Otto Botticher

Directories from the 1850s list him as a partner with Charles Gildemeister, then with Thomas Benecke, in portrait painting and lithography businesses located on Broadway in New York City.

He was captured by Confederate troops on March 29, 1862, and imprisoned at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, and then at Salisbury, North Carolina.

[1] Botticher was imprisoned at the Confederate military prison at Salisbury, North Carolina during the spring and summer of 1862.

Prisoners were permitted to engage in recreational activities such as baseball, as depicted in this image created by Botticher.

[2] The setting for this drawing is significant, as the spread of baseball’s popularity from the North to the rest of the country occurred during the Civil War.