1867 ABRAHAM LICOLN ASSASSINATION Civil War U.S. SECRET SERVICE HISTORY 1st

Original 1867 First Edition of “History of the United States Secret Service” by General L.C. Baker :: Published by L.C. Baker :: Measures 6 1/2 x 9 1/2" :: Complete with 704 Pages. 

Lafayette C. Baker, the book's author, served as a Union spy, eventually being appointed to replace Allen Pinkerton as head of the Union Intelligence Service. Published soon after Abraham Lincoln's death, this book was important as Baker was directly involved in the aftermath after John Wilkes Booth's assassination of President Lincoln.  Baker's account as presented here gives a complete narrative of the events of the assassination and its aftermath including letters on the Assassination.

Within two days of his arrival in Washington, Baker's agents in Maryland had made four arrests and had the names of two more conspirators, including the actual presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. Baker was by no means a bureaucrat fighting the war in an office, but was the most prominent agent of the organization himself, personally taking part in most important operations, and placing himself in personal danger time after time.

The conspiracy was larger and more desperate than generally realized. Booth decided to kill the President when the more elaborate schemes unraveled. Before the month was out, Booth along with David Herold were found holed up in a barn and Booth was himself shot and killed by Sgt. Boston Corbett. Baker and an assistant buried the body secretly under the paving stones of a fortress. Baker was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and received a generous share of the $100,000 reward offered to the apprehender of the president's killer.

A great controversy arose over missing pages from Booth's diary which implicated his backers. Baker insisted the diary had been unclipped when given to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Baker died in 1868, supposedly from meningitis. As it was scarcely eighteen months after his explosive allegations, some suggested he was killed by the War Department to silence him. 

As a whole, A History of the United States Secret Service comprises Baker's complete introduction to the leading men at Washington, with the origin and organization of the detective police known as the United States Secret Service Bureau and a graphic history of rich and exciting experiences, North and South. The purpose of this volume was designed with the intent of presenting the operations of the Bureau of the National Detective Police during the Civil War, most notably the Lincoln Assassination, with perilous adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and valuable services of the detective police, carefully chosen by this responsible head of the Bureau. Throughout are numerous illustrations or Baker's and other's work in the Secret Service. 

GOOD CONDITION: A firmly bound volume, minor cracking to front hinge, generally clean pages throughout, one content page is loose (but still attached), there is a bookplate in front, complete with all pages and illustrations. A very handsome copy of this rare first edition work on the Secret Service.
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