Background
Henry Baxter was born on September 8, 1821, in Sidney, Delaware County, New York. His parents were Levi and Lois (Johnson) Baxter. Both grandfathers were veterans of the Revolution.
Henry Baxter was born on September 8, 1821, in Sidney, Delaware County, New York. His parents were Levi and Lois (Johnson) Baxter. Both grandfathers were veterans of the Revolution.
In early life Henry Baxter was associated with his father in the keeping of a store and mill. He made a journey to California at the time of the gold fever. Before the Civil War he organized at his home in Michigan the Jonesville "Light Guards. " He entered the war as a captain, was commissioned colonel in 1862 and brigadier-general of volunteers in 1863, and was mustered out of the army in 1865 with the brevet of major-general of volunteers.
References to Baxter’s activities are numerous in the annals of the Army of the Potomac. At Gettysburg he commanded a brigade in Gen. Robinson's division, belonging to the 16t Corps, then temporarily under Gen. Abner Doubleday. In the first day of the battle he captured nearly all of the Confederate brigade commanded by Iverson. In the final campaigns of 1864-65 under Grant, his brigade formed part of the 5th Army Corps under Gen. Warren. He was desperately wounded at Antietam and again at Fredericksburg, and a third time at the Wilderness, where two horses were shot under him, but recovered in time to serve in the closing battle of Five Forks.
Baxter’s brevet cited his gallantry and services at the Wilderness, Dabney's Mill, and Five Forks. After the war he was register of deeds, and later United States minister to Honduras for three years from 1869 to 1872. His death occurred in his home at Jonesville, Michigan.
Henry Baxter was married in 1854 to Elvira E. George of Hillsdale County, Michigan.