This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star

and the American people, coming to you from

the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Baseball evolved from bat and ball games

brought to the new country during the 17th and early 18th centuries. From the late 1850s

throughout the 1860s, baseball exploded in popularity and became, as

Walt Whitman famously said, our game, America's game with the snap go fling of the American

atmosphere. Here to tell another story is Ashley Lubinsky. Take it away, Ashley.

When you look back in time, there are some things that you expect to see on a battlefield,

and there are some things you don't.

So obviously you will see cannonballs and other types of ammunition and weapons.

And especially during the American Civil War,

you find letters and photographs, photography

was an incredibly important part of documenting the war.

And you would find things like pieces of uniform

and other items from camps.

But something you may not think about would be a baseball.

But on the fields of the Battle of Shiloh, which was one of the bloodiest early clashes

of the American Civil War, that's exactly what was found.

A small hand-stitched ball that was worn, weathered, and carried a simple inscription.

Picked up on the Battle of Shiloh.

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