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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Illinois / OregonEdward Dickinson BAKER
(1811-1861)
Senate Years of Service:
1860-1861Party: RepublicanBAKER, Edward Dickinson, a
Representative from Illinois and a Senator from Oregon; born in
London, England, February 24, 1811; immigrated to the United States
in 1815 with his parents, who settled in Philadelphia, Pa.; moved
to Illinois in 1825; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1830 and
commenced practice in Springfield; member, State house of
representatives 1837; member, State senate 1840-1844; elected as a
Whig to the Twenty-ninth Congress and served from March 4, 1845,
until his resignation on December 24, 1846, to take effect on
January 15, 1847; commissioned colonel of the Fourth Regiment,
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on July 4, 1846, and served until he
was honorably mustered out on May 29, 1847; participated in the
siege of Vera Cruz and commanded a brigade at Cerro Gordo; after
the Mexican War moved to Galena, Ill.; elected as a Whig to the
Thirty-first Congress (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1851); was not a
candidate for renomination in 1850; moved to San Francisco, Calif.,
in 1851 and resumed the practice of law; moved to Oregon in 1860;
elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the
vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1859, and served from
October 2, 1860, until his death; raised a regiment in New York
City and Philadelphia during the Civil War; commissioned brigadier
general of Volunteers May 17, 1861, but declined; colonel of the
Seventy-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and major
general of Volunteers 1861; killed in the Battle of Balls Bluff,
Va., October 21, 1861; interment in San Francisco National
Cemetery, San Francisco, Calif.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography; Blair, Harry, and Tarshis,
Rebecca. Colonel Edward D. Baker: Lincoln’s Constant
Ally. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1960; Braden, Gayle
Anderson. “The Public Career of Edward Dickinson
Baker.” Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1960.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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