George Washington Baird, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, USS Mississippi, USS Albatross, acquaintance of

- George Washington Baird, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, USS Mississippi, USS Albatross, acquaintance of John Wilkes Booth and eyewitness to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln - My Story authored by MILLS, Anson Washington, D.C.: Press of Byron S. Adams, 1918. 8vo. 412 pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. Signed on the limitation page under with the authors compliments in Baird’s hand Adm George W. Baird. Baird (1843-1930), who was born and educated in Washington, D.C., entered the navy in 1862 as an assistant engineer, serving in Louisiana during the Civil War. Baird supervised the construction of the steamship USS Albatross in the 1880s. It was commissioned in 1882. The steamship was designed for marine research and was assigned to the U.S. Fish Commission. George Baird contributed to various designs for interior appliances, ventilation, and other engineering innovations that contributed to the USS Albatross’s use as a floating scientific research station until the 1920s. He is known both as an inventor and author of several articles related to ship design. He is also credited with supervising the installation of electric lighting in the White House in 1891. George retired in 1905 with the rank of rear admiral. George W. Baird, according to a letter he wrote to Burke McCarty in 1921, was an acquaintance of John Wilkes Booth. His letter is cited in The Suppressed Truth about the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He wrote: My acquaintance with John Wilkes Booth was not at all intimate. I met him in New Orleans in the winter of ’63 and ’64, when he was playing in the theatre there in Marble Hearts and he was splendid in his part. My acquaintance was what may be called a bar-room acquaintance. Was introduced to him by a young officer of my ship the Pensacola . . . . Booth seemed to be a congenial fellow with a sense of humor and I thought was very temperate in his habits. . . . I admired him, his voice, power of declaiming. I took drinks with him at the Franklin House, Custom House Street, a place frequented by army and navy officers. He seemed to me to have no interest in the [Civil] war. It was hard to understand. I had not seen him but once in Washington and that about three weeks before the murder of the President. George goes on to write of his experiences of the night Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865. When told of the incident while calling on a young lady he . . . left at once; saw policeman at the corner whom I interrogated and he confirmed the story. I inquired as to the appearance of the assassin and he not only gave a description that fitted but said he resembled me, and I thought that I had better hurry to my boarding house. . . . nothing could induce me to appear on the streets again that night. Later Georges involvement with Booth continued: I was detailed to make a series of experiments in the Navy Yard, and after Booths body was brought to the Navy Yard and lay on board the Montauk this happened. I was. called on board the Montauk by Lieut. W. Crowninshield, to identify the body of John Wilkes Booth, which I did.