Antedating of "baseball" (except Jane Austen)

[Joel S. Berson]

The Farmers' Cabinet [Amherst, New Hampshire], 2 Aug. 1861, page 3.
"Correspondence from the Second New Hampshire Regiment".
[Early American Newspapers]

Capt. Weston stood like a hero, and as shot and shell flew over our
heads, he kept his jokes going as though we were playing base ball.

antedates OED3 sense a. 1870-, except c1815 Austen.

[Serendipitously found; I did not search Early American Newspapers,
unproductive as that might be.]

Joel

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