Gen. Abner Doubleday Sends an Article Defending His Conduct at Gettysburg to Gen. Daniel Butterfield

Abner Doubleday was second-in-command at Fort Sumter, where he ordered the Union’s first shots of the Civil War in response to the bombardment by secessionist forces. Promoted to brigadier general in February 1862, Doubleday participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam later that year. Doubleday became a major general and led a corps on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, but General George G. Meade disliked Doubleday, dismissed his participation, and refused to accept his battle report. Doubleday then served in administrative duty in Washington, D.C., for the rest of the conflict. In 1882 he wrote a book criticizing Meade and O.O. Howard. Doubleday has been popularly credited with inventing the game of baseball.

General O.O. Howard was a Union corps commander who suffered two humiliating defeats at Chancellorsville and then at Gettysburg. In the latter battle his 11th Corps’ performance could only be considered disastrous. He recovered from these setbacks as a successful corps and later army commander in the Western Theater. Howard started circulating the story that his corps’ failure at Gettysburg had actually been triggered by the collapse of Doubleday’s 1st Corps to the west, and this was a partial reason for Doubleday’s removal from command of the corps. However, this excuse has not been accepted by history. In return, Doubleday criticized Howard’s performance at Chancellorsville, and thought his exoneration was a whitewash. Thus the two men were at odds.

General Daniel Butterfield was chief of staff for Joseph Hooker, and then George Meade. During the Confederate bombardment before Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, he was wounded. After recovering, Butterfield rejoined Hooker in the West and fought at Chattanooga. He commanded a division in the Atlanta campaign, but hampered by his Gettysburg wound, he returned to New York in July 1864. In later years he criticized Meade as “confused” at Gettysburg, thus finding himself in Doubleday’s camp. In the 1890s Butterfield was involved with planning events and lectures for his alma mater, Union College.

Autograph letter signed, Mendham, New Jersey, November 9, 1890, to Butterfield, sending an article for him to use for a symposium or publication relating almost surely to Gettysburg. “I enclose my article which I believe does not exceed your limit of 2000 words. I have tried to avoid all controversial points and although Howard’s statements and mine bristle with antagonisms, I have left him to give his own version.” He adds a P.S.: “If you style the series of articles a symposium substitute that word for the last word in my article.”

Doubleday’s letters are uncommon, the being the first we have had in over a decade.