Laurence Simmons Baker

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General Baker

Laurence Simmons Baker (born May 15, 1830 in Gates County , North Carolina , † April 10, 1907 in Suffolk , Virginia ) was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War and after the war railroad worker.

Life

Baker graduated from the Military Academy in West Point , New York in 1851 as the 42nd of his class and served the next 10 years in the US Army , most recently with the rank of captain . On May 10, 1861, after North Carolina had left the Union, he resigned and joined the Confederate Army on May 16 as a lieutenant colonel to be the first to set up a cavalry regiment. The regiment, of which Baker was second in command, was the 1st North Carolina Cavalry Regiment and was stationed in Richmond , Virginia on October 12, 1861 . On March 1, 1862, Commander Robert Ransom, Jr. was promoted to Brigadier General and Baker to Colonel. He led the regiment in the Seven Day Battle from June 25 to July 1, 1862.

He also led the regiment at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 11-15. December 1862 and at the Battle of Gettysburg on 1-3. July 1863, after which he was promoted to Brigadier General on July 23. Just a week later, on July 31, he was wounded several times while crossing the Rappahannock . On June 9, 1864, after a full recovery, he took command of North Carolina's 2nd Defense District. Towards the end of the war he was captured by the US Army and only released in May 1865.

After the end of the war, Baker worked as a farmer in North Carolina, and in 1878 became head of the railway station in Suffolk, Virginia, where he also died in 1907.

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