Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Death of Col Edward D. Baker, at the Battle of Balls Bluff near Leesburg Va. Oct. 21st 1861.

In the early years of the war, when many on both sides of the conflict still assumed it would be a brief, print publishers quickly issued pictorial tributes to Union martyrs. This Currier &amp; Ives print honors Edward D. Baker, an Oregon senator, Union army officer, and close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln who died in the Battle of Balls Bluff, Virginia,(also known as the <a title="Battle of Leesburg" href="http://civilwar.picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/presentations-about-visual-media/prints/a_true_plan_of_the_battle_near_leesburg_va_fought_21st_oct_1861/i/88/" target="_self">Battle of Leesburg</a>) on October 21, 1861&mdash;a disastrous Union defeat.In the early years of the war, when many on both sides of the conflict still assumed it would be a brief, print publishers quickly issued pictorial tributes to Union martyrs. This Currier & Ives print honors Edward D. Baker, an Oregon senator, Union army officer, and close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln who died in the Battle of Balls Bluff, Virginia,(also known as the Battle of Leesburg) on October 21, 1861—a disastrous Union defeat.

Source: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Publisher: New York: Currier & Ives

Date: 1861