The Contest for California in 1861: How Colonel E. D. Baker Saved the Pacific States to the UnionThe Contest for California in 1861: How Colonel E. D. Baker Saved the Pacific States to the Union. Elijah R. Kennedy. Paperback, (1912), 2015, Appendix, Authorities, Illus., Index, 394 pp. This work addresses the secessionist movement in the early 1860s on the West Coast, primarily California and Oregon, and the efforts of Colonel Edward D. Baker and others to defeat the movement and remain in the Union. Book #: J K1356 ISBN: 9781596413566