His pension record indicates service on the USS Kensington, USS Onondaga, and USS North Carolina but the details related to that service are unknown. In addition, she was responsible for the care of both parents and an invalid sister. She implored that his service in both the Army and Navy deserved special consideration. Her father had frequent coughing bouts, lung hemorrhages, was frail like a skeleton, and needed to be revived with stimulants very often. His widowed daughter, Wihelmina Saville, wrote that his disabling condition stemmed from government neglect to provide proper accommodations on the Spuyten Duyvil, under the command of Captain John Lay. Although he was not expected to survive the journey to New York, he did so, with chronic bronchitis, was unable to work, and was dependent upon his daughter, a widow. Our lives at this time were in great peril and we suffered more than words can describe.вЂќ Baker went on to say that he contracted bronchitis, suffered for two months, had no resting place other than the wet sandbags or dripping wet torpedo box below, and after spending two additional months in a hospital, was discharged. We took our meals on the Onondaga, a double-turreted monitor which lay about fifty yards from us we had no further privileges on the monitor. He wrote, вЂњвЂ¦Our clothing was constantly saturated with water, and we had no place to go in order to change, as everything we had was below and wet before we put it on. Water was always dripping on the deck making it impossible to get a foothold on the deck. He swore that he lived aboard that vessel for five months during the winter of 1864-1865 without a berth to sleep on. That vessel was in Norfolk, Virginia, in December 1864, and was part of the campaign to secure Richmond, Virginia. According to his affidavit of April 17, 1888, in which he requested an increase in his $24 a month pension (certificate 4,091), he re-enlisted in June 1864 as a quartermaster in the United States Navy and served on the torpedo boat Spuyten Duyvil. He was promoted to sergeant on April 30, 1862, and mustered out at Folly Island, South Carolina, on July 3, 1863, citing paralysis of the legs and other disabilities. A New York City native, Baker enlisted as a corporal on January 22, 1862, and mustered into the 1st New York Engineers. Sergeant, 1st New York Engineers, Company H quartermaster, United States Navy.

Civil war hospital steward ranks