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Senator Edward Dickinson Baker

Edward D. Baker was a man of far-reaching experience, but like many other regimental commanders who populated the novice armies at this early stage of war, he lacked the requisite military experience to lead citizen-soldiers. As a former member of the California Regiment wrote years after the fact, the senator’s martial seasoning "was slight, when compared with that of the regular army officers." Edward Baker was born in London on February 24, 1811, to poor but educated parents who were members of the Society of Friends. When he was five-years-old, Edward and his family emigrated to Philadelphia where his father established a school. Apparently seeking a more enlightened existence, the Baker’s departed Philadelphia in 1825 bound for New Harmony, Indiana, an idealistic community founded along the Ohio River by British social reformer Robert Owen. Five years or so later they moved to Belleville, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. It was here that Edward attracted the attention of Governor Ninian Edwards who provided the young man full access to his well-stocked law library. Before long, however, the nomadic family packed its belongings and moved again, this time to the village of Carrollton, Illinois, about 60 miles north of Belleville, where Edward began reading law in the office of the town’s leading attorney. Shortly after his twentieth birthday Baker married Mary Ann Lee of Baltimore, Maryland.

Baker’s first taste of military action, other than some early militia training, was rather benign. In the spring of 1832, Black Hawk, the elderly chief of the Sac warriors, crossed the Mississippi River and entered northern Illinois where he attempted to reclaim land that he believed had been stolen from his people. Edward and a jobless young man named Abraham Lincoln were among the first to respond to Illinois Governor John Reynolds’ call for the state militia. Although he had volunteered for service as a private, Baker was immediately elected second lieutenant of his company followed 10 days later by promotion to first lieutenant. Edward’s command existed for about one month before it mustered out, apparently having never fired a shot in anger. Nevertheless, one of his biographers maintained that this brief and bloodless martial episode "improved the opportunity afforded of gratifying his [Baker’s] early predilection for martial pursuits." Later that summer, Baker and his family, which by now included four chil Senator Edward Dickinson Baker
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