1860 Potomac, Washington DC
This rendering is based on visual documentation for uniform style and written documentation for color. Important details may be undocumented or difficult to determine. An educated guess is made to complete the rendering.
Rendering accuracy:Year: documented Team: documented
Examining a murky baseball image from the Washington Ellipse, 1860.
Photo A
Collector ‘George M’ recently sent me the baseball picture above. This important image may be unknown to some in the baseball community — it certainly was to me — so I thought I’d pass it along.
“I traded a very rare 1860s Philadelphia cricket CDV for it,” said George of his newly acquired stereographic image. “It’s in rough shape,” he admitted, “but you can still make out some great details.” George also pointed out that the inscription on the reverse described the scene.
Left, full view of the reverse of photo A. Right, a detail view. The inscription reads, “Taken after [a] match game between the Potomac Base Ball Club of Washington and Excelsior Club of Balt in which the latter were successful.” The inscription was signed “Wm F Clayton.”
Here’s a closer view of the scene, sharpened and with the sepia tone removed.
You can see that the members of both clubs stood in alternating positions on the field, proudly holding their handcrafted bats. Clearly this is a pre-1865 photo. Included in the picture were many spectators at right, a few youngsters and a scorer or two. In the distance, beyond the tree-line at far right, you can barely see the windows of a house.
What do we know about Potomac and Excelsior?
Both clubs began in 1859. The Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser on July 12, 1859, said that “young men residing mostly in the western section of the city have formed an association known as the Excelsior Base Ball Club,” with membership “consisting almost entirely of young merchants.” The Washington Evening Star on November 4, 1859, announced the formation of the Potomac Club with 21 members.
Baltimore baseball historian James H. Bready noted that in the spring of 1860, “the pride of Washington challenged the pride of Baltimore to a game.” The match took place on June 6, 1860, in Washington. Bready claimed the contest “was the first intercity baseball game in U.S. history” outside of those played in the New York city area. Though researchers today have found other earlier intercity games taking place (see footnote), Potomac-Excelsior may have been the first such contest south of Philadelphia.
Here’s an ad for the game published in the Washington Evening Star, June 4, 1860. Note that the Potomac grounds were located “south of the President’s House,” an open area we know today as the Ellipse.
Excelsior won the game 40 to 24, which agrees with the inscription on the back of the stereograph, a point in our favor. Porter’s Spirit of the Times called the contest “the pioneer game of the South” and “notwithstanding its large number of runs, a creditable display for both clubs.” The newspaper also noted that “Hazlett, who played first base [for Excelsior] was severely hurt in the third inning by a spike from one of the Potomac.” Baseball was baseball, even back then.
So, how can we confirm THIS image is of THAT game?
Let’s start with the uniforms, of course. Here’s a closer look at the image.
Detail view of photo A. The uniforms the players wore in this photo seem to agree with a newspaper account of the game. The Baltimore Daily Exchange on June 8, 1860, said that “at half-past twelve o’clock the colors of the respective Clubs were run up. The Excelsior players were dressed in blue flannel pants, white flannel shirt and gray caps; and the Potomac players in full gray flannel suits.” To see more on the Excelsior uniform, click here.
If the back of the photo tells us the teams and the uniforms on the front seemingly corroborate, then we now know this is a rare view of the first baseball grounds in Washington.
The Ellipse.
Isometric view of the President’s House, 1857, with the open area of the Ellipse at lower left. Note the row of trees between the field and the mansion, possibly similar to those in photo A.
The Baltimore Daily Exchange on June 8, 1860, described the Potomac grounds at the Ellipse: “The play-ground is elegantly situated in the rear of the President’s house, there being plenty of room and a clear field.” The New York Clipper said that “the grounds are finely located near the White House, and are quite extensive and very suitable for the purpose.”
The poor quality of the image makes it hard to determine — but I wonder, was the house in the background the President’s mansion?
Left, detail view of photo A. Right, detail view of The White House, Washington, circa 1860, by Valentin Foulquier (1822-1896).
Catching flies.
The Baltimore Daily Exchange also noted that the field at the Ellipse was too soft for baseball, and “consequently the ball did not bounce well, which made it necessary to do the fielding on the fly.”
Historian Brian McKenna has found that the New York Clipper, when reviewing the box score, offered some advice: “There were twenty-nine catches made on the bound, and only twelve on the fly. The clubs should, on practice days, play entirely on the fly, and in matches only take those balls on the bound that cannot possibly be taken in any other way. The Potomac ground is not hard enough for the ball to rebound well, and it is as well that it is so, for it will force them into the fly game.”
So not only was this the “pioneer game of the South” and an early example of an intercity match, it may also be the very moment when baseball in the Capitol was transitioning to the fly game. The Spirit of the Times noted that “both clubs […] have done much toward introducing the New York game in the South.”
The box score from the Baltimore Daily Exchange, June 8, 1860. It listed outs made (H.L. or hands lost), runs made, and fielding outs recorded by fly, bound or at base. According to McKenna, this was the first-ever box score published in Baltimore. The Baltimore Sun on June 7 published only a game report, stating that the Excelsiors won “by sixteen rounds,” rounds meaning runs. Baseball history tells us this was the only time these two teams met.
The game ball, of course, became the trophy, presented to the Excelsiors after the match by Potomac catcher and captain Smedbery with “neat and appropriate remarks.” On July 11, 1860, the Baltimore Daily Exchange noted that “the Excelsior Base Ball Club […] have had the prize ball which their skill won from the Potomac Club, of Washington City, in June last, gilded, and it is now on exhibition at the jewelry store of Messrs. Wm. Brown & Co., corner of Baltimore and Charles streets.”
