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 York Volunteers took their Base Ball implements with their war accoutrements and camp equipage to the front, and then first introduced the game into Army and Navy. Of these volunteer troops, New York ball players were among the very first to enlist. That quality of manhood which made them good ball players also inspired them to respond promptly to President Lincoln's call for men. Naturally, their exodus from the Empire State made it difficult to keep the game going, as evidenced by the fact that over two-thirds of the organized clubs disbanded or ceased playing between the beginning and end of the war.

This wholesale disbandment of clubs at that era has sometimes been construed as indicating a waning interest in the game, and at that period there were many who voiced the sentiment that the sport was doomed. But the real cause of the trouble should have been recognized in the fact that the best ball players were born fighters, and hence ideal material for soldiers. There were many causes of discouragement to all forms of pleasurable pastime during those gloomy years, and Base Ball suffered perhaps more than any.

But though Base Ball languished at its New York birthplace, not so in Army and Navy. While the special duty of soldiers and sailors was to shoot and kill, little did the men of either army realize that what was to them simply a camp pastime would come to be in later year the national game of their country.

Although Base Ball was taken up by the volunteer soldiery as a simple camp diversion, all its player soon