The Benteen Base Ball Club

 The Benteen Base Ball Club of Ft. Rice and the Actives of Ft. Lincoln played their third game at Lincoln to-day, for the championship.  The two previous games were played in the Black Hills, and were very closely contested, the scores standing 6 to 11 in the first and 11 to 16 in the latter, consequently the final game promises to be an exciting one.

-Bismarck Daily Tribune, September 9, 1874


Edmund Tobias, in his history of St. Louis baseball that was published in The Sporting News, wrote about Frederick Benteen's baseball activities in the West.  Here we find a contemporary source supporting Tobias' work.


Benteen, who played with the Cyclone Club prior to the Civil War, arrived at Ft. Rice in June of 1873 and was serving with the 7th Cavalry, under General Custer.  I've been trying to find the first instances of baseball playing in various western states and it's interesting, but not surprising, that the first baseball clubs in the Dakota Territory appear to have been formed by soldiers.  Benteen, it can be argued, was a baseball pioneer in two states - Missouri, where he was a member of the first baseball club to play the regulation game, and North Dakota, where he helped form one of the first baseball clubs in the state.

Nothing Will Ruin A Game Faster Then Buffalo Or Hostile Indians Wandering Onto The Field

Among the players of the Cyclone Club, heretofore referred to, was Fred W. Benteen, then with Asa Wilgets & Co., house and sign painters. He early joined the Union army and distinguished himself by many deeds of valor. After the rebellion he was assigned to duty on the plains in the regular army where as an Indian fighter he added fresh laurels to his fame. He was major of the famous 7th Cavalry, Custer's old regiment. He is now living at Atlanta, Ga., in retirement with the rank of Brevet Brigadier General...

The day before Gen'l Benteen left St. Louis to join the army he lost a fine seal ring while playing a practice game early in the morning on the Ham street grounds. Because of its associations, he attached much value to the ring and for several hours he and the writer searched in vain to recover it. In the army the soldier did not forget his cunning as a ball player for in 1865 two troops of the U.S. Cavalry, Benteen's and Col. R.M. West's wile on the Solomon Fork of the Republican River, Kansas played three games, twenty seven innings on the same day. Col. West's nine was named after that officer and Major Benteen christened his the "Cyclones" in honor of his old club. The latter made mince meat of their opponents by a score now forgotten. The grounds were picketed to keep off straggling bands of buffalo and Indians then on the war path. This incident is taken from a personal letter received by the writer from Gen'l Benteen...

-E.H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, November 9, 1895

The picture of Benteen, above, was taken in 1865-the same year the U.S. Calvary supposedly played a game of baseball on the Republican River. It's entirely possible that the article says 1885 and I'm just misreading it. The date is difficult to make out but since the article from which this was taken was covering the 1865 season, it seems logical to assume that it reads "1865." The only problem with this is that Benteen mustered out of the army in the late spring of 1865, only to be promoted to lieutenant colonel and placed in command of the 138th U.S. Colored Volunteers, which he led from July of 1865 until January of 1866. The game that Benteen described to Tobias sounds to me like it took place between units of the 7th Calvary, which Benteen didn't join until January of 1867. So I'm not sure how much stock we can place in the 1865 date. This is not to say that Benteen wasn't still involved in the game while he was in the calvary. There are a couple of references to games played under his command that I mentioned in this post. I just wouldn't take the 1865 date at face value unless we can place Benteen's unit on the Republican River at that time.

More Pictures of Frederick Benteen

Here's a picture of a mature Frederick Benteen, Cyclone Club member, just before his retirement from the army (dating the pic somewhere around 1888) and a pic of Benteen's tombstone in Atlanta's Westwood Cemetery.

Merritt Griswold And The Civil War In St. Louis

When I first looked at Merritt Griswold's Civil War service records last year, I wasn't particularly impressed. He mustered into the Company D of the 3rd Regiment of the United States Reserve Corp as a Captain on May 8, 1861 and mustered out on August 17, 1861. Looking at the records, it seemed that Griswold had pretty much sat out the war. However, having done some research on the war in St. Louis, it appears that Griswold and his unit played a significant role in securing the city for the Union.

In the Spring of 1861, the loyalty of St. Louis and Missouri, a slave state, was very much in doubt. While the Missouri Constitutional Convention of March 1861 had voted overwhelmingly to keep Missouri in the Union, Governor Claiborne Jackson had pro-Confederate sympathies and refused Abraham Lincoln's order to raise troops for the Union. The state militias that were already existent were in the process of dividing along Union/Confederate lines and the pro-Jackson militias were actually taking offensive actions against Federal targets. In April of 1861, the Federal arsenal at Liberty, Missouri was seized and there were fears that the arsenal at St. Louis, the largest in a slave state, would be targeted.

