At the urging of U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia Ward Lamon and United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, President Lincoln agreed in November 1864 agreed to have bodyguards, though he felt that the President of the United States should not have found it necessary to have guards at all. Superintendent Webb had four MPD officers assigned the task of guarding the White House grounds and accompanying the president on his walks through the city. However Lincoln did not want this fact made public and the officer's orders were not made official and they wore plainclothes with their revolvers concealed. One of the officers, William H. Crook, the most well known of Lincoln's original guards, would go on to serve under five other administrations and wrote down his recollections in a book "Through Five Administrations". He became close to Lincoln and accompanied him to Richmond, Virginia at Lincoln's request after the city was captured. Two officers would begin their shift at 8 a.m. till 4 p.m. They were then relieved by an officer who stay till midnight and was then himself relieved at 8 the next morning.