Cullen Montgomery Baker (June 23, 1835 – January 1869) was a Tennessee-born desperado whose gang terrorized Union soldiers and civilians in Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and Northwest Louisiana during the early days of the American Old West.
Soon afterward his family moved to Clarksville, Arkansas, and as Cullen matured he spent much of his time in the saloons and bars of what are now Lafayette and Miller Counties.
Baker returned to Arkansas, but word of his crimes had spread, and a local woman named Beth Warthom was openly critical of him.
Baker fled back to Texas, and in July 1862, he married his second wife Martha Foster, who was unaware that he was wanted for murder.
[1] By 1864 he had either been discharged or deserted, and he joined a group called the "Independent Rangers", loosely associated with the Confederate Home Guard.
This left the door open for acts of intimidation, rape, theft and violence for groups of well-armed men like the "Independent Rangers".
By that stage of the war the Union Army occupied most of Arkansas, with several troops under the command of Captain F. S. Dodge enforcing the law in the area of Lafayette County.
Toward the end of 1864 Baker was in a saloon in the small town of Spanish Bluff, Bowie County, Texas, when he was approached by four African-American Union soldiers and asked for identification.
After the war ended, Baker organized a gang with outlaw Lee Rames, which operated out of the Sulphur River bottoms near Brightstar, Arkansas, committing acts of robbery and murder.
Like many of the ex-Confederates who became criminals after the war, Baker was regarded as a hero by some because he opposed the Federal occupation, but his record shows a merciless killer who killed anyone who angered him, regardless of their loyalties.
On June 5, 1867, Baker returned, but instead of paying his debt stood in front of the store yelling for Mr. Rowden to come out and face him.
Baker fled back into Arkansas, and a few days later he was confronted by a U.S. Army sergeant and one private as he boarded a ferry.
Baker shot the sergeant four times, killing him, with the private fleeing on horseback and reporting the murder to a Captain Kirkham.
A shootout ensued and Baker was shot in the arm, though he killed Private Albert E. Titus of the U.S. 20th Infantry Regiment.
He returned to Arkansas, and while in a saloon in Brightstar he agreed to join a mob intending to raid the farm of a local farmer named Howell Smith.
Smith resisted and a shootout ensued, resulting in several mob members being wounded, including Baker being shot in the leg.
On October 24, 1868, Baker and his gang were reported to have been involved in the killings of Major P. J. Andrews, Lt. H. F. Willis, and an unnamed negro, as well as the wounding of Sheriff Standel of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Baker and Kirby were killed at the Foster home, with both shot numerous times, and then the bodies were dragged through the town of Bloomburg.
The town of Bloomburg, Texas continues to commemorate the event with the annual Cullen Baker Country Fair, held the first weekend in November.