The Biographical Dictionary of America/Baxter, Henry

​BAXTER, Henry, soldier, was born at Sidney Plains, N.Y., Sept. 8, 1821. He received a district school education, went to California in 1848, crossing the plains with a party of thirty men and ox-teams, being captain of the pioneers. He afterwards settled in Michigan, where, at the opening of the civil war, he raised a company, was assigned to the 7th Michigan infantry, made captain, and in the following year was promoted lieutenant-colonel. At Fredericksburg he was wounded while making a sortie to dislodge Confederate sharpshooters, and was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, March 12, 1863. He was afterward wounded at Antietam and in the Wilderness, had two horses shot under him, and many times distinguished himself for bravery in action. At the end of the war was brevetted major-general of volunteers. President Johnson appointed him United States minister to Honduras in 1866, and he returned to the United States in 1869. He died Dec. 30, 1873.