May 2, 2011

While much is known about Elisha Baxter’s struggle in the governor’s election of 1872, which led to what became known as the Brooks-Baxter War, facts are less clear concerning his military service in the Civil War. Though a Unionist, his name appears as a quartermaster on the roll of a secessionist unit in 1861. In early 1862, he refused command of a Union unit but, later that year, he received a commission to raise a Union regiment near his home of Batesville (Independence County). He began recruitment but soon resigned the commission to take a seat on the state Supreme Court. His official gubernatorial portrait is shown here.

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