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 Selected Pension Records of James Baker
 Notes and commentary.
 Douglas County Kansas
 By Fred Smoot of Sausalito CA, 2005
 Scans contributed by Jennifer Woods

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The combined Pension Claim file of James Baker, and later, of his widow, 
Rebecca White (nee Campbell) Baker total one hundred and forty-six pages. 
Not all of the documents are transcribed here.

James Baker, Private, U.S.A., 1865
Born 22 Sepetmber 1824, Indiana County Pennsylvania.
Married Rebecca White Campbell, 4 March 1846, East Mahoning
Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
Died 9 November 1885, Silby, Douglas County, Kansas.
Cause of death, consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis, TB) 
Major contributing factor, chronic diarrhea.

Enlisted, 4 March 1865, 74th Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers 
(Company "F"), at Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
Mustered out, 1 September 1865.

   In 1865 near the very end of the Civil War, an effort was made to augment
the 74th Regiment. James Baker was forty years of age when he enlisted in 
1865. He served mostly as a guard.
   James Baker served at Beverly, Randolph County, West Virginia, and later at 
Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, and guarded the Parkersburg branch 
of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad till August 1865.
   He claims to have contracted diahorea (diarrhea) while in the Army, but 
claims to have been medically treated only once while in service in West 
Virginia.
   Like many others soldiers, both Blue and Grey, James Baker's diarrhea 
became chronic. One common treatment for diarrhea was Calomel (Mercurous 
Chloride; Calogreen; Mercury Monochloride; Mercury Chloride). It is 
possible that James' treatment, especially after he was discharged from the 
Army was Calomel.
   (Calomel was much used as an old time medicine. It was known as a home
remedy used to cause a free flow of saliva. However, was commonly used as a
purgative /laxative/ for the treatments of bowel illnesses ranging from
diarrhea to cholera; unfortunately calomel's effects were seriously
harmful.  It may have cleansed the bowels, but at the same time it caused
teeth to loosen, hair to fall out and could destroy the patient's gums and
intestines. In other words, it could cause acute mercury poisoning.
Calomel was a major medicine of the Civil War, and diarrhea a major 
illness. For bowel complaints, they received soldiers heavy doses of calomel,
and many patients became incapacitated for their lifetime.)
   It must be noted that almost all of the "medicine" that James Baker had 
received for his chronic diarrhea came from his civilian doctors. Calomel 
may have been partly a cause of James' poor condition, but if he received 
any from the Army at all, it was only the one dose.
   On 29 September 1885, James Baker had a physical examination. By this time, 
he had contracted consumption. Examining Surgeon, Vance W. May wrote, "This 
man cannot live much longer." Doctor May was correct. James Baker died 
seven weeks later.
   After James Baker died, his wife, Rebecca W. Baker, pursued a Widow's 
Pension, base on James' military service.