The Newsletter of the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table
November 2005
November 2005 HARDTACK Page 2
Monday, November 14, 2005 7:30 p.m. at the Indiana History Center
The Bureau of Military Information:
Military Intelligence Comes of Age
Scouts, guides and Secret Service agents of the Army of the Potomac at Brandy Station, March, 1864.
Seated at center, in uniform, is their leader, Lieutenant Robert Klein of the 3rd Indiana Cavalry.
Standing, left to right: James Doughty; James Cammack (?); unknown; Henry W. Dodd; unknown; unknown.
Seated: John Irving, Lt. Robert Klein and Dan Cole (all of the Secret Service)
On ground: Dan Plue; Lt. Klein's son; W. J. Lee;, unknown; --- Wood; Sanford Magee; John W. Langdon.
The state of military intelligence at the beginning of the Civil War was haphazard at best and nonexistent at its worst. The realities of war forced the Union Army of the Potomac to move from the civilian guesses of Allan Pinkerton to a highly sophisticated system of information collection and analysis led by dedicated officers and a cadre of intrepid scouts (Civil War slang for spies). This development in no small way led to the eventual defeat of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and laid the groundwork for the establishment of military intelligence as an accepted and vital part of the American Army structure.
About Our Speaker
Jim Goecker grew up in the midst of the Civil War Centennial and was forever smitten. Growing up in Seymour, Indiana, he literally read every Civil War book in the local library, then pursued his interest in history at Ball State University where he earned both a bachelor's degree in Education and a master's degree in American History. After teaching for a few years, he returned to the college campus, eventually ending up at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 where he currently serves as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. On the way, he earned a second master's degree from Indiana State University in College Student Personnel.
A member of the Indianapolis and West Central Indiana CWRT, his current interests are the Third Indiana Cavalry (which he is currently researching for a book) and the development of military intelligence through the course of the war.
Lafayette C. Baker:
Notorious Union Spymaster and
Chief of the United States Secret Service
Lafayette Curry Baker (1826-1868), chief of the United States Secret Service from 1862 to 1867, was a fascinating and somewhat tawdry character in American Civil War history.
At the outbreak of the War in 1861, Baker, then a resident of New York, volunteered to penetrate Confederate lines to obtain information for the North. Dispatched to Richmond by General Winfield Scott on a clandestine mission, Baker sought to ascertain the location and size of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard's forces around Manassas, secure date on the Black Horse Cavalry, and determine what forces were in Richmond and if any plans existed for an invasion of the North. Disguised as an unarmed itinerant photographer, Baker was arrested by the Confederates who suspected him of being a secret agent. During his brief incarceration, the infamous rebel spy, Belle Boyd, attempted to trick him into revealing his identity. Posing as Samuel Munson of Knoxville, Baker convinced President Jefferson Davis that he was the son of a Tennessee judge, a friend of the President's orderly.
Upon his return to Washington, Baker met with President Abraham Lincoln, who selected the wily detective to undertake secret missions and inform the president about the generals, officers, battles, and other pertinent war-related activities. Baker eventually gained a colonel's commission as special provost marshal of the War Department in 1862. Three years later, he earned the rank of Brigadier General.
continued on page 6
November 2005 HARDTACK Page 6
The Indianapolis Civil War Round Table
2005-2006 Campaign
Officers:
President: Ray Shortridge
Vice President: Steve Hill
Secretary: Janet Mitchell
Treasurer: Peg Bertelli
Committee Chairs:
Programs: Steve Hill
Publicity: Norris Darrall
Preservation: Andy O’Donnell
HARDTACK Newsletter:
Editor: Dave Klinestiver
Distribution:
Dave Klinestiver (Email) Tony Roscetti (U.S. mail)
ICWRT Meeting: November 14, 2005
at 7:30 P.M.
at the
Indiana History Center Auditorium
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, Indiana
______
Join Us Before the Meeting at Shapiro’s Deli!
All ICWRT members and guests are invited to join us
at Shapiro’s Delicatessen before the meeting to enjoy dinner and fellowship.
See you at Shapiro’s beginning at 5:30 P.M.
