Charles Baker (Medal of Honor)

Charles Baker, also officially recorded as Henry Baker, was born in 1809 in Georgetown, District of Columbia. He later entered the United States Navy from New York, New York, beginning the naval career that would place him in one of the most famous battles of the American Civil War. During his wartime service he held the enlisted rating of Quarter Gunner and served aboard the steam gunboat USS Metacomet. Naval History and Heritage Command The name discrepancy surrounding Baker is important to preserve rather than silently resolve. The U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command identifies him as Henry (Charles) Baker and states that the Medal of Honor itself bears the name Henry Baker, while his tombstone identifies him as Charles Baker. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society and the Department of Veterans Affairs use Charles Baker in their modern records. For the project profile, therefore, Charles Baker can remain the display name, while Henry Baker should be preserved as an official alternate/service-record name. Naval History and Heritage Command As a Quarter Gunner, Baker belonged to the ship's enlisted gunnery establishment. Such sailors helped maintain and prepare naval weapons and ammunition and supported the disciplined operation of a warship's battery. Yet the action for which Baker received the Medal of Honor did not take place at one of Metacomet's guns. Instead, his defining act of courage came during an extraordinarily dangerous rescue operation under enemy fire. By the summer of 1864, Mobile Bay, Alabama, remained an important Confederate naval position on the Gulf Coast. Its entrance was protected by Fort Morgan, other defensive works, Confederate warships, and underwater mines then commonly called torpedoes. Rear Admiral David G. Farragut assembled a powerful Union fleet to force its way into the bay and defeat the remaining Confederate naval resistance. Naval History and Heritage Command On the morning of 5 August 1864, Farragut's fleet began moving past the Confederate defenses. USS Metacomet was initially paired with Farragut's flagship, USS Hartford, as part of the column of wooden warships. Four Union ironclads moved nearer the fortifications, including the monitor USS Tecumseh. Naval History and Heritage Command The battle changed dramatically when Tecumseh struck an underwater Confederate mine. The explosion opened the monitor's hull and the ship sank with extraordinary speed. Naval History and Heritage Command records that most of her crew went down with her; only a small number escaped into the water. The sinking occurred while the Union fleet was still exposed to the guns of Fort Morgan. Naval History and Heritage Command Farragut ordered a boat from USS Metacomet to attempt a rescue. Acting Ensign Henry C. Nields commanded the small boat. Charles Baker was one of the sailors in that crew. Rather than remain under the relative protection of the larger warship, the rescuers pulled toward the wreck while Confederate fire continued around them. Farragut's own battle report later emphasized the severity of the fire under which the boat operated. Naval History and Heritage Command Baker and his shipmates reached the survivors of Tecumseh and helped bring ten men out of the water. The official Navy Medal of Honor record specifically credits Baker with exposing himself to the enemy fire during this rescue and assisting in saving the sailors from death. The rescue took place close to the Confederate defenses, making the small boat and its crew exceptionally vulnerable. Naval History and Heritage Command Baker's Medal of Honor therefore represents a particular form of battlefield heroism. His action was not the capture of an enemy flag, the firing of a naval gun, or command of a ship. He deliberately participated in a rescue mission while a major naval battle was still underway and while the men performing that rescue remained exposed to hostile fire. After the rescue, the larger Battle of Mobile Bay continued. Farragut's fleet forced its way into the bay, while Metacomet was ordered to cast off from Hartford and pursue Confederate gunboats. Metacomet subsequently captured the Confederate gunboat CSS Selma. Later in the battle, Union vessels concentrated on the ironclad CSS Tennessee, which eventually surrendered. The victory broke Confederate naval control of Mobile Bay and became one of the defining Union naval successes of the Civil War. Naval History and Heritage Command For his part in the rescue of the Tecumseh survivors, Baker received the Medal of Honor. His surviving medal is particularly valuable historical evidence because the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command has documented the actual artifact. Its reverse identifies him under the name Henry Baker, while the Navy's historical interpretation recognizes him as the same man later remembered as Charles Baker. The Navy describes the award as recognition of his personal valor during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Naval History and Heritage Command For the project's ribbon rack, the correct Medal of Honor representation is therefore: Medal of Honor 1862–1912 Navy — No device There should be no V device, star, or clasp attached to Baker's Medal of Honor. The Civil War service medal requires an additional historical distinction. The Navy Civil War Medal was authorized decades after the conflict, under Navy Special Orders Nos. 81 and 82 of 27 June 1908, for Navy and Marine Corps personnel who had served during the qualifying Civil War period. Baker's documented 1864 naval service clearly falls within that service period. However, Baker died before the medal was created, so his biography should not claim that he personally received the physical 1908 medal during his lifetime. In the client's current rack convention, if it is displayed to represent qualifying Civil War naval service, it must be the Navy version—not the Army Civil War Campaign Medal shown in your screenshot. Naval History and Heritage Command Baker's later civilian life is much less extensively documented than his naval service. What can be established securely is that he lived for more than a quarter-century after the Battle of Mobile Bay. He died on 3 August 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Congressional Medal of Honor Society He was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia, within the historic Naval Plot associated with the U.S. Naval Asylum. The Department of Veterans Affairs records him there as Quarter Gunner Charles Baker, Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, and gives his burial location as Section 2, Row 22, Site 22. CEM Charles—or Henry—Baker's military legacy rests on a remarkably direct act of courage. During one of the Civil War's most dangerous naval operations, Tecumseh disappeared beneath the waters of Mobile Bay and surviving sailors were left exposed near powerful Confederate defenses. Baker joined the small boat crew sent toward them rather than away from the danger. Under continuing enemy fire, he helped save ten members of the sunken monitor's crew. That rescue became the defining action of his service and earned him the United States Navy Medal of Honor. More than 160 years later, his surviving medal, Navy records, Medal of Honor citation, and VA burial record continue to preserve the story of a Quarter Gunner whose greatest act of heroism was not destroying an enemy, but risking his life to save fellow sailors.