The pro-Union forces in Missouri, led by Colonel Frank Blair and Captain Nathaniel Lyons, took decisive actions in April and May of 1861 to secure St. Louis. First, in what can best be described as an extra-constitutional move, Blair and Lyons hastily began to raise troops. Relying heavily on the Wide Awakes, a pro-Union political organization, Blair and Lyons raised ten regiments who would come to be known as the Home Guards. Second, with new troops in hand, Lyons seized the arsenal at St. Louis, securing it for the Union.

From there, things spiralled out of control quickly. On April 24th, three days after the seizure of the arsenal, a group from the pro-Confederate Minute Men political organization in St. Louis fired on a street car, believing that it was being used to transfer arms from the arsenal to Illinois. On May 1st, Governor Jackson called up the Missouri Militia and ordered it to encamp just outside of St. Louis. This encampment, which was dubbed "Camp Jackson", was just south of the present day location of St. Louis University and included the property upon which Thomas McNeary would build the Compton Avenue Grounds.

On May 10th, Lyons ordered the arrests of 670 members of the St. Louis Minute Men and, at the same time, an attack on Camp Jackson. Both the arrests and the surrender of the camp were accomplished peacefully but the strong display of Union force created an uproar among the pro-Confederate citizens of St. Louis.

James Peckham, in General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861, has Lyon's account of what happened next:

Captain C. Blandowski, of Company F. (Third Missouri Volunteers), had been ordered with his company to guard the western gateway leading into the camp. The surrendered troops had passed out, and were standing passively between the enclosing lines on the road, when a crowd of disunionists began hostile demonstrations against Company F. At first these demonstrations consisted only of vulgar epithets and the most abusive language; but the crowd, encouraged by the forbearance and the silence of the Federal soldiers, began hurling rocks, brickbats, and other missiles at the faithful company. Notwithstanding several of the company were seriously hurt by these missiles, each man remained in line, which so emboldened the crowd that they discharged pistols at the soldiers, at the same time yelling and daring the latter to fight. Not until one of his men was shot dead, several severely wounded, and himself shot in the leg, did the Captain feel it his duty to retaliate; and as he fell, he commanded his men to fire. The order was obeyed, and the multitude fell back, leaving upon the grass-covered ground some twenty of their number, dead or dying. Some fifteen were instantly killed, and several others died within an hour. Several of Sigel's men were wounded, and two killed.

The actions of Blair and Lyons, despite the catastrophe that followed the surrender of Camp Jackson, secured St. Louis for the Union and, combined with U. S. Grant's actions at Cairo, Illinois and Paducah, Kentucky a few months later, was one of the most significant acts in the Western theatre of the war. With St. Louis, Cairo, and Paducah under control, the Union had secured the Upper Mississippi, the Western Ohio, and the Missouri rivers.

What was Merritt Griswold's role in all of this? While it's unknown what specific role he played in the attack on Camp Jackson, it is known that the 3rd Regiment took part in the attack. Peckham writes that "The regiments selected by Lyon to assist in the capture of Camp Jackson were the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Mo. Vols., and the Third and Fourth 'Home Guards' (Reserve Corps)." I think it can be assumed that Captain Griswold was present at the attack on Camp Jackson and was involved, during the late spring and summer of 1861, in securing St. Louis for the Union.

More importantly, Griswold's service in the 3rd Regiment tells us a great deal about him. In recruiting the Home Guards, Lyon relied heavily on two sources: German immigrants and the Wide Awakes. Since Griswold was not a German immigrant, it's rather likely that he was member of the Wide Awakes. Galusha Anderson, in The Story of a Border City During the Civil War, describes the group as "Republican in politics. It was made up of the most progressive young men of St. Louis. Many of them had just come into the Republican ranks; their political faith was new; they had the zeal and enthusiasm of recent converts. They were also stimulated by the fact that they were called upon to maintain their political doctrine in the face of the stoutest opposition. With their torchlights they had just been marching and hurrahing for Lincoln. They had cheered the vigorous speeches of their brilliant orators. Their candidate, though defeated in their city and State, had been triumphantly elected to the Presidency. Such a body of men, flushed with victory, was a political force which every thoughtful man saw must be reckoned with."

Anthony Monachello, in his article America's Civil War: Struggle For St. Louis, describes the Wide Awakes as "a shadowy political organization" that "spent most of their time attempting to win the hearts and minds of the local populace by organizing demonstrations, posting signs and publishing pamphlets extolling the virtues of their (cause)." They were also described as, essentially, a paramilitary organization that had violent clashes with their Minute Men rivals as early as March 4, 1861 and were stockpiling arms and undergoing military training in preparation for the outbreak of war.

