Michigan in the Civil War

Browse by Name: Baird, William E.

Baird family.

This collections is available online.

The papers of the family of Henry Baird and his son William Baird, of East China Township, St. Clair County, Mich. contains correspondence of several family members who served in the Civil War, including brothers William Baird (Company C, 6th Michigan Cavalry and later Company K, 23rd U.S. Colored Infantry) and Henry C. Baird (Company L, 7th Michigan Cavalry), cousins William E. Baird (Company E, 22nd Michigan Infantry) and Frederick Diem (Company C, 6th Michigan Cavalry); other family correspondence of the Civil War era, and a reminiscence by William Baird of his family history and Civil War experiences.

William Baird's reminiscence includes an account of his parentage, life on a farm in St. Clair County, early schooling and teaching experiences, and his experiences in the Civil War. He enlisted in Company C, 6th Michigan Cavalry in 1862, and was in winter camp in Washington. The highlights of his journal are the battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded; studying in a Philadelphia hospital to become a commissioned officer; the granting of his commission through the help of Representative Francis W. Kellogg, and his assignment as first lieutenant to Company K, 23rd U. S. Colored Infantry. This regiment took part in the battle of the Wilderness and the battle of the Crater before Petersburg, where many of its members were captured and imprisoned in Columbia, S.C., escaping when Sherman's army liberated the city. After the war Baird became a teacher, attended the University of Michigan Law School (1873-74), and later practiced law in Ann Arbor.

This collection is available on microfilm for interlibrary loan.