148 Years Ago

by Timothy Sandefur

At the battle of Ball's Bluff near Leesburg, Virginia, in October 1861, more than 200 Union Army soldiers were killed-including one of California's most prominent lawyers. Edward D. Baker, the only U.S. senator ever killed in battle during his term in office, was born in England but came to America with his family to join the utopian commune of New Harmony, Indiana. When the commune collapsed, Baker's family moved to Illinois, where he was elected to the state legislature. He also befriended Abraham Lincoln, whose second son was Edward Baker's namesake.

After notable military service in the Mexican-American War, Baker moved to California and continued his success in politics, opposing the secessionist Democrats who briefly controlled the state Legislature. His 1859 eulogy of unionist Sen. David Broderick?killed in a duel by secessionist and former state Supreme Court Justice David S. Terry?was widely lauded. The next year Baker moved to the new state of Oregon and was quickly elected to the U.S. Senate. Months later, however, he joined the Civil War, leading the California Brigade. He died in the same battle in which future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was wounded. Baker is buried at the San Francisco National Cemetery.

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