Edward Dickinson Baker (24 February 1811 – 24 October 1861) was a member of the US House of Representatives (W-IL 7) from 4 March 1845 to 15 January 1847 (succeeding John J. Hardin and preceding John Henry) and from IL 6 from 4 March 1849 to 3 March 1851 (succeeding Thomas J. Turner and preceding Thompson Campbell), and a US Senator (R) from 2 October 1860 to 21 October 1861 (succeeding Delazon Smith and preceding Benjamin Stark). He served as a Colonel in the US Army during the American Civil War, and he was killed at the Battle of Ball's Bluff, becoming the only sitting US Senator to be killed in battle.
Biography[]
Edward Dickinson Baker was born in London, England in 1811 to a family of Quakers, and his family immigrated to the United States in 1816, settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became a lawyer in Carrollton, Illinois in 1830, and he became a Protestant minister. He served in both houses of the state legislature and became a friend of Abraham Lincoln, defeating Lincoln in an 1844 run for the US House of Representatives. He went on to serve from 1845 to 1847, when he briefly left politics to serve in the Mexican-American War, and he returned to the House from 1849 to 1851. After Baker did not gain a cabinet position under President Zachary Taylor, he moved to San Francisco, California, where he operated a successful law practice. In 1855, he ran for the State Senate as a Whig, but he lost due to the collapse of his party. Frustrated by his failure to win a House seat in 1859, Baker moved to Oregon, and he was appointed to the US Senate in 1860.
American Civil War[]
Baker's death
Baker was opposed to governmental interference with slavery in the American South, but he was even more opposed to the expansion of slavery and the idea of secession. After the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Baker decided to take up arms himself, and he was given command of a brigade as a Colonel. In October 1861, he tried to reinforce the Union forces who were attacking what was supposed to be an unguarded Confederate camp at Ball's Bluff, and, before the battle, he told Brigadier-General Isaac J. Wistar that, "The officer who dies with his men will never be harshly judged." During the battle, he was struck by a volley of bullets in his heart and in his brain, killing him.
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