I think that it's safe to assume that Griswold was ardently pro-Union. He took decisive steps in joining the Home Guards to defend the Union cause in St. Louis and most likely had been a member of a significant pro-Union political organization for some time before the outbreak of hostilities in St. Louis.

Under those circumstances, his statement to Al Spink that the Cyclone Club broke up due to the Civil War is rather poignant. The political tensions within the club must have been severe. Griswold, one of the founders of the club, was an active Unionist. His teammate, and co-worker, Edward Bredell, was obviously and firmly on the opposite side. Club President Leonard Matthews found the war "inconvenient" and purchased a substitute to serve for him. His own family was divided over the war and his father tried to talk his brother and fellow club member, Orville Matthews, into resigning from the Navy. Orville Matthews, of course, did no such thing and served the Union cause with honor.

Other club members who served with the Union include John Riggin, John Prather (who also served in the Home Guards), Frederick Benteen (who helped organize a company of cavalrymen in St. Louis), Joseph Fullerton, and William Collier.

I can find no record of any member of the Cyclone Club serving with the Confederates other than Bredell. However, since all known members of the club have yet to be positively identified, I feel that the chances are good that there were others.

Note: The three images in this post are of Camp Jackson (top), St. Louis 1861 (middle), and the attack on Camp Jackson (last).

Frederick William Benteen

There's a fantastic article about Fredrick Benteen, a member of the Cyclone Club, at HistoryNet.com. Written by Steven M. Leonard, it covers Benteen's life and military career much better than I ever could. So rather than subject you to my ponderous prose, I'll just direct you to Mr. Leonard's fine piece on Benteen.

Mr. Leonard writes the following about Benteen:

Frederick William Benteen was born in the Virginia port city of Petersburg on August 24,1834 to Theodore Charles and Caroline Hargrove Benteen. The Benteens had moved to Virginia from Baltimore shortly after the birth of their first child, Henrietta Elizabeth, in October 1831. The elder Benteen earned a prosperous living as a paint and hardware contractor, securing a private education for his son at the Petersburg Classical Institute, where Frederick was first trained in military drill. Sadly, Caroline Benteen died suddenly in 1841, leaving a young husband and family. Undoubtedly, the loss of his mother at such an impressionable age impacted Frederick, but to what extent is unknown.

Following the marriage of his daughter in the spring of 1849, Charley Benteen followed the call of the west and moved his family to St. Louis, Missouri. There, he remarried, established a paint and glass supply business, and employed his sixteen-year-old son as a sign painter. In 1856, Frederick became acquainted with Catharine Louisa Norman, a young woman recently arrived in St. Louis from Philadelphia. "Kate", a staunch supporter of the Union, would have a profound influence on the future of Frederick Benteen.

The election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President in 1860 polarized the country, and Missouri was no less affected than any other state in the Union. Kate strongly urged Frederick to support the cause of the Union forces in Missouri. His father, an ardent secessionist, vehemently opposed Frederick's association with Unionists, igniting a family crisis that was never truly resolved. When told of his son's decision to support the Union, Charley Benteen retorted, "I hope the first God damned bullet gets you."

As early as July 1861, Frederick was observing and supervising the drill of volunteer infantry companies in and around the St. Louis Arsenal. He got his first taste of battle -- although not officially on the rosters of any of the participating units -- on August 10, at Wilson's Creek. Outnumbered five to one, volunteer and Federal forces under Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon attacked a concentrated force of 22,000 Confederates ten miles southwest of Springfield, inflicting over 5000 casualties before retreating in ultimate defeat to Rolla. The opening act of the Civil War in Missouri, although inauspicious, cemented Frederick's decision to join with the volunteers.

On September 1, the 67 members of what would become the 1st Battalion, Missouri Cavalry, held an election of officers; Frederick Benteen was elected first lieutenant of C Company. By October 1, the battalion was at full strength and Benteen was elected captain and commander of C Company. Twelve days later, Benteen saw his first action as an officer at Dutch Hollow against a large body of irregular Confederate cavalry.

On January 7, 1862, Benteen married his longtime girlfriend, Kate Norman, at Saint George's Church in St. Louis. Only her immediate family attended the ceremony. Their honeymoon was short; within three days, Frederick returned to Rolla. Kate settled into their new home to wait out the war.

Quoting Harold Schindler of the Salt Lake Tribune, the Arlington National Cemetary Website has a very interesting reference to Benteen and baseball:

He was a good soldier, Benteen. He was dearly fond of fishing ("I saw him wade over his boot tops many times into the cold water to get mountain trout," one of his troopers recalled in later years) and he loved baseball with an extraordinary passion. As a matter of fact, most men in H Company were members of the "Benteen baseball and gymnasium club." The Benteen Nine, it seems, was a ringer. It regularly shellacked Army competition. For instance, in June 1875, when the Benteens played the Fort Randall First Infantry, the final score was Benteens, 54; Randalls, 5.

