Military officer; born in
London,
England, Feb. 24, 1811.
His family came to the
United States when he was a young child, and settled first in
Philadelphia and afterwards (1825) in
Illinois.
Young
Baker chose the law for a vacation, and entered upon its practice in
Green county, Ill. In 1837, while residing in
Springfield, he was elected to the legislature.
he was a State
Senator in 1840-44, and then a member of Congress until the beginning of war with Nexico.
In that war (1846-47) he served as colonel of
Illinois volunteers, and was again elected to Congress in 1848.
He settled in
California in
[
250]
1852, where he became distinguished in his profession, and as and orator in the ranks of the
Republican party (q. v.). In 1859 he removed to
Oregon, where he was elected
United States Senator in 1860.
He was in that service at the outbreak of the
Civil War, when he raised a body of troops in New York and
Philadelphia.
Those of
Pennsylvania were called the “1st California Regiment.”
Declining to be appointed general, he went into the field as colonel at the head of his regiment.
While fighting at Ball's Bluff, in
Virginia, he was shot dead, Oct. 21, 1861.
See
Ball's Bluff, battle of. 
