These pistols were manufactured c. 1861-1863 and are both marked with the Feb. 19, 1861, patent date. Later Moore Derringers have the February 24, 1863, patent marking. This design was later manufactured by the National Arms Co. and then Colt after the purchase of the company in 1870. The first pistol has "MOORE'S PATENT FEB. 19 1861" hand inscribed on the top of the barrel, "15" on the breech face of the barrel and inside the hammer well on the left and right, "GEN A. DOUBLEDAY" inscribed amongst radiating lines over a cannon on the left side of the frame (a fitting design given Doubleday's service in the U.S. Artillery and his aiming the first Union artillery fire from Fort Sumter), and engraving mainly consisting of scroll patterns, floral designs along the barrel lug, a burst pattern on top ahead of the hammer, and checkering on the grip. The second pistol has "MOORE'S PATENT FEB 19. 1861" hand inscribed in an engraved banner along the top of the barrel, "7" on the breech face of the barrel, "18" inside the hammer well on the left and right, "Mary Doubleday" in light script on the left side above a floral patterns, more finely detailed interlaced scroll engraving accented by floral and shell designs, checkering along the grip inhabited by a floral motif on the back, and a detailed bird scene on top ahead of the hammer. The first pistol is inscribed to General Abner Doubleday, while the second is inscribed to Mary Doubleday, his wife. The General's pistol is featured in the "Monthly Bugle" from December 1971 in the article "General Abner Doubleday's Derringer" by Henry M. Stewart Jr. He indicates that this pistol was brought to light in January 1943 at a meeting of the Sportswriters of America in Philadelphia. The pistol was sold to Stewart by an elderly gentleman. Along with the pistol was the included small rosewood case with "AD" inscribed on the silver lid escutcheon. The case would have originally held other items rather than the pistol but appears to have been re-purposed by General Doubleday or his descendants to hold it. A document on Pennsylvania Antique Gun Collectors Association letterhead signed by Stewart and dated January 1943 is also included in which he writes, "Moore's Deringer, Serial #15, was given by General Doubleday to Morton Stell, friend of Mrs. Lincoln, who in turn presented it to the grandfather of W.E. Coles, from whom I secured the pistol." He also writes about Doubleday being "recognized as the inventor of baseball, as in 1839 he devised the standard diagram of bases and the positions of the players. The first game of record was played in that year at Coopertown, N.Y." The second pistol inscribed to Mary Doubleday was not with it at the time and was sold at auction in San Francisco in 2002. The pistols are also accompanied by a copy of "Major-General Abner Doubleday and Brevet Major-General John C. Robinson in the Civil War" by the New York Monuments Commission, a copy of the June 19, 1939, issue Newsweek with Doubleday on the cover which notes "Gen. Doubleday fathered baseball 100 years ago," other old articles about Doubleday and the origin of baseball, a portrait of Abner and Mary Doubleday from Brady's National Portrait Gallery marked "Dec., 1863" and "Doubleday" on the back, a framed portrait of General Doubleday, and a Union Metallic Cartridge Co. box of .41 rim fire ammunition with an illustration of a No.1 Derringer in the upper right of the blue top label. Abner Doubleday (1819-1893) was born in New York. His father, Ulysses F. Doubleday, was a veteran of the War of 1812 and was elected to Congress in 1831 and then again in 1835. That connection would have helped Abner Doubleday get into the United States Military Academy in 1838. Doubleday graduated in the middle of the class of 1842 and was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Artillery which makes the engraving on the frame of the pistol particularly relevant. He served in the Mexican-American War and then returned and married Mary (nee Hewitt) in 1852. She traveled with him for much of his career. That same year he served as commissioner to Mexico. He was stationed in Texas in 1854. In 1856-1858, he served during the Seminole Wars and was then transferred to Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor under Colonel John L. Garner. As the nation began tearing apart over the expansion of slavery, he was promoted to Captain of Company E of the 1st U.S. Artillery. Doubleday was a Republican and opposed slavery. Mrs. Doubleday was also there, and both of them grew frustrated with the Buchanan administration's handling of both the larger secession issue and the handling of the forts at Charleston Harbor. On December 11, 1860, she wrote to her sister complaining about the situation and noting, "In this weak little fort I suppose President Buchanan and Secretary Floyd intend the Southern Confederacy to be cemented with the blood of this brave little garrison. These names should be handed down to the end of time. When the last man is shot down, I presume they will think of sending troops. The soldiers here deserve great credit – they know what an unequal number is coming to massacre them, yet they are in good spirits and will fight desperately." This letter was soon published in The New York Evening Post with the author only noted as the wife of an officer at Fort Moultrie. Abner Doubleday also sent coded letters from the fort to his brother who got the messages to President-Elect Abraham Lincoln and others. As the situation grew more and more dire, Major Robert Anderson, then the commander of Fort Moultrie, had Doubleday take the first detachment of men from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on the night of December 26, 1860. The fort was not complete had had sparse provisions. The men had to scrap and burn the fort's furnishings to stay warm. Mary and Louisa Weir Seymour, per the New York Times, had themselves rowed over to Fort Sumter with some laborers to visit their husbands and smuggled with them some supplies, including a box of candles. Doubleday urged Anderson to return fire when the Star of the West was fired upon by cadets at the Citadel Academy in Charleston leading to the ship's captain abandoning his attempt to resupply the isolated fort, and an unnamed officer's wife attempted to fire a cannon herself but was prevented. When Confederate troops fired upon Fort Sumter itself on April 12, 1861, igniting the Civil War, Doubleday was reportedly sleeping near where the first shot struck and had the honor of aiming the first return shot fired by the Union artillery at Fort Sumter. Per the National Park Service, the 32-pound shot he aimed hit the Confederate Iron Battery on Cummings Point and bounced off the roof. With the outbreak of war, his brothers Ulysses and Thomas also volunteered for service in the 4th New York Heavy Artillery, and Ulysses was later a lieutenant colonel of the 3rd U.S. Colored Infantry and then colonel of the 4th U.S. Colored Troops. After