John Brown Baldwin
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John Brown Baldwin (1820–1873) was a politician in Virginia during the American Civil War.
Baldwin graduated from Staunton Academy and then the University of Virginia in 1838. He was an earnest supporter of the Union during 1860, and worked for peace. He was elected to the state convention, as a Unionist, 1861. He voted against the ordinance for secession, and was one of the members of the Union delegation that went to Washington D.C. to interview President Abraham Lincoln; but when secession of the colony was ratified by the people of Virginia, he felt that it was his duty stay with his home state.
He was elected representative, from Augusta County, to the first Confederate Congress; then reelected to the second Congress and then serving until the conclusion of the Civil War. He was elected to the Virginia house of delegates, under the new postwar United States government and was chosen as its speaker from 1862 through 1865. In this capacity he showed exceptional ability and the rules of procedure which he evolved are still in use, being known as "Baldwin's Rules."
He was a member of the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors, 1856-1864. He married Susan Madison Peyton on July 4, 1822.
Baldwin is buried in Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton, Virginia.