Can we further confirm THIS photo is of THAT game?
What can Wm F Clayton, the photo’s inscriber, tell us?
Unfortunately, the directories from 1860 showed no William F. Clayton living in either city. A dead end? I turned to genealogist Bob Barrier, who found only one person with that name in the 1860 census in either city, a 16-year-old boy living in Washington.
The Clayton family in the 1860 U.S. Census, living in Washington’s First Ward. William’s father (Philip Augustine Clayton, 1815-1877) was listed as a Georgian-born lawyer. Our William (William Force Clayton, 1843-1918) was one of eight children at home on census day, June 1 — yes, only a few days before the Potomac-Excelsior match!
While the census tells us a lot, it doesn’t tell us that Philip was also the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury in the cabinet of James Buchanan, a position he was appointed to in March 1857 and held until as late as December 1860.
Left, a portrait of William F. Clayton later in life. Right, Clayton’s obituary from The State, Florence SC, September 5, 1918.
A 1908 biography recalled that William “spent most of his boyhood at Washington, District of Columbia, attending the Union Academy, the Rugby Academy, and other preparatory schools.” One could guess he also spent some time watching baseball within view of the President’s house, where his father certainly conferred with other cabinet members on the events of the day.
And knowing that young William was in Washington between circa 1857 and late 1860 further suggests that photo A was indeed what William said it was — the “match game” between Potomac and Excelsior, one he undoubtedly witnessed. I envision William as a sport-obsessed teen in the summer of 1860, one swept up in the phenomenon of baseball. And one who somehow convinced his father to purchase a pricy stereographic image, a keepsake William possibly held for many years after.
Afterword.
Of course, the Civil War disrupted the phenomenon of baseball. The Claytons returned to Georgia, Philip as Assistant Treasury Secretary for the Confederacy and son William serving in the Confederate Navy between October 1861 and May 1865, when he surrendered to Union forces. All were later pardoned by Andrew Johnson.
McKenna notes that the Potomac club quickly “faded away” at the start of the war, and that another Washington team, the Nationals, soon “adopted the Ellipse as their home field.” In Baltimore, Excelsior, too, faded, merging in August 1861 with Waverly of Baltimore to form Pastime of Baltimore.
The Ellipse today, on the grounds where the Potomac and Excelsior clubs once played. Over 160 years later, we have only a digital paper trail, a murky stereograph and our imaginations to bring this important baseball moment back to life.
Thank you for your time. — Craig
–Information on Baltimore baseball from James H. Bready, Baseball in Baltimore, The First 100 Years (1998) and Brian McKenna, Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858-1872. Newspaper accounts from Porter’s Spirit of the Times, June 16, 1860, and the New York Clipper, June 23, 1860, via protoball.org. Newspaper dates from Bob Tholkes. Regarding the claim by Bready that the 1860 Potomac-Excelsior match was the first intercity game outside New York city, Tholkes adds that earlier such games first took place in 1858, including Batavia NY v. Alexander NY in July 1858; Downer’s Grove, IL, at Union of Chicago on July 7, 1858; Niagara of Buffalo at Flour City of Rochester on September 3, 1858; and Portland ME at Tri-Mountain of Boston on September 9, 1858. The 1857 White House isometric view from whitehousehistory.org. Circa 1860 White House rendering by Foulquier from wikimedia.org. Info on Phillip Clayton as Assistant Secretary appointee from the Washington Evening Star, March 14, 1857, and as Confederate Secretary from the University of Georgia, Clayton Family Papers. Portrait of William Clayton from findagrave.com, retrieved March 5, 2025. Biography of William Clayton from J. G. Hemphill, Men of Mark in South Carolina, Ideals of American Life, Volume II (1908). Info on William Clayton in the Confederate Navy from the Registers of Officers of the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865 (1931). Contemporary Ellipse photo from google.com/maps, retrieved March 5, 2025.
Written documentation on this uniform:
June 6, 1860, Potomac, Washington DC, v. Excelsior, Baltimore, at Washington, White lot: “The play-ground is elegantly situated in the rear of the president’s house, there being plenty of room and a clear field. The sod, however, is soft, and consequently the ball did not bounce well, which made it necessary to do the feeling on the fly. At half-past twelve o’clock the colors of the respective Clubs were run up. The Excelsior players were dressed in blue flannel pants, white flannel shirt and gray caps; and the Potomac players in full gray flannel suits.” From the Baltimore Daily Exchange, June 8, 1860. Research from Brian McKenna, who added that “the occasion sparked the first box score to be printed in a Baltimore newspaper.”
September 11, 1860, Potomac, Washington DC, v. National, Washington DC, at Washington, Potomac Grounds, “situated south of the President’s House”: “The Nationals were dressed in deep blue pants and jackets and red belts, with jockey caps and chamois leather gaiters well clogged at the heel and ball; while the uniform of the Potomac consisted of a light gray dress of similar fashion in all respects.” From the Washington (DC) Evening Star, September 12, 1860. Research from Ed Morton.
Team genealogy:
Potomac, Washington DC, 1859-1860?
Potomac was formed in Washington DC in November 1859 and disbanded sometime after October 1860. Info from protoball.org.
Rendering posted: March 2, 2025
Diggers on this uniform: Bob Tholkes, Brian McKenna, Ed Morton,