no he did not
In Acts 2, Peter told them to “Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins”.
You can twist yourself into any shape of pretzel you want, Peter told them to be baptized. And he had just convinced them that they had crucified the Son of God. THEY WANTED TO KNOW WHAT THEY HAD TO DO. Peter told them to repent and be baptized.
What did he do, tell them to do something utterly useless? If it wasn’t essential, why did he bother to tell them that?
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:21 why baptism is essential. It is the symbolic act of the answer of a good conscience.