So guys, the actual update will take a while because school is very stressing right now and I don't have the time or the energy to work in what it's perhaps the most important update thus far since we'll be seeing the beginnings of Reconstruction. I do have enough time for some light writing, however, so I wanted to write a mini-update regarding the role of women in the Civil War. I don't know if there are any women reading this TL (I'm aware the site is predominantly male - including me) but I think it's important to note their important role in this conflict and how the changes have affected it. Are there any important facts about women or any prominent women you would like to see featured?
In other news,
@DTF955Baseballfan has kindly written another side-story set in the TL, this time about baseball. It's great because, since I'm not American, I know next to nothing about the sport and this is a nice bit of heartwarming
Americana.
A Baseball Game
"Huzzah!" came the shout for what seemed like the millionth time. "Huzzah, to mighty John Reynolds!"
Al Reach was stretching on that fine spring day in 1863, having recently heard not only of the great deeds of the Army of the Susquehannah, but of the tremendous aftershocks which seemed to be rising from it. Suddenly, more and more young men were volunteering to fight - or, at least, help to defend.
"So, what about you?" anotherplayer asked Reach.
REach was a star first baseman, one of the top players in all of baseball. He was also the first openly professional player; he was paid by the Brooklyn Eckfords, a club not made up of sons of richer families like many clubs but of poorer families in the shipyards and elsewhere in that area.
"Shipyards are vital. Mobile must be taken, among other places. And, beside, let the boys from the richer families be taken," Reach suggested.
"Certainly, and make it even easier for the Eckfords than it was last year," another player from the shipyards said with a laugh.
Reach enjoyed the frivolity. But, he also enjoyed something else, as the game of base ball's first professional athlete - well, first openly professional one, anyway. He was beginning to feel the desire to compete that would push countless athletes to be the best they could be, to press on toward incredible records. And, in the back of his mind, the desire for more money - Philadelpiha, next year, would pay him $1,00 a year to jump teams and play for them. He was alredy hearing rumblings that they might be interested if he had a good year this year.
For now, Reach enjoyed the smell of the cool, crisp spring air. One day, there would be peace, the rebellion would be crushed, and somehow, base ball would be reshaped. The game had already seen many changes just in the last few decades - the Massachusetts game (first to 100 runs) versus the New York rules, for instance. As a famous film would state many decades later, "The one constant through all the years, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again."
Meanwhile, an officer with the Pennsylvania National Guard - having inspected the Philadelphia shipyards - was making his way to New York, to the shipyards where Reach worked.There had been draft problems in New York earlier in the year, he had a speech to give to encourage people.
Reach was intrigued, especially when he heard this man was also quite skilled at base ball. He decided, during a break in his work at the shipyards, that he'd like to meet the man. He'd heard much about the amazing, crushing defeat Colored troops had inflicted ont he rebels. Could such men be equally adept at base ball?
"Major Catto," the foreman said after Catto's speech, "this is Mr. REach, one of my best workers. Mr. Reach, Major Catto."
They spoke for a couple minutes concerning Catto's attempts to raise troops in his native Pennsylvania - both to fight and to defend the capital - and his present goal of speaking and encouraging men to volunteer. The government preferred that white men lead black troops for the moment yet, though that could change, and besides, he had done a good job organizing the area blacks to defend the temporary Capital should it be threatened, so why mess with a good thing, the government had argued.
Finally, Reach said, "I understand you are quite proficient at base ball. I, too, am quite skilled at the game. I have considered coming to Philadelphia to work; have you been to the shipyards there?" He had actually been already getting some questions about jumping to the city's Athletics.
"Yes, things there are going quite well. I came to boost morale, as I said in my speech we in Pennsylvania feel an even greater duty than we might have with not only the nation's temporary capital but also the recent invasion there."
"It was a glorious victory," Reach said. "I hope you have had success in gaining recruits; we have had quite a few men leave, though - while I registered for the draft - there is great work to be done here."
Catto agreed. "We have had great success since the invasion began. I helped to organize defenses of Philadelphia right away, because of our temporary capital. I have even met - very briefly - with the President, though I hope to do so more extensively later to discuss issues regarding Civil Right," Catto declared, interested to see Reach's stance on it.
Reach, like many Northerners, was ambivalent. He knew America had been erased and reshapen, in a way, with the Constitutional Convention replacing the Articles of Confederation. It would be again here on a much more dramatic scale. And, the future seemed uncertain; they had to get through tis war first.
Still, with the subject having been brought up, he was at least willing to ask. "Apart from an end to slavery, what is it you people want?"
Catto sensed some confusion, maybe a little defensiveness or even hostility, but he didn't take offense. He knew this was going to take a while. But, the answer was simple. Right away, he replied evenly, "Just the same thing you white people have always had." He could have gone further to explain: Freedom of opportunity; The right to have any job we want, as long as we're qualified. The right to vote; All the other things that mark a free people. But,he knew the discussion had to begin with something simple.
Reach thought about it. He'd never really considered what would happen after the war. Now, for the first time, he was really pondering the immense task at hand. These people would be starting from scratch. After a moment, he asked, "How are we going to educate all these new Freedmen so they can do this?" The task seemed insurmountable.
"I agree, it will be hard. It will be hard teaching an entire people to read and to write, to enjoy the fruit of their own labor. It will be hard that it's okay to talk together, to work together, to sit and eat together, to live together." Nonchalantly, he had cleverly turned the concept from just educating the freedmen to making life fairer for everyone. After all, someday they would have to serve side by side on interracial jries, for instance.
Catto continued as he pulled out a prop - a baseball, stitched together by hand, nothing like that which would bear Reach's name decades later.
"But, have you observed children playing together? They don't think of anything but the fun they are having. Which is why I believe baseball can be used as a teaching tool, to get to know one another, so there is not the mistrust."
Seeing Reach was ready, he lightly tossed the ball to him. Soon, they were having an easy game of catch in the middle of the shipyard.
"True. That is the way they play." Although, in a world where Reach could earn what at that time was big money - he would be paid $1,000 a year soon, given the thousands who showed up for some games - it was not quite the innocence of youth playing in the streets.
But, he didn't think of that right then. When he did later, he considered that - if this Major Catto or some other player of color were good enough - why couldn't they also be paid like him? Surely there would be enough money to go around. And, there was the nagging fear that money could ruin the game, too.
"I should like to speak with you more about base ball. I shall look you up when I am in Philadelphia." It was a promise he would keep next year.
"I would like that very much," Catto said joyfully, dreaming of the possibility that black and white teams could not only compete with one another, but that black and while players like Reach and himself could be on the same team.
It would take a few years, till after the Civil War, but even President Lincoln would call it a "noble experiment," based on the fact that children did indeed play together like that, and these men were still considered to be playing a child's game."
For now, as they finished their conversation, Catto and Reach had struck up a friendship. And, the idea that they could have something in common - even if that something were as simple as base ball - was a major step toward bringing that which once was good - the joy of youth, not caring about color but just about fun - could be had again. And the game, and field, would be not only reshaped, but would remain that constant as it played a part in the reshaping of America.