Bibliography: Herringshaw, Thomas William. Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century, Chicago, IL:American Publishers' Association, 1902. p. 69 BAKER, EDWARD D., lawyer, soldier, congressman, was born Feb. 24, 1811, in London, England. He was brought to this country when a child, and was early left an orphan in Philadelphia. He became famous as an advocate in Illinois, to which state he emigrated in his nineteenth year. After serving in the Illinois legislature for two years, he resigned, and, in 1846, went to Mexico as a colonel of volunteers. He was a representative in congress from Illinois from 1849 to 1851, after which he took an active part in the building of the Panama railroad. In 1852 he settled in San Francisco, devoting himself to his profession; subsequently removed to Oregon, which state he represented as a senator in congress, taking his seat in March, 1861. At the outbreak of the rebellion, in 1861, he raised a body of men in Philadelphia, called the California regiment, and while gallantly leading them in battle at Leesburg, Va., against a superior force, was shot from his horse and killed, Oct. 21, 1861.