Civil War Union Brigadier General. His entire military career, and life, was controversial. Many of his early years are unrecorded except by his own apparent exaggeration, and much of his writing is considered to be fabrications. At the start of the Civil War, he supposedly was a spy for General Winfield Scott. Secretary of War Stanton made Baker a "special agent" with a "roving commission", which allowed him to work outside regular army jurisdiction. He later was appointed head of the "National Detectives", a precursor to the Secret Service. In charge of tracking down Lincoln's assassins, some reports name him as the man who shot John Wilkes Booth. Promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers on April 26, 1865, he was a witness against President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, where he couldn't produce the evidence he said he had against Johnson. General Baker was diagnosed in 1863 as having "cerebral congestion" and, in the fall of 1865 as having meningitis. Mustered out in January, 1866, he died in Philadelphia in 1868 at the age of 41. Originally buried in the Mutual Family Cemetery, his remains, and all others in this cemetery, were moved en masse to Forest Hill Cemetery. All of graves from the Mutual Family Cemetery are unmarked, but according to local cemetery historians, the location of these re-interments are "behind the Hanover-Kensington M.E. Church Memorial".
Civil War Union Brigadier General. His entire military career, and life, was controversial. Many of his early years are unrecorded except by his own apparent exaggeration, and much of his writing is considered to be fabrications. At the start of the Civil War, he supposedly was a spy for General Winfield Scott. Secretary of War Stanton made Baker a "special agent" with a "roving commission", which allowed him to work outside regular army jurisdiction. He later was appointed head of the "National Detectives", a precursor to the Secret Service. In charge of tracking down Lincoln's assassins, some reports name him as the man who shot John Wilkes Booth. Promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers on April 26, 1865, he was a witness against President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, where he couldn't produce the evidence he said he had against Johnson. General Baker was diagnosed in 1863 as having "cerebral congestion" and, in the fall of 1865 as having meningitis. Mustered out in January, 1866, he died in Philadelphia in 1868 at the age of 41. Originally buried in the Mutual Family Cemetery, his remains, and all others in this cemetery, were moved en masse to Forest Hill Cemetery. All of graves from the Mutual Family Cemetery are unmarked, but according to local cemetery historians, the location of these re-interments are "behind the Hanover-Kensington M.E. Church Memorial".
Bio by: Joe Ferrell
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Baker memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
