Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/314

292 Carolina. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, Confederate States cavalry, to date from March 16, 1861, and on May 8th was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth North Carolina regiment, afterward known as the First North Carolina cavalry. With this command he joined the cavalry brigade of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, in 1861, and on March 1, 1862, he was promoted colonel of his regiment. During the opening of the Seven Days battles which followed, he served upon the right wing of the army, and on June 2pth commanded the Confederate cavalry in the affair on the Charles City road, which was, in fact, a reconnoissance in which the Federal cavalry were driven back until reinforced by heavy bodies of infantry, when Colonel Baker was compelled to retire. After this campaign the cavalry division was organized and Colonel Baker and his regiment were assigned to the brigade of Gen. Wade Hampton. With the active and heroic work of this brigade through the campaigns of Manassas and Sharpsburg, Colonel Baker was gallantly identified. He fought with his regiment at Frederick City, Md., and in defense of the South Mountain passes; took part in the battle of Sharpsburg, and subsequently skirmished with the enemy at Williamsport. During the many cavalry affairs that preceded and followed the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, he rendered valuable service. Particularly at the battle of Fleetwood Hill, preceding the movement into Pennsylvania, he displayed his soldierly qualities. Here, on June 9, 1863, in command of his regiment and supported by the Jeff Davis legion, he charged upon the enemy, and after what may truly be said to have been in point of the number of men who crossed sabers, the most important hand-to-hand contest of cavalry in the war, drove the Federals from their position. At Upperville he was again distinguished, and it was to his regiment that Hampton turned in the moment of greatest peril, draw ing his saber and crying, &quot;First North Carolina, follow