to defend their homes from invading Yankees. Thus, with a booming Southern Appalachian City as the backdrop for a discussion of the plight of Grant's Tomb, a scheme was hatched at the Middlesborough Hotel on June 7, 1890.


The view from the overlook atop Pinnacle Mountain
(Virginia is far left, Tennessee center, and Middlesboro, Kentucky far right)

The group of Confederate and Union veterans looked toward Pinnacle Mountain. Its summit of nearly 2500 feet soared over the Cumberland Gap, offering a majestic view into the states of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There, pointing to the mountain, Captain John M. Brooks, a former Confederate officer and mayor of Middlesborough, said is where we should build statues to both Civil War commanders--Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Brooks envisioned two colossal statues on horseback that could be seen from the gap below. Grant was to be positioned looking southward while Lee looked northward. In a nod to the push for national reconciliation in the late nineteenth century, both Civil War commanders would have extended hands to each other. Such a monument, Brooks maintained, would draw more tourists to the region and the mountain which typically saw several thousand either hike or ride up to its summit each year to contemplate the magnificent panorama below. Middlesborough, Brooks proudly proclaimed, would provide lodging accommodations and a variety of businesses for visitors to spend their money while they enjoyed the natural beauty of the Cumberland Gap.

Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee shake hands after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House

The veterans quickly canvassed other capitalists from New York, Boston, and Chicago staying at the hotel and at other places throughout Middlesborough. They managed to raise $14,000 in a matter of days. Next, they organized the Cumberland Gap Grant and Lee Association and called for a meeting at the town hall for June 13. At that meeting, officers were elected and telegrams of cooperation and encouragement from numerous governors, senators, and congressmen were read to thundering applause. The Association leaders highlighted a telegram from Ohio Governor Joseph B. Foraker, who stated that "I will gladly help you all I can." For many Southerners, Foraker had been a lightning rod who symbolized the vengeful Yankee. The Ohio governor had enlisted in the Union army as a sixteen-year-old in July 1862 and fought under General William Sherman on the road to Atlanta as well as participated in the former general's infamous March to the Sea. Foraker's enthusiastic support for the monument was promoted by Middleborough's boosters as symbolic of the reconciliation that had taken place among the former Union and Confederate veterans in the twenty-five years since Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. A call was then made inviting former Union and Confederate soldiers to subscribe to the fund with subscriptions running one dollar each. Before the meeting adjourned, it was agreed that notices announcing the subscription campaign be sent to newspapers to be published throughout the country. The Association hoped to raise $50,000 in the week ahead.      

A week later, O. O. Hall of Middlesborough, the secretary of the Cumberland Gap Grant and Lee Association, arrived back from his travels to a number of northern cities to elicit funds from their leading merchant princes. While newspapers reported that a storm was taking over the country with funds flowing into Middlesborough to make a Grant and Lee monument to national unity in Southern Appalachia a reality, it appeared that the campaign was fizzling out. Hall reported to the Association's board that $26,000 had been raised thus far; however, he was still hopeful that they would be able to raise the much-needed several hundred thousand dollars to complete the project.

In spite of the optimism, things were looking ominous in Middlesborough. The "Magical City" was plagued by three disastrous conflagrations in the summer of 1890. By early 1891, the money was drying up as a worldwide depression shook the confidence of both American and European investors interested in the town. By 1893, most investors had pulled out. All major businesses in Middlesborough soon closed, land values plummeted, and the Magic City resembled a western ghost town. Though the mid and late 1890s were a constant struggle for those left behind, the city survived on the strength of the regional coal industry. Its residents dropped the "ugh" at the end of its name and recast their city as Middlesboro.

As the "Magical City" of Middlesborough died, so did the plan to build a monument of peace, unity, and national reconciliation atop Pinnacle Mountain. Though it would have been a majestic piece of art to rival the majestic panoramic view of the Cumberland Gap, it would have constituted yet another work of art erected without the proper historical context that perpetuate a carefully, contrived narrative promoted and nourished in the thousands of late 19th and early 20th century Civil War monuments that dot our national (primarily southern) landscape.  

Sources: Knoxville Daily Journal, Earl Hess, Lincoln Memorial University and the Shaping of Appalachia