Abel William Baker (1839 - 1864)

Born 19 Aug 1839 in Pulaski County, Kentucky

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Jane (Burton) Tarter — married 2 Feb 1859 in Jamestown, Fentress, Tennessee

Descendants

Died 29 Apr 1864 at age 24 in Andersonville, Macon County, Georgia, USA

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Abel William Baker
Died while a Prisoner of War

Biography

Private Abel Baker was a Prisoner of War during the United States Civil War.

Abel William Baker was born August 19, 1839 in Kentucky, the son of Thomas Baker and Lavica L. (McKinney) Baker. He was the brother of Mary A. (Baker) Webb, Catharine (Baker) Burton, Elizabeth (Baker) Denham, Ebenezer T. Baker, Sabra A. (Baker) Burton, Ellen C. (Baker) Burton, Isabella (Baker) Whitis, Sarah F. (Baker) Trimble, Martha Baker, Louisa (Baker) Myres, Martin H. Baker and Cyrus T. Baker. He married Sarah J. (Burton) Tarter on February 2, 1859 in Jamestown, Fentress, Tennessee. On October 8, 1861, he enlisted in the Kentucky Infantry in the Union Army. ^[1][2]

Private Abel Baker served in the United States Civil War.
Enlisted: October 8, 1861
Mustered out: 29 Apr 1864
Side: USA
Regiment(s): CO C 3RD KY INF

Private Abel Baker was assigned to Company C of the 3rd Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry with the rank of Private. ^[3][4]

Abel and his unit fought in the Siege of Corrinth, the Battle of Perryville and Stones River. They saw action at the Tullahoma Campiagn. Able fought bravely during the Battle of Chicamauga but was captured September 20, 1863.

Able was taken prisoner at Andersonville Civil War Prison Camp, infamous for its horrid conditions and lack of food for the overcrowded soldiers.

A prisoner of Andersonville described his initial impressions in his diary:

As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. "Can this be hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that He alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then.^[5]

Private Able Baker died due to diarrhea after 222 days as a POW at Andersonville Prison, Georgia. He is buried at Andersonville National Cemetery, Andersonville National Historic Site, Macon County, Georgia, USA^[6] It was told by Clayton Baker, "that Able ate flesh off his own arms to try to survive."^[7]

Andersonville Prisoner Profile

Code No: 10803

Grave No: 803

Last Name: BAKER

First Name: ABEL W.

Rank: PRIVATE

Company: C

Regiment: 3

State: KY

Branch of Service: INFANTRY

Date of Death: 4/29/1864

Cause of Death: DIARRHEA C.

Remarks: A. W. BAKER company C, 3rd KY CAVALRY

Reference: p 13 p 603 [432]

Place Captured: CHICKAMAUGA, GA

Date Captured: 9/20/1863

Alternate Names: ABLE BAKER

Status: DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE

More Information Available: YES

(Medical):filthy living conditions at andersonville prison Ga. POW ^{[8][9][10][11] [12]}

Note

The confederate officer in charge of Andersonville Prison, Henry Wirz, was hanged at 10:32 a.m. on November 10, 1865, at the Old Capitol Prison, by the U.S. Capitol after a military tribunal lasting from August 23 until October 18, 1865. Charges of "violation of the laws of war" were proven against him for his cruelty and inhumane torture of prisoners.^[13] Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt vilified Wirz and pronounced that, "his work of death seems to have been a saturnalia of enjoyment for the prisoner [Wirz], who amid these savage orgies evidenced such exultation and mingled with them such nameless blasphemy and ribald jest, as at times to exhibit him rather as a demon than a man."^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ NPS Soldier Detail, Able W. Baker
2. ↑ Civil War Archives, 3rd Regiment Kentucky Infantry
3. ↑ Family Search - Citing this Record "United States Civil War Soldiers Index, 1861-1865," index, FamilySearch, Able W. Baker, 1861-1865; citing military unit 3rd Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, Union Soldier, NARA microfilm publication M386, roll 2 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d); FHL microfilm 881493.
4. ↑ NPS Unit History, 3rd Kentucky infantry
5. ↑ Kellogg, Robert H. Life and Death in Rebel Prisons. Hartford, CT: L. Stebbins, 1865.
6. ↑ Archive.org - A list of the Union soldiers buried at Andersonville. Published 1866 by Tribune association in New York . pg 13
7. ↑ Dee Robinson
8. ↑ www.Civil War Prisoners.com - Civil War Prisoners BAKER, ABEL W.
9. ↑ Burial Register of Andersonville National Cemetery; circa 1908.
10. ↑ Headstones of Andersonville National Cemetery; March 1990.
11. ↑ List of Union Soldiers Buried at Andersonville; Dorence Atwater, 1865
12. ↑ Report of Adjutant General of Kentucky, Vol I
13. ↑ Wikipedia
14. ↑ Cloyd, Benjamin G.; Haunted by Atrocity: Civil War Prisons in American Memory; LSU Press, May 24, 2010

See Also

• Family Search - Citing this Record United States Census, 1860," index, FamilySearch , Abel Baker in household of Thomas Baker, District No 1, Pulaski, Kentucky, United States; citing "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," Fold3.com; p. 201, household ID 1304, NARA microfilm publication M653; FHL microfilm 803393.
• Georgia Encyclopedia.org - History & Archaeology Civil War & Reconstruction, 1861-1877 Andersonville Prison
• Find A Grave: Memorial #51150939 - Burial: Andersonville National Cemetery,Andersonville National Historic Site,Macon County,Georgia, USA Plot: , Row: 803