GENERAL DOUBLEDAY CROSSING THE POTOMAC

General Doubleday Crossing the Potomac by David Gilmour Blythe, painted bet. 1863-1865. General Abner Doubleday, born in 1819 in Ballston Spa, New York, from a family of American patriots. His father had fought in the War of 1812 and was a New York congressmen. His paternal grandfather was a soldier in the American Revolution and his maternal grandfather was a mounted messenger for George Washington, joining the army at the age of 14. Abner married to Mary Hewitt of Baltimore in 1852. Given his military genes, it's not surprising that he also became a career officer of the U.S. Army. Doubleday served in the Mexican-American War and the Seminole Wars and by the start of the Civil War, he was captain of troops at Fort Sumter, second in command below Major Robert Anderson. He was commander of The I Corps, an army assembled by President Lincoln in 1862, after his original commander, John F. Reynolds, was killed at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. The four-corps army was later consolidated into the Army of Virginia under Major General John Pope, and they fought in the Battle of Bull Run. Afterward they rejoined the Army of the Potomac and crossed the Potomac River on June 7, 1863, on their way to Maryland for the battle at South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam, under Major General Joseph Hooker. They were the first to fight, many men unselfishly sacrificing their lives for the cause of freedom. Aside from his extensive military accomplishments and contributions, it is also said that he was the inventor of the game of baseball in 1839, in Cooperstown, New York - today the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Doubleday died from heart disease on January 26, 1893, at the age of 73, in Mendham, New Jersey. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. David Gilmore Blythe was an American artist born in 1815 in Ohio. He was of Scottish and Irish ancestry. His paintings were mostly satirical portrayals of political and social issues of the day.