CSA, Private, Company G & C, 1st Alabama Infantry

Benjamin Wesley Baker, also known as "Ben" or "B.W.", was born on October 26, 1844, near China Grove, in Pike County, Alabama. Ben was the eldest child of Milton Baker and Mary Lucinda Sheppard.

Being a strongly loyal Southerner, and the son of a slave holder, Ben enlisted, in 1861, at Pensacola, Florida, into the Perote Guards of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment, Confederate States of America. Ben Baker's unit was captured while bravely defending Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River, in the Spring of 1862.

Ben spent the next several months as a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas, Illinois, until his exchange. Ben Baker's unit was then sent to help defend Port Hudson, in Louisiana. Luckily, Ben and a couple of his comrades were sent home to gather clothing and supplies, just before Port Hudson fell to the Yankees.

Ben, along with other elements of the 1 st Alabama, were consolidated into other units, at Mobile, Alabama, and sent to Atlanta, Georgia. Ben's unit then evacuated Atlanta, and went upon General John Bell Hood's ill-fated Tennessee expedition. Ben later wrote, that he was charging next to Confederate General Patrick Cleburne, when the General was killed attacking Franklin, Tennessee, in November 1864.

Ben stated that, after the Franklin, Tennessee battle, his company surrendered in April 1865, in Georgia. Ben married Harriat E. "Hattie" Bickerstaff, daughter of Pollard and Mary Bickerstaff of Pike County, Alabama, on October 26, 1865, in Pike County.
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On January 29, 1873, in Rapides Parish, Ben married Theodoscia Ernest Slay, the daughter of Southern Baptist minister, Rev. Daniel Slay. In 1900, Ben Baker obtained a U.S. Post Office for his general store, located near Pine Grove Church. He named the post office after his daughter, Ruby. This is the origin of the name of the Rapides Parish community known as Ruby, Louisiana. Benjamin Wesley Baker died on October 8, 1914.

Source: Benjamin Wesley Baker bio