William Henry Baldwin

By James Barnett

Originally published in Cincinnati CWRT Newsletter, March 1968

©Cincinnati CWRT, 2008

William Henry Baldwin, the grandson of Nahum Baldwin, Revolutionary War soldier, was born at New Sharon, Maine, in 1832. He was graduated from Union College, N. Y. in 1855 and the Harvard Law School in 1858. He then spent some time in Europe studying civil law at the Universities of Berlin and Munich. He then came to Cincinnati and began his law practice. He had just gotten started when the war for the unification of Italy flared up. He hurried to Europe and was one of the many foreign volunteers who served under Garibaldi. He fought in all the important engagements from Naples to Capri.

Learning of the outbreak of the American Civil War, he returned to Cincinnati and was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the 83rd Ohio Volunteers. He served with his regiment in engagements at Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post, Jackson, and Vicksburg. He took part in the Red River campaign and personally led the charge that captured a significant fort in the operations against Mobile. Baldwin scaled the Confederate works and demanded the surrender of the Confederate forces. Gen. Francis M. Cockerill, Confederate commander, asked to whom he was to surrender. Baldwin told him, "The Eighty-third Ohio!" "I believe we did that once before," Gen. Cockerill remarked. And it was true. The Eighty-third Ohio had accepted the surrender of Cockerill's Missouri brigade in July 1863 at Vicksburg.

Later Baldwin was brevetted Colonel and then Brigadier General for his meritorious service during the Civil War. He was mustered out of the volunteer service at Galveston, Texas, July 24, l865, and returned to Cincinnati. His wife was Isabella Butterfield, daughter of a prominent Cincinnati merchant, Jonas Butterfield.

Gen. Baldwin had been in two civil wars, one in Italy and another one in the United States, and apparently decided that this was enough for one lifetime. Therefore, he spent the remainder of his life as a Cincinnati attorney. He died at the age of 66 on June 11, 1898 in Norwood, Ohio, and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Spring Grove Cemetery burial card for William Baldwin (http://www.springgrove.org/sg/genealogy/stats/62073.tif.pdf).