Remarkable Letter from Yale Classmate to First Defender Recalling Afternoons of Playing America's Pastime in the Earliest Days

“The ruder game of ball your are now playing will not soon efface from your memory the many jovial afternoons we spent at base ball; and all the glorious recollections which cling to this old seat of learning,... Old fellow in this game may you not play at ‘short -stop’....”

YALE UNIVERSITY, CIVIL WAR, BASEBALL. ANTHONY HIGGINS, Print of Autograph Letter Signed, to Heber S. Thompson. 2 pp., 8.125" x 11.5," very good. Gilded edges on three sides of pages. Includes published image of Anthony Higgins on same sized paper.

Complete Transcript:

Dear Thomas-

            Away there on the Potomac you must be now realizing what as yet is fact to most of us only for the future, that College life is over, and that it is the grandest, best place that God ever blest a man to get into. The ruder game of ball your are now playing will not soon efface from your memory the many jovial afternoons we spent at base ball; and all the glorious recollections which cling to this old seat of learning, to those who were our friends at that age when of all ages, friendship is most dear, will not soon pass from memory. The class is justly proud of the man who gave up all to fly to the protection of the Capital of its country, and will doubtless watch with [interest? those who along with you uphold its honor in the glorious work of preserving our nationality. Old fellow in this game may you not play at “short -stop” and my prayer is that you may be blessed at the end of a glorious life to tell your children around you, how in rushing to the rescue of your country you bid good bye to that institution and those noble companions who have done more than anything else, except your own right arm to make you what you are.

            God bless you.

                                                                        Your friend and classmate

                                                                        Anthony Higgins

Natus [Born Oct 1st 1840

St. Georges Del.

Following President Abraham Lincoln’s first call for volunteers in April 1861, the men of the Ringgold Light Artillery, National Light Infantry, Washington Artillery, Logan Guards, and Allen Infantry, left Pennsylvania for Washington, D.C. They became known as the First Defenders and were the first volunteer troops to reach Washington after the start of the war.

Heber S. Thompson, a graduating senior at Yale University, left school and mustered in on April 18, 1861 as a private in Company H of the “Washington Artillerists.” This letter is part of an album created by his fellow students from Yale’s class of 1861 for Thompson. The class had 99 members, though a dozen were from below the Mason-Dixon line. Most of those, however, were from Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky, with only two from Mississippi and one from Texas.

Anthony Higgins (1840-1912) was born in Delaware, attended Delaware College, and graduated from Yale University in 1861. He studied law at Harvard Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1864. He also served in the summer of 1864 in Company B of the 7th Delaware militia, protecting railroads around Washington and Baltimore from Confederate raiders. He opened a law practice in Wilmington, Delaware, and was the U.S. Attorney for Delaware from 1869 to 1876. He was elected to the U.S. Senate and served from 1889 to 1895. After running unsuccessfully for reelection, he resumed the practice of law in Wilmington. He died in New York City.

Heber S. Thompson (1840-1911) was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from Yale University in 1861. When the Civil War erupted, he rushed to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where he joined the First Defenders as a private in mid-April, 1861, to defend Washington, D.C. He later served as a first lieutenant and captain in the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry. From August to December 1864, he was a prisoner at a hospital a few miles from Charleston, South Carolina, until he was paroled and exchanged. In 1866, he married Sara Eliza Beck, and they had five children. In 1871, he received an A.M. from Yale. He was president of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. and worked as a civil engineer. He wrote a book about the First Defenders in 1910, and the diary that he kept while a prisoner in 1864 has been published.

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