the fall of Fort Sumter, Doubleday was promoted to Major, placed in command of the artillery in the Shenandoah Valley and then the artillery of Major General Nathaniel Bank's division of the Army of the Potomac. He was promoted again to Brigadier General of Volunteers on February 3, 1862, and led the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the III Corps of the Army of Virginia during the Second Bull Run Campaign, and helped hold the Union line at the Second Battle of Bull Run but were then routed by Major General Longstreet. After Brigadier Generals Rufus King and John P. Hatch were incapacitated, Doubleday took command of the division and covered the Union retreat at the end of the battle. At the bloody Battle of Antietam, Doubleday commanded his men in the Cornfield and West Woods and was wounded when he was thrown from his horse after a near miss from an artillery shell. He was then brevetted to Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and then also promoted to major general of volunteers. He took command of the 3rd Division of the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac and was held in reserve at Chancellorsville. At the historic Battle of Gettysburg, Doubleday's men were the second division to reinforce General John Buford's cavalry division and took command of the I Corps after Major John F. Reynolds was killed early in the battle and held the line with 9,500 men against nearly twice as many Confederates for five hours before retreating back to Cemetery Hill after suffering heavy losses. Meade replaced him with Major General John Newton, and he was placed back in command of a division and was wounded in the neck on the second day of the battle. During Pickett's Charge, his men fired on the Confederates from Cemetery Ridge. He received a brevet promotion to Colonel in the U.S. Army. After being denied command of the I Corps, he returned to Washington where he participated in the defense of the capital and other administrative duties and got the opportunity to testify against Meade at the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. He also spent time with President Abraham Lincoln and his family, including accompanying Lincoln to Gettysburg for the Gettysburg Address. After the war, he remained with the U.S. Army and served as Colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry in San Francisco and later the 24th U.S. Infantry in Texas before retiring in 1873. He also patented a design for a cable car system in San Francisco in 1871. In retirement, he published two volumes on his service in the Civil War and was connected to several businesses. He died on January 26, 1893 of "Bright's disease" and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His brother Ulysses died just a few days after attending the funeral. Abner Doubleday's obituaries recalled him as "an illustrious and gallant fighter" and noted his role firing the first Union gun at Fort Sumter. There was no talk of Doubleday and baseball, just his leadership of men on the battlefield. The Mills Commission in 1907 claimed that Doubleday invented the game of baseball in 1839 based on an unsupported claim by Abner Graves who wrote that Doubleday had invented to sport in Elihu Phinney's pasture in Cooperstown, New York, around 1839. Graves had suggested the first game was played in 1839-1841 and that he had been a participant in the game. He would have been a young boy at the time and has since also been shown to have made false claims about working for the Pony Express. He later shot and killed his wife and was found insane. The commission from the start wanted to find an origin of the game in America rather than the game evolving from the similar and much older game of rounders from the British Isles, and this story fit their needs just fine, especially given the late General had been a Union hero during the Civil War. Some of the commissioners also had ties to Doubleday, and he was dead by the time and thus could not contradict the story. Doubleday himself had not claimed to have invented the game. The story has since been classed as a myth. In 1839, he would have been away studying at West Point, and his family had already left Cooperstown. Baseball itself clearly originated from the British game rounders and other stick and ball games which had been played in America since before the nation's founding. Baseball as a formal game similar to the modern sport began emerging in the 1840s in New York City, but other parts of the Northeast also had their own variations of "town ball" early on. The New York version and the Massachusetts version were the most popular in the 1840s and 1850s before the New York version became the standard form of baseball for the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1857. Soldiers on both sides of the Civil War are known to have played baseball in camp and even as prisoners of war to pass the time, but the sport was far more popular in the North. Despite the evidence to the contrary, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was built in Cooperstown in 1937 and Doubleday Field is still proclaimed the "Birthplace of Baseball." Doubleday has long been more famous for his mythical role as the "Father of Baseball" than for his real devotion and service to his country during the Civil War which is a shame given the important positions he played in winning the ultimate game against the Confederacy. He returned the first "ball" back at the Confederates from Fort Sumter as the war began and remained with the U.S. Army until 1873.

Excellent. The engraving and inscriptions remain crisp. The barrel retains 90% plus of the original high polish blue finish and has gray patina and some very slight flash pitting on the bright muzzle. The front sight is absent. The hammer retains the vast majority of the original niter blue. The frame displays 95% plus of the original gold gilt finish and has crisp checkering and minimal light wear such as a rubbed spot on the cannon. Mechanically excellent. The case is very fine and has mild age and storage related wear including attractive aged patina on the lid escutcheon. The opened picture box of ammunition is fine with a full set of ammunition, distinct labels, and mild age and storage related wear. This is a truly one-of-a-kind, historic set of Derringers presented to the well-known Civil War hero General Doubleday and his wife. He is a true Union hero but is more well-known in history as the "Father of Baseball."

As described in "A."

Fine. The engraving remains crisp, and the frame retains nearly all of the gilt finish. The barrel has been cleaned and displays a gray-brown patina, some light pitting, and generally minor wear. Mechanically excellent. This is an incredibly rare and historic pair of Moore Patent Derringers. Very few of these distinctive pocket pistols featured such deluxe treatment and inscriptions to a couple who played an important role in the American Civil War make them truly special.