808 S. Meridian St. (just south of McCarty St.)
______
In this issue of HARDTACK: Page
November 2005 Meeting: The Bureau of Military Information presented by Jim Goecker……………………………….………………..1-2
Lafayette C. Baker: Notorious Union Spymaster……….….…….. .2, 6
Upcoming ICWRT Programs…………………….…………………….…..4
Calendar of Events…..……………………..………………….…………...4
Trimble’s Trivia …………………………………..………………....……..5
From the Bookshelf…………………………………………………..…….7
November 2005 HARDTACK Page 6
Upcoming ICWRT Programs
Unless otherwise noted, the ICWRT meets on the second Monday of the month at the Indiana History Center
November 14, 2005 The Bureau of Military Information Jim Goecker
December 12, 2005 * What the Cruel War Was Over Chandra Manning
Issues and Values That Impelled Men to
Fight in the Civil War
January 9, 2006 Medical Treatment in the Civil War Fred Shaefer
February 13, 2006 “Following Stonewall” Sadie Ritchie
March 13, 2006 Topic to be announced Mark Jaeger
April 10, 2006 The Last Five Years of Robert E. Lee’s Life James Orr
May 8, 2006 The Red River Campaign Gary Joiner
June 12, 2006 Annual Banquet / Collectors’ Showcase Dick Listenberger
* PLEASE NOTE: December’s meeting will be held at the Indiana War Memorial
Calendar of Events
November 5Saturday
November 10
Wednesday / “Hoosiers at Chickamauga” Symposium
Sullivan Museum and Genealogy Library, SullivanMunce Cultural Center
225 West Hawthorne St., Zionsville, IN; 9 AM to 4 PM
Program includes James Ogden, historian for the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park; Indianapolis genealogist Richard Enochs; Nikki Schofield; Tom Williams. $50 per person (including breakfast and lunch); reservations required. www.sullivanmunce.org
“As Fast as Circumstances Should Permit”: Abraham Lincoln’s Move Toward Equality
Indiana History Center; 7:00 PM
A Spirit & Place program presented by Gerald Prokopowicz (E. Carolina Univ.)
November 12
Saturday / Civil War Day at Pritzker Military Library
610 N. Fairbanks, 2nd Fl., Chicago, IL60611
Guest speakers and live webcast/virtual book signing with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the forthcoming “Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” Reservations required
Call Terry Embrey (312) 587-0234. www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org
We recommend confirming all dates, times and locations for events not sponsored by the ICWRT
If you know of a Civil War-related event that may be of interest to ICWRT members, please send your information to Norris Darrall () and HARDTACK ().
Trimble’s Trivia
by Quizmeister Tony Trimble
1. Name the Confederate Secret Service leader whose nephew later became president.
Who was his nephew?
2. Name the descendant of two American presidents who assisted Lincoln’s spies
in Europe?
3. What was the original, controversial title of Emma Edmonds’ memoir, Nurse and Spy?
4. Confederate spy Thomas H. Hines help to pave the way for a raid by commanded by
what officer?
5. Name the Quaker lawyer who was known as “Lincoln’s Spymaster.”
ANSWERS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN NEXT MONTH’S HARDTACK
Answers to October’s Quiz:
1. What do generals Price, Parsons, Magruder, Bee, and Early have in common?
They all went into exile after the War
2. What deed made Confederate patriot James T. Jackson famous?
He shot and killed Col. Elmer Ellsworth
3. How many shells were fired at Ft. Sumter by South Carolina? 4,000
4. Name the battle whose name means “place of peace.” Shiloh
5. How many shots were fired by the USS Weehawken in the sinking of CSS Atlanta?
Five; four were direct hits
On Sunday, October 2nd, tour guide extraordinaire Nikki Schofield conducted her Generals Tour of Crown Hill Cemetery for the second time this year. Thomas and Eric Dove were among the participants and submitted this photo of Nikki doing what Nikki does so well. (Eric recently became a member of the ICWRT).
Lafayette C. Baker (continued from page 2)
Baker's years in the Secret Service were noteworthy. He headed a force of about a dozen able men, plus innumerable private citizens. In this capacity, Baker demonstrated admirable ability as a detective. Although an innovator of police methods, Baker often disregarded due process, search warrants, and other constitutional guarantees.
