Baseball was enjoyed by soldiers in the Civil War, including those depicted in this poster. Another Civil War item worth noting is a diary by a Pennsylvania officer who mentions baseball several times, including this gem: "I am afraid I will have to give up baseball and all of my other bad habits, but no! If I cannot give up smoking I must not give up baseball, so I'll try it again tomorrow."
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Other entries from the diary, pictured here:
“This afternoon I played ‘baseball’ for four hours as 1st baseman in the match between the 12th Volunteer Regiment Cavalry and the Officers of the 24th- the game after 7 innings-standing in favor of the former club, the score being 53-23; pretty badly beaten but not as badly as I expected. I expect to be as stiff as some old crabbed maine...”
“My expectation in regard to being sore... ...every muscle in my body was affected- so, I went out this morning and played another nine innings game...”
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