Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/313

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CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
291

in which a large part of Hill’s division fell back through a mistake in conveying orders, General Anderson and his men nobly held their line, until he was struck by a ball in his foot near the ankle, which brought him to the ground. It was a most painful injury, and he suffered great agony in being carried to Richmond and thence to Raleigh, where finally an amputation was made. He sank under the operation, and died on the morning of October 16, 1862. He was a man of spotless purity of life, integrity and honor, as well as dauntless courage. His ennobling influence upon the North Carolina soldiery can hardly be overestimated.

Brigadier-General Lawrence S. Baker, distinguished as a cavalry officer in the service of the Confederate States, was born in Gates county, N. C., in May, 1830. His family is an old and honorable one, founded in America by Lawrence Baker, who came to Virginia from England early in the seventeenth century and became a member of the house of burgesses. His descendant, Gen. Lawrence Baker, of North Carolina, was a leader in the movement for independence, served in the Revolutionary war, and was one of the two representatives of North Carolina in the Continental Congress. His son, John B. Baker, M. D., father of Gen. L. S. Baker, was a well-known physician and prominent citizen of North Carolina, in the legislature of which he sat as a member from Gates county. General Baker received his early education in his native State and at Norfolk academy, and then entered the United States military academy at West Point, where he was graduated in the class of 1851. At his graduation he was promoted second lieutenant of the Third cavalry, and by meritorious and gallant service he had passed the grade of first lieutenant, and had been promoted captain, when he resigned after his State had announced its adherence to the Confederacy, in order that he might tender his services for the defense of North