Read Online Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy by Eamon Javers - Free Book Online
Authors: Eamon Javers
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or as a Confederate state. Debate raged in the state capital at Annapolis. Lincoln would have to traverse this dicey geography on his way farther south to Washington, D.C. Samuel Morse Felton, the president of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, was in charge of organizing the logistics of the trip, including arranging for special presidentialtrains and setting schedules. He called on Allan Pinkerton, saying he’d heard that Maryland’s secessionists were planning violent reprisals if the state voted to stay in the Union.
Pinkerton put together a plan to protect the president-elect. James Mackay has laid out the detailed preparations in his book Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye . The Pennsylvania Railroad organized rail workers and drilled them as a kind of a railway militia. Concerned that copperheads would try to burn train bridges, the workers covered the bridges with coats of fresh paint and fireproof materials. Felton sent men to infiltrate the Maryland militia, to figure out which units might stay loyal and which tilted toward the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, Pinkerton sent in a top team of detectives, including Timothy Webster, Hattie Lawton, and Pinkerton’s own assistant, Harry Davies. Pinkerton trawled the bars of Baltimore using an undercover alias—“J. H. Hutcheson” of Charleston, South Carolina—looking to identify copperheads and their supporters. At the same time, Davies befriended one transplanted southerner during nights of carousing at Anne Travise’s house of prostitution in Baltimore. The man bragged to Davies that he was plotting with a recent immigrant to assassinate President-Elect Lincoln as his train rolled through town. Webster enlisted undercover in the Confederate militia, and heard that it, too, was planning an assassination.
This was enough to convince the team that Lincoln would be in real danger as he passed through Baltimore. Eventually, Pinkerton and his team ferreted out the details of the plot—a small band of men would strike at the Calvert Street train depot. Lincoln heard similar rumors of a plot against him from law enforcement agents as well, and weighed whether to travel to Baltimore as planned or skip the city on his way from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C. As Lincoln’s train left Harrisburg, the American Telegraph Company cut all the telegraph lines running out of the city. That shut down communication into and out of Harrisburg, but it also prevented any southern spies from alerting colleagues in Philadelphia and Baltimore that the president-elect was on the move.
Pinkerton knew that the presidential train would be an irresistible target. He decided to bring Lincoln to Washington ahead of schedule on a regular passenger train, instead, and roll the presidential train though on its regular timing as a decoy. Incredibly, he left Mary Todd Lincoln and her sons aboard the decoy train. Perhaps that was to lend a sense of realism to the procession, or maybe this was simply an era in which no one could contemplate that the assassins might strike at a woman and children.
The undercover Pinkerton agent Kate Warne rented the two rear sleeping cabins of the regular southbound passenger train out of West Philadelphia, telling ticket agents that she needed to transport her brother, who she claimed was an invalid. Felton and a small squad of Pinkertons spirited Lincoln into the cabin. Allan Pinkerton stood by Lincoln’s door, and handed the tickets to the train conductor, never revealing who was in the cabin with him.
Pinkerton deployed agents along the train’s route, to watch for saboteurs trying to blow up the tracks or assassins preparing to assault the train. They waited in preset positions with lanterns to signal the train that all was well in each sector. Allan Pinkerton stood on the rear platform monitoring progress, sector by sector. The train left Philadelphia late in the evening, and pulled into Baltimore at 3:30 A.M. , where it paused at the
Pinkerton put together a plan to protect the president-elect. James Mackay has laid out the detailed preparations in his book Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye . The Pennsylvania Railroad organized rail workers and drilled them as a kind of a railway militia. Concerned that copperheads would try to burn train bridges, the workers covered the bridges with coats of fresh paint and fireproof materials. Felton sent men to infiltrate the Maryland militia, to figure out which units might stay loyal and which tilted toward the Confederacy.
Meanwhile, Pinkerton sent in a top team of detectives, including Timothy Webster, Hattie Lawton, and Pinkerton’s own assistant, Harry Davies. Pinkerton trawled the bars of Baltimore using an undercover alias—“J. H. Hutcheson” of Charleston, South Carolina—looking to identify copperheads and their supporters. At the same time, Davies befriended one transplanted southerner during nights of carousing at Anne Travise’s house of prostitution in Baltimore. The man bragged to Davies that he was plotting with a recent immigrant to assassinate President-Elect Lincoln as his train rolled through town. Webster enlisted undercover in the Confederate militia, and heard that it, too, was planning an assassination.
This was enough to convince the team that Lincoln would be in real danger as he passed through Baltimore. Eventually, Pinkerton and his team ferreted out the details of the plot—a small band of men would strike at the Calvert Street train depot. Lincoln heard similar rumors of a plot against him from law enforcement agents as well, and weighed whether to travel to Baltimore as planned or skip the city on his way from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C. As Lincoln’s train left Harrisburg, the American Telegraph Company cut all the telegraph lines running out of the city. That shut down communication into and out of Harrisburg, but it also prevented any southern spies from alerting colleagues in Philadelphia and Baltimore that the president-elect was on the move.
Pinkerton knew that the presidential train would be an irresistible target. He decided to bring Lincoln to Washington ahead of schedule on a regular passenger train, instead, and roll the presidential train though on its regular timing as a decoy. Incredibly, he left Mary Todd Lincoln and her sons aboard the decoy train. Perhaps that was to lend a sense of realism to the procession, or maybe this was simply an era in which no one could contemplate that the assassins might strike at a woman and children.
The undercover Pinkerton agent Kate Warne rented the two rear sleeping cabins of the regular southbound passenger train out of West Philadelphia, telling ticket agents that she needed to transport her brother, who she claimed was an invalid. Felton and a small squad of Pinkertons spirited Lincoln into the cabin. Allan Pinkerton stood by Lincoln’s door, and handed the tickets to the train conductor, never revealing who was in the cabin with him.
Pinkerton deployed agents along the train’s route, to watch for saboteurs trying to blow up the tracks or assassins preparing to assault the train. They waited in preset positions with lanterns to signal the train that all was well in each sector. Allan Pinkerton stood on the rear platform monitoring progress, sector by sector. The train left Philadelphia late in the evening, and pulled into Baltimore at 3:30 A.M. , where it paused at the
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