Republican Delegate, Civil War Commander, Lawyer, and State Representative. Republican. Member of Indiana state house of representatives, 1859. He was a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War; alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Indiana, 1868. Was commander at Fort Granger in Tennessee in June 1863, when he was required to execute by hanging Lawrence Orton Williams and Walter Peter as Confederate spies; an engraving of the execution was on the front page of Harper's Weekly. Both spies were related to Gen. Robert E. Lee's wife and were descendants of Martha Washington. Baird was severely affected by this episode, and had a mental breakdown in 1875. Died in the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, Indianapolis, Marion County, Ind., March 7, 1881.
Republican Delegate, Civil War Commander, Lawyer, and State Representative. Republican. Member of Indiana state house of representatives, 1859. He was a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War; alternate delegate to Republican National Convention from Indiana, 1868. Was commander at Fort Granger in Tennessee in June 1863, when he was required to execute by hanging Lawrence Orton Williams and Walter Peter as Confederate spies; an engraving of the execution was on the front page of Harper's Weekly. Both spies were related to Gen. Robert E. Lee's wife and were descendants of Martha Washington. Baird was severely affected by this episode, and had a mental breakdown in 1875. Died in the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, Indianapolis, Marion County, Ind., March 7, 1881.
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