At the website for the Ninth Memorial Cavalry, there's an article by Robert Foster that chronicles the Ninth Cavalry's time in Utah under Benteen in the late 1880's. Talking about the relationship between the black and white soldiers at Fort Duchesne, Foster writes the following:

Relations between black and white soldiers stationed at the post were generally amicable. A visitor to the fort commented, "The white infantrymen and the black cavalrymen at the fort fraternize without any fine discrimination as to color." The men ate together and, according to the same visitor, may have slept and fought "the festive bedbug together." Army records show no serious incidents of any kind between black and white soldiers at Fort Duchesne.

The only problem between white and black soldiers seemed to occur at baseball games. The buffalo soldiers were tremendous baseball players, usually winning most games they played. Many of them were exceptionally good boxers, too. Fistfights between black and white soldiers over "bad" calls by the umpires are mentioned in several newspaper stories. Of course, a good fistfight relieved some of the dull monotony of garrison duty, and many members of the 21st Infantry were Irishmen who loved a good donnybrook--among themselves, with blacks, whites or any others who were in the mood.

It's not necessarily related to Benteen or baseball in St. Louis but it's interesting none the less.

More On The Make-Up Of The Cyclone Club

In his letter to Al Spink, Merritt Griswold wrote the following:

Other members of "The Cyclone" were John Riggin, Wm. Charles and Orvill Mathews (the latter the late Commodore Mathews of the U.S. Navy), John Prather, Fred Benton, (later captain under Gen. Custer), Mr. Fullerton, (later a General, U.S.A.), Mr. Alfred Berenda and his brother, Mr. Ferd Garesche, Mr. Charles Kearney (son of Gen. Kearney), Mr. Edward Bredell, Jr., and a number of other young men of St. Louis.

Several of these men can be identified in Kennedy's 1860 St. Louis City Directory. Most interestingly, Edward Bredell, Jr. was the son of Edward Bredell, Sr., who was the president of the Missouri Glass Company. Bredell, Jr. worked for his father's company as a clerk, as did Merritt Griswold. Therefore, Bredell, Jr. and Griswold were not only members of the same baseball club but also co-workers.

According to Kennedy's Directory, John Riggin, Jr. worked for a real estate firm with his father, John Riggin, Sr. John G. Prather was employed with Daniel G. Taylor & Co., which sold wine and liquor. Ferdinand Garesche was a principle (along with John P. Norris) in the firm of Norris & Garesche who are listed as proprietors of the Western Spice Mills.

If one reads "Wm. Charles and Orvill Mathews" to mean "Wm. Charles Mathews and Orvill Mathews" then we can identify William Mathews, proprietor of Wm. Mathews & Co., as a member of the Cyclone Club. He is listed in the Directory as a commission merchant. There is no William Charles listed in the directory.

Fred Benton is Frederick William Benteen, who is listed in Kennedy's Directory as a painter. According to the Wyoming Tales and Trails website, Benteen was born in 1834, died in 1898, and retired from the United States Army as a brigadier general. It goes on to say that "At the beginning of the Civil War his family was living in St. Louis. As a result of the War, he was estranged from his father. At the beginning of the War, he announced his intention to enlist in Union forces. His father declared that he hoped his son would be killed by a Confederate bullet, preferable fired by a Benteen. Nevertheless, he enlisted. During the war he was responsible for the capture of a Confederate steamboat upon which his father was serving as an engineer. While other members of the crew were paroled, the elder Benteen remained imprisoned...His army career effectively ended upon a court martial for alleged drunkedness in which he was found guilty of three counts. Benteen, himself, felt himself a failure. " At the Battle of Little Big Horn, Benteen was in command of three companies and was wounded in the right hand.

Charles Kearny is listed in Kennedy's Directory as a clerk and according to the Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri was the son of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny and the husband of Annie Stewart.

Orvill Mathews is, of course, Edmund Orville Matthews and Mr. Fullerton is J.S. Fullerton.

Based on this research, I have to seriously back away from the ideas that I had concerning the influence of St. Louis' military community on the development of baseball in the city. Certainly Orville Matthews was an active duty naval officer at the time he was a member of the Cyclone Club and Jeremiah Fruin was in the army when he came to St. Louis. Benteen and Fullerton, however, did not join the army until the Civil War and there is no evidence, so far, of Kearny serving in the military.

Update: Griswold, in his letter to Spink, also mentioned a "Mr. Whitney" who worked for "Boatman's Savings Bank" and was the one who suggested the name "Cyclone" for the club. "Mr. Whitney" was Robert S. Whitney who worked as a teller at what was then called Boatman's Savings Institution.