Civil War Baseball

Baseball history illustration by Otto Boetticher: Union prisoners at Salisbury North Carolina engage in a game of baseball. While the Civil War took its toll on baseball league membership, it helped popularize the game by spreading it throughout the southern parts of the United States. According to "Baseball in Blue and Gray" by George B. Kirsch, "Otto Boetticher was a commercial artist from New York City who enlisted in the 68th New York Volunteers in 1861 at the age of 45. He was captured in 1862 and wound up at Salisbury before being exchanged for a Confederate captain on September 30th. His illustration presents an idealized, pastoral view of a match in a setting that more closely resembled the Elysian Fields in Hoboken than a jail yard." Click illustration to return to previous page.