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Abner Doubleday. (credit: Culver Pictures)

(born June 26, 1819, Ballston Spa, N.Y., U.S. — died Jan. 26, 1893, Mendham, N.J.) U.S. Army officer, once thought to be the inventor of baseball. Doubleday served in the Mexican War and the Seminole Wars. As a major general in the American Civil War, he gave the first order to fire at Fort Sumter, and he later fought in other major battles. In 1907 a commission appointed by A.G. Spalding concluded that Doubleday formulated the essential rules of baseball in 1839 at Cooperstown, N.Y., leading to the choice of Cooperstown as the site of the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was later proved that Doubleday was not in Cooperstown in 1839. See also Alexander Cartwright.

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