Civil War Union Brigadier General. Born in New York State, he was a successful businessman in Jonesville, Michigan when the Civil War began. He offered his services to the Union, and was commissioned as Captain of Company C, 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry on August 22, 1861. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May 1862, he took a bullet to the stomach during the Peninsular Campaign, and didn't return until the September 1862 Antietam Campaign. At the Battle of Antietam he was shot in the leg as his regiment suffered with the rest of Major General John Sedgwick's VI Corps Division as it was devastated in the West Woods area. He was in command of the 7th Michigan Infantry at the beginning of the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, where his regiment was detailed to make a cross-river amphibious assault to clear the area of Confederate sharpshooters and establish a bridgehead for the laying of pontoon bridges. The unit took heavy casualties but ultimately were successful in their mission. However, Lieutenant Colonel Baxter sustained his third wound of the war with a gunshot to his left shoulder. While he was convalescing from the wound he was promoted to Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 12, 1863. Placed in command of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division in the Army of the Potomac's I Corps, his men were held in reserve during the May 1863 Chancellorsville Campaign. On the First Day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, his command arrived in the morning with rest of the I Corps after Union cavalry had opened the fight there and battled Confederate infantry. They were sent to the Oak Hill area north of the Gettysburg Seminary, and were placed behind a stone wall with what was know as Forney's Field to their front. There they unleashed a number of volleys on the attacking Confederates of Colonel Alfred Iverson that decimated the rebels. His men then counter attacked and captured or shot down most of the rest of Iverson's brigade (after the battle the rebels of his brigade were found to have fallen in neat rows, and the area became known as the "Iverson Pits"). Despite the success against Colonel Iverson's men, his brigade would draw intense fire from other attacking Confederate, and would join in the retreat of the Union Army through the town of Gettysburg, ending up at the Zeigler's Grove area south of the town on Cemetery Ridge. Through the battle General Baxter lost 45 percent of his brigade and all his staff officers. He would continue commanding the unit through the rest of the war, leading it after the Army of the Potomac was reorganized and it was assigned to the V Corps. During the May 1864 Battle of the Wilderness he sustained his fourth wound of the war when he was shot through the leg by a bullet that killed the horse he was riding on. Brevetted Major General, US Volunteers on April 1, 1865, he commanded his troops through the Siege of Petersburg and in the finally assaults in April 1865 that collapsed the Confederate lines for good that hastened the capture of Richmond, Virginia and the end of the war. He was honorably mustered out on August 24, 1865. In recognition of his service he was appointed as United States Minister to Honduras, serving from 1869 to 1872. He lived for a year after his return home building a lumber business before he was struck down by pneumonia in December 1873.