Dillon D Baldwin
Company H. Records indicate that Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond admitted Baldwin on May 4 1863, suffering from an ulcer of some type.
Dillion Baldwin was born on August 11, 1839, in Columbus County, North Carolina. The 1850 census shows him as one of seven children in the household of his parents, William and Delpha. Baldwin, a 21-year old tanner, enlisted in the Columbus Guards on April 23, 1861. Baldwin must have had war fever, as the Old North State was still a month away from its formal secession. The Columbus Guards eventually became Co. H of the 18th North Carolina in the summer of 1861.
Transferred to Virginia in the spring of 1862, the 18th fought in the Seven Days Battles. Baldwin seemed to have difficulty campaigning during the summer months of his army career. He experienced hospitalizations for various illnesses in the summer of 1862 (dysentery), 1863 (ulcer), and 1864 (debility).
After his last illness, Baldwin returned to duty on August 5, 1864, and fought with the 18th North Carolina as part of Gen. James Lane’s Brigade at Ream’s Station and Peeble’s Farm. Promotion to corporal came to Baldwin in January or February 1865. After wintering southwest of Petersburg, he and his comrades also saw action at the Battle of Jones Farm on March 25, 1865. On April 2, 1865, the 18th North Carolina found itself positioned between the 33rd North Carolina to its left and the 37th North Carolina to its right. Only in this location for about three days, they manned a stretch of earthworks preserved now by Pamplin Historical Park.
Brief but savage fighting broke out when men from Gen. Frank Wheaton’s Division assailed their defenses. During the struggle, Corp. Baldwin ended up captured by the attackers. Sent to City Point and processed, he ended up spending the next couple of months at Point Lookout prison in Maryland before his release on June 24, 1865.
Like so many other veterans, Baldwin returned home after the fighting ended. He married and had several children, some of whom lived into the 1960s. Dillon Baldwin died on October 28, 1913, at age 74. He was buried in the Shipman-Baldwin Cemetery in his native Columbus County.
