“. . . I take the desperate chance of betrayal to send you this personal message by the most private of communications, lest the knowledge of my discoveries be utterly lost.”
Colonel Hickock looked at the dirty and crabbed note from Captain John Douglas, U.S.A. and War Department Federal Intelligence Service. The colonel’s hands shook as he read the horrifying words of the letter from his trusted secret agent and old friend, who had disappeared into the wilds of the South two years ago, on a mission to uncover the roots of a puzzling rumor. Now, by a chain of messengers and a string of secret post-offices, run by veterans of the heroic Underground Railroad, this dire message had come to him, secretly, privately, urgently. He read on:
“The chief of the secret rebel army, General Paul Robinson, has traveled the length and breadth of the Military Districts, organizing, mobilizing, and laying plans. In his guise as a wandering, itinerant musician, he seemingly poses no threat to any, yet his malevolent mind is ever working as he builds this terrifying network of evil. Indeed, he is rightly styled ‘the Universal Spider’ by his subordinates, in emulation of the French monarch, for the intricate webwork of his plan.
“His most trusted associates have concealed their Southron ancestry, and worked their way into the reaches of the military and the government. His most valued subordinate holds a high post in the Federal Intelligence Service, and has abused that trust to conceal the intelligence of the rebellion.
“Beneath him, some ten thousand men, each entrusted with only such knowledge as is needful, form a rebel army in being, of which they will be the leaders, while the common folk will flock to the colors once the word is given.
“The Knights of Power form a deadly infection in the body of this nation. I pray that the Federal Intelligence Service will rally the government to extirpate this carbuncle.
“Should I fall in the struggle, at the hands of my comrades, I shall accept my fate, for one who is what I have made myself seem to be is deserving of such a vile end. I pray you inform my beloved Ettie that her husband gave his life for his country.”
It was not so much that a desperate rebel army existed. The United States Marshals and the Federal Intelligence Service had unmasked many such plots, and strangled the rebellions in the cradle.
No, it was Douglas’s discovery that troubled him. Who among his trusted underlings had betrayed the nation? Hickock’s keen mind and deep insights, honed in his early days at the card-table, would now be turned to a more desperate measure.
From The Knights of Power: A Colonel Wild Bill Hickock Adventure by “Noname”
During their War of the Rebellion, the Federal armies developed an intelligence service. Its most effective leader was the private investigator Lafayette C. Baker, who rose from lieutenant to Brigadier-General during the conflict.
General Baker had been in eclipse at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, and it is sometimes believed that his reinstatement and promotion were founded in a belief that his methods of investigation would have been more successful in exposing the plot prior to its completion. His efforts at unearthing the conspirators earned him promotion to Brigadier-General, though he spent much time and the efforts of many agents trying in vain to determine the identity of the mysterious “Cassius”, the Confederate agent who murdered the Sewards, and of the unidentified conspirators who killed President pro tempore of the Senate Foster and Speaker of the House Colfax.
After the dire events of the “Ku-Klux” conspiracy of 1866, General Baker was named chief of the U.S. Marshals Service, which was by legislation converted into a national police force. He was already chief of what was then officially styled “Federal Intelligence Service”, and remained head of both during his lifetime.
By the time of Baker’s death in 1884, the Marshals Service had become the police force not only of the Southern Military Districts, but also had authority and responsibility throughout the country. It had absorbed the function of the former U.S. Secret Service, which in spite of its name was but a force investigating counterfeiting. Offices of the U.S. Marshals were established throughout the states.
The Federal Intelligence Service established stronger rules. The names of its personnel were kept most strictly secret. Any neighbour might be an officer of the FIS. An officer of the FIS could assume any field-grade or lower rank in the military in the pursuit of his investigations, particularly among the troops. Indeed every regiment is believed to have at least one FIS officer in its ranks, guarding against the possibility of “Seceshsymp” or “Slavocracy”.
It should be noted that the American legations and embassies in other countries do have FIS officers posing as legitimate diplomats, and others working without diplomatic status. The Special Branch has caught and expelled a number of these in the United Kingdom, increasing tensions between this country and the United States.
From The United State of America by His Grace the Duke of Marlborough