Baffled

by a Secret Service Detective

In the winter of 1863, it became plain to the Secret Service Bureau that there were a number of people in Washington who made it their business to secure information for the rebel government. Now and then such people had been unearthed and sent to Forts Delaware or Lafayette as prisoners, but now it seemed as if the information came from a different class. Secrets which could have been known to less than a dozen high military and civic authorities were betrayed to the rebels, and plans hardly lisped beyond the Cabinet became known in Richmond before they could be acted upon. President Lincoln firmly believed there were official traitors in his camp, and the Chief of the Bureau received instructions from him direct. He was commanded to spare no one, and to shadow any official of whom he felt the slightest suspicion. I was detailed on the case, if case it could be called. The orders were to do my best to find the leak. Several other men were given the same orders, but no two of us worked together.

Just what move to make was a puzzler, being that I suspected no one. Luck, however, soon furnished me a pointer. One night, at a late hour, as I was passing along Maryland avenue, I came upon two half-drunken officers who were pulling a civilian about in a reckless manner, and threatening to do him up. I, of course, interfered on behalf of the latter, and he returned thanks, and he gave me his card. He was a private secretary to an important civil functionary. Two nights later, on the same avenue, I passed the secretary, and to my astonishment he was in disguise. He had on a false beard, an old slouch hat and a pair of goggles. How did I recognize him? He stood for a moment under a gas lamp to consult his watch and look around. I was under a wooden awning close beside… Read More