Baker’s adventures and exploits during the War were many. Lincoln assigned him to root out disloyalty in the Union military forces. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton provided Baker with extraordinary power and large amounts of money to pursue a campaign against traitors. On one special mission for Stanton, Baker broke through enemy lines to relay information to General Nathaniel P. Bank's army. On another occasion, Baker penetrated Confederate territory to learn of troop movements and in the process uncovered a rebel plot to capture the nation's capital. Baker's surveillance also lead to the imprisonment of Louisa Buckner, who had journeyed to Washington from Virginia to purchase supplies of quinine and other goods for delivery to the South. In the wake of the assassination of President Lincoln, Baker's cousin, Lt. Luther Byron Baker, was one of the two detectives from Lafayette Baker's Secret Service that tracked down and killed John Wilkes Booth at the Garrett farm.
Following the conclusion of the War in 1865, Baker's reputation suffered grievously. His attempt to curtail the activities of Mrs. Lucy Cobb, a notorious Washington pardon broker who enjoyed ready access to the White House, led to his downfall. In 1867, President Andrew Johnson dismissed Baker for insolence, meddling, and maintaining an espionage system at the White House.
That same year, Baker published his History of the United States Secret Service. Although the reliability of Baker’s book is marred by the frequent combination of truth with fiction, it is nevertheless an important source for information on the organization of the Secret Service Bureau, leading detectives of the time, and espionage experiences of the North and South during the Civil War.
In 1868, Baker was a witness during Johnson's impeachment trial. As part of his vendetta against the chief executive who had fired him, Baker testified before the House Judiciary Committee of having seen a purported letter written by Johnson, while military governor of Tennessee, to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in which he disclosed the position of Federal forces in Tennessee and vaguely hinted of joining the rebel cause. Baker failed to produce the letter. Committee members ultimately discounted Baker's testimony due to his inability to substantiate his statements or provide corroborating evidence for his claims and cryptic allegations.
Broken in spirit and in declining health, Baker soon succumbed to the pressures of overwhelming ridicule he endured from the impeachment trial as well as his personal financial setbacks. Less than six weeks after Johnson's acquittal by the Senate, Baker died in Philadelphia of spinal meningitis.
A man of many sides, Baker was a tireless detective who could be egotistical, ruthless and reckless. He aroused much animosity by his relentless pursuits and tenacity. Although many of Baker's enemies denounced him for graft and comical adventures, others in government appreciated his methods. Intoxicated by his own power and infatuated with intrigue, Baker in the end became his own worse enemy.
Adapted from: Lafayette C. Baker & his Association with Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson by Leonard Schlup, published in Lincoln Herald, Vol. 98, No. 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 54-59 (online at http://www.lincolnherald.com/1996articleBAKER.html).
From the Bookshelf
S
pies, secret missions and espionage in the Civil War have been the subject of a number of “popular” histories over the years. More recently, the topic of military intelligence, and in particular the contributions of the U.S. Secret Service to the Northern War effort, has received more scholarly treatment by the late Edwin Fishel and William Feis. For those interested in the clandestine side of the War, here is a short list of readily available works for your consideration:
The Secret War for the Union : The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War
by Edwin C. Fishel (Houghton Mifflin 1996; Mariner Books repr. ed. 1998) 734 pp.
Grant's Secret Service: The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox by William B. Feis (University of Nebraska Press 2002) 330 pp.
Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War by Donald E. Markle (Hippocrene Books 2004, revised and expanded ed.) 284 pp.
Secret Missi ons of the Civil War: First-Hand Accounts by Men and Women Who Risked Their Lives in Underground Activities for the North and South
by Philip Van Doren Stern (Rand MacNally 1959; Gramercy reprint ed. 1990) 320 pp.
Spies, Scouts, and Raiders: Irregular Operations (from Time-Life’s “The Civil War” series)
by the editors of Time-Life Books (Time-Life Books 1985) 176 pp.
For a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of books and articles on military intelligence and espionage in the Civil War, go online to: http://intellit.muskingum.edu/civwar_folder/civwartoc.html.
HARDTACK, the newsletter of The Indianapolis Civil War Round Table, is publishedmonthly,September through June, each year. In addition toinformation aboutupcoming programs,HARDTACKfeatures articles, news, reviews and acalendar ofCivil War-relatedevents.HARDTACK is distributed free via email to all ICWRT members and is posted on the ICWRT website; print copies are available by mail subscription (2005-2006 subscription fee: $12.00).