Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/765

Rh constitution that he was defeated at the next election. He continued to take part in the political campaigns, and held rank in the militia as a colonel. In 1860 he was one of the most ardent supporters of the Union, and opened the State campaign for Bell and Everett by a powerful speech at Richmond. In 1861 he sat in the State convention from Augusta county, and during the session had an interview with President Lincoln as a representative of the Union members. He returned greatly disappointed, and when it became certain that secession and war were inevitable he retired to his chamber and broke into tears. But when the ordinance had been ratified by the people he signed it, and with entire bravery took up the issue of the State. He accepted the office of inspector-general of the Virginia troops from Governor Letcher, and when these troops had been turned over to the Confederate States, he was commissioned colonel of the Fifty-second Virginia infantry. With this command he served in the West Virginia campaign until prostrated by a physical ailment which finally terminated his life. Before his recovery he was elected to the Confederate Congress, where he served with distinction during the continuance of the government, meanwhile, during the recesses of Congress, frequently being in active service as colonel of a home regiment of reserves. In May, 1865, he took an active part in a meeting at Staunton to advocate the restoration of peace and the preservation of order, and in the fall he was elected to the house of delegates, of which he served as speaker. In December, 1867, he was prominent in the great convention for organization against the "Underwood constitution," and there proposed a system of political organization that became of great efficiency. In 1868 he was president of the convention of the conservative party, and declined the nomination for governor in a speech which led a prominent journal to say that he had "reached the zenith of the confidence of the people of Virginia and stood before them almost without a peer." He was chairman of the Virginia delegation to the Democratic national convention of 1868, and in the winter following was one of the committee of nine which visited the United States Congress and secured concessions which resulted in the defeat of the objectionable clauses of the "Underwood constitution." Of this action it was said: "A few gentlemen who preferred the welfare of the State to their own popularity, organized a movement which saved their fellow citizens almost in spite of themselves." These political services were episodes in his life. As said of him by the Baltimore Sun, "He devoted his best energies to the restoration and re-establishment of his native State upon a sound basis, and the development of her varied interests." He was the father of the Augusta county fair, served faithfully as one of the board of visitors of the State university, and the extension of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad to the Ohio river may almost be said to be due to his efforts. The eminence which he might have attained in the future and happier years of the State, when it was free to honor its distinguished sons, may only be surmised.

Colonel Robert F. Baldwin was born at Winchester, August 29, 1829, the son of Dr. Archibald Stewart Baldwin (whose father was Dr. Cornelius Baldwin), who practiced medicine for fifty years at Winchester, his native place, was eminent in his profession, and a gentleman of the old school. Robert F. Baldwin was educated for