Major-General Abner Doubleday was born one of three sons to Ulysses and Hester Doubleday on June 26, 1819, in Ballston Spa, New York, and was schooled at Auburn and Cooperstown, New York. Doubleday planned a career in civil engineering, but in 1838 he was appointed to West Point. He graduated in 1842 with a commission in the artillery at Ballston Spa, New York, on 26 June 1819. He served in the Mexican and Seminole wars. As captain of the artillery, he was at Fort Sumter under Major Anderson and fired upon the Confederates the first Federal gun of the Civil War.

Doubleday served under Major-General Patterson in the Valley and, on 3 February 1862, was made brigadier-general of volunteers and placed in charge of the defenses of Washington. He had a brigade in the Third Corps, Army of Virginia, and afterward a division -- which he retained when the corps again became the First Corps, Army of the Potomac. In November 1862, he became major-general of volunteers.

Doubleday fought at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville. when Reynolds was killed on the field in Gettysburg, the command of the First Corps fell upon his shoulders for that day (1 July 1863), until he was succeeded by Major-General John Newton.

After being mustered out of the volunteer service, Doubleday served as colonel in the regular army until he retires in 1873. He had been brevetted brigadier and major-general in 1865.

Major-General Doubleday was the author of several important military works. He was the author of "Reminiscences of Fort Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-61," (1876); and "Chancellorsville and Gettysburg," (1882). A statue of him stands on the Battlefield at Gettysburg. He died 27 January 1893 at Mendham, New Jersey. His wife, Mary Hewitt Doubleday, who died in 1907, is buried with him.

Although controversy exists about Doubleday's status as the creator of baseball, a 1907 commission, investigating all sides of the issue, gives official credit to him.