"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