Private Joseph D. Baker, 57th Pennsylvania Volunteers, POW Gettysburg, Died at Andersonville, Civil War Archive Plus Ambrotype 

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• Lot Description
  28 letters, plus.
  
  This archive of 25 war-date letters from Private Joseph D. Baker of the 57th Pennsylvania Infantry focuses mostly on the Peninsula campaign. Also included is graphic battle content from Chancellorsville, a POW letter from the Belle Isle Confederate POW camp, and a ninth plate ambrotype identified as Baker. Post-war items include a photographic negative of the Sherfy House and Peach Orchard at Gettysburg, where Baker was captured; an 8 x 10 in. photo enlargement of the ambrotype, and a 1982 form confirming Baker’s unit, and place and date of death.
  
  Joseph D. Baker of Findley Township, PA, was a 22 year-old schoolteacher when he was mustered in on October 30, 1861, as a private in the 57th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. After fighting with the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula campaign through Chancellorsville, he was taken prisoner at the Sherfy House near the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg. He died in the notorious Andersonville Prison Camp, on May 12, 1864.
  
  Baker’s letters begin October 28, 1861, at Camp Curtin. He writes how the state failed to provide the men with clothes or food, forcing them to buy their own food or starve. In March 1962, the 57th was part of three divisions sent to Fortress Monroe in preparation for the Peninsular Campaign, where he saw the USS Monitor, just two weeks after its battle with the CSS Virginia.
  
  The campaign opens with the siege of Yorktown. Baker writes home about an early incident that happened at an adjacent regiment:
  
  The 83rd shot a soldier who was deserting from the rebel lines, but he lived long enough to tell them he was a Northern man and was pressed into Rebel service. He also gave them the address of his folks and said he did not blame them for shooting. Another rebel prisoner crows to his captors that you may take Yorktown, but you’ll never take Island No. 10 or Ft. Donaldson! This amused Baker greatly, as both Rebel strongholds had already fallen.
  
  He next writes from the battlefield at Williamsburg, where the 57th saw its first pitched battle: I slept on the battle field among the dead and it rained all night… Oh! To hear the groans of the wounded and the moaning of the wind through the trees.
  
  On May 19, 1862, Baker was at Cumberland Landing, just 22 miles from Richmond: I have seen all the fighting and all the bloodshed I wish for. The “Peach Orchard fight” and “Williamsburg battle” are sights I do not wish to see again, but if a fight must be, it must, and “I’m in,” for “the job must be did” and the war finished as soon as possible.
  
  Baker’s letter of July 3, 1862, is full of the names of local boys killed, wounded, and captured during the Seven Days: We had hard fighting and lost severely all round…Things are working finely, I think, for we have drawn the rebels out of their stronghold and they think we are skedaddling, but they are mistaken for once, and a few days will show them their mistake. The joke was on Baker, though. McClellan’s army stood idle for weeks before being recalled to Washington.
  
  On March 9, 1863, Baker strongly defends McClellan to his sister, saying that had Hooker and others obeyed orders, Richmond would now be ours. Baker also blames authorities at Washington tampering with Mac and his army for the defeat.
  
  On May 11, 1863, he mentions a slight touch on the left arm. He elaborates the next day, in a letter with graphic content of the battle of Chancellorsville:
  
  Lt Brady was shot dead at my side, Henry Owens had his brains blown all over me, Casper Lore was shot dead behind me & thanks to God I am well! O! Such fighting as the V Corps did at Chancellorsville has seldom been equaled. The “fixin” which struck me, went through my canteen & haversack & struck me on the left forearm, bruising it considerably and causing it to swell and get rather of a blue color, but it will be all right in a few days I hope.
  
  On June 10, 1863, the day before the regiment started on the Gettysburg campaign, he writes home. His sister had remarked how his photo made him look like a Sickles man, and Baker replies that that is what they are: Nearly all men wear “the moustache”.
  
  Baker was captured the second day of Gettysburg at the Sherfy House. Regimental histories show that about 55 men who were fighting from inside the house missed the order to retreat when their position was flanked, and were overrun by Barksdale’s Mississippians.
  
  Baker’s letters end with a letter he sent from Belle Isle POW camp, and includes a cover with an OLD FORT COMFORT VA postmark dated NOV 27, and a Due 6 mark. Written in pen across the front is From Belle Isle Prisoner.
  
  In part: I daily expected to be sent within our lines… Now, however, I know not when that will come to pass, so I will write on such material as my scanty means will permit. I was taken prisoner on the 2nd day of July in the heat of action about sundown. I am not wounded… I hope you are all well. Remember me in your prayers. Do not forget to answer this if it be so lucky as to reach you. No more for now. Your son, JD Baker.
  
  Sent first to Libby Prison in Richmond, he was transferred to Belle Isle POW camp and finally to Andersonville, where he died of disease on May 12, 1864. He is buried on the grounds at Andersonville, in Grave #1046. 
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