Marcus F. Wright's Civil War Bios -  General Layfayette C. Baker

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                                   BAKER
   p.136 c
   BAKER, GENERAL LAYFAYETTE C., Chief of the United States Secret
   Service, born in Stafford, Genesee County, N. Y., October 13, 1826,
   died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 2, 1868. In 1848 he went to New York
   and Philadelphia, and in 1853 to San Francisco, in each of these
   cities working as a mechanic. When the lawless element became dominant
   in San Francisco, in 1856, General Baker joined the Vigilance
   Committee and took an active part in the summary proceedings that
   restored order in the city. He went to New York on business in 1861,
   expecting to return at once, but the Civil War intervened, and he went
   to Washington and offered his services. At the suggestion of General
   Hiram Walbridge, of New York, he was introduced to General Scott, and
   as a result of the interview he started on foot for Richmond, where,
   in spite of arrest, imprisonment and several interviews with Jefferson
   Davis, while under suspension as a spy, he succeeded in collecting
   much information and returning to Washington after an absence of three
   weeks. This was but the first of a series of adventures involving high
   executive ability and a wonderful talent for tracing conspiracy and
   frustrating the designs of Confederate spies and agents. He was
   commissioned colonel and subsequently brigadier general. He duties
   naturally made him enemies in influential quarters, and charges of a
   serious nature were several times preferred against him, but were
   never substantiated. When President Lincoln was assassinated General
   Baker organized the pursuit of the murderer, and was present at his
   capture and death.