Popular Sports of the 19th c:

Baseball game among Union Prisoners, Salisbury NC
(From National Archives website - click the picture to see the large version on the NARA website)

Articles / Resources On Other Sites, By Topic:

Baseball:

• Baseball, Civil War Style -- from 22nd Mass website
• Fort Ward Museum - CW baseball site 

Swimming / Sea Bathing:

• Alaina Zulli of Myrtle Avenue Clothiers does reproduction CW era bathing suits!
• Alaina's bibliography on research for bathing costumes
• The Early Seaside (has large version - click thumbnail - of 1864 Godey's pic of swimming costumes) (from Fashion-era.com)

Horseback Riding:

• History of Side-Saddles from the Sidesaddle Lady Museum (plus extra pictures of antique saddles & tack)
• Sidesaddle with slipper stirrup, ca. 1860-1890, from History Wired website
• History of Riding Habits, from the Sidesaddle Lady Museum
• Photo of young girl aside (Lady Beatrix Lambton, ca. 1865) (on boy's clothing history website)
• History of Sidesaddle, by Margaret Carter, on the Hoosier Ladies Aside website
• Female Riding Styles through History
• The Fair Lady Aside
• Hints on Equestrianism for the Fair Sex, Godey's 1849, by "a Noted Lady Equestrian" (Costumes.org website)

Croquet:

• A Brief History of Croquet
• Croquet: Lore and Legend
• Pall Mall & Croquet (tradgames.org)

Billiards:

• History of Billiards & Snooker (tradgames.org)

Battledore &  Shuttlecock

• History of battledore & shuttlecock (tradgames.org)
• Badminton website, showing 1790s painting of boy holding battledore & shuttlecock
• Poster of ca. 1770's painting of woman with battledore & shuttlecock
• ca. 1810-30 pink lustre tea set with famous Adam Buck print of Regency lady playing battledore & shuttlecock indoors with her child. (Starr Antiques website)

MORE TO COME!

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Period Sports:

• Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War, by George B. Kirsch. Princeton University Press, 2003
• When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1875, by William J. Ryczek
• Ladies Sports of the Era of the Hoop - Heidi Marsh
• Riding Habits of the Era of the Hoop -- Heidi Marsh
• Beadle's Dime Guide to Baseball (1862) - (Glenna Jo Cristen carries this)
• Beadles Dime Guide to Swimming (1860) - (Glenna Jo Cristen carries this)

(more to come)