In memory eternal.

Edward Dickinson Baker, senator from the newly minted state of Oregon, was the first member of Congress to not only address the chamber in full military uniform, but to resign his seat to lead his regiment to war. He believed in Constitutional order; he loved the United States, and had served in the Mexican War. Sadly, his career in the Union Army did not last long, as he was killed less than three months later in the Battle of Ball's Bluff: "Lightly schooled in military tactics, Baker gamely led his 1,700-member brigade across the Potomac River 40 miles north of the capital, up the steep ridge known as Ball's Bluff, and into the range of waiting enemy guns. He died quickly—too soon to witness the stampede of his troops back over the 70-foot cliffs to the rock-studded river below. Nearly 1,000 were killed, wounded, or captured."

Colonel Baker was hardly the only intelligent man caught fatally by the change of war tactics in the Civil War. The Gatling gun, invented in 1861, came as something of a shock too, although it was not as commonly used in the war as I had been led to believe in history class.

I had heard that disease killed more men than either the Blue or the Grey, and that is correct. In fact, it's more lopsided than I thought. The National Park Service Civil War site lists these figures:

The 642,427 total Union casualties have been divided accordingly:

·         110,100 killed in battle

·         224,580 diseases

·         275,174 wounded in action

·         30,192 prisoners of war

The 483,026 total Confederate casualties have been divided accordingly:

·         94,000 killed in battle

·         164,000 diseases

·         194,026 wounded in action

·         31,000 prisoners of war

Baker was in the distinct minority, as the Union disease deaths were two to one over battle deaths.

In these Chinese Death Virus times, we remember that those who put on the uniform in war are resigned to the possibility that they will never take it off, whether by enemy action, accident, or illness. God bless them, and God rest the souls of our war dead.