Killing Lincoln (Part I)

John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865.  While Booth was successful in his effort to kill the president, Lincoln was a marked man before he even arrived in Washington D.C. in 1861.  There were at least six reported assassination attempts against the president before Booth managed to pull the trigger.  Lincoln’s life was in constant danger throughout his presidency and it is amazing that he managed to dodge so many attempts on his life, all of which were within a hair’s breadth from working.

The efforts to remove Lincoln began on his 1861 trip to Washington for his inauguration.  Railroad detectives found a train de-railer attached to the tracks near State Line, Indiana, and a bomb was left in a carpetbag in his passenger car when it stopped in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Both of these were removed before they could bring any harm to Lincoln.

President Abraham Lincoln photographed right before he died.

Allan Pinkerton

Even before these incidents, another plot had been discovered by Allan Pinkerton[i].  Pinkerton was hired in early 1861, to investigate rumors that secessionists planned to disrupt traffic on the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad.  In early February, Pinkerton and his operatives began infiltrating the secessionist movement around Baltimore.  After some good detective work they soon discovered a plot to assassinate Lincoln.  When Lincoln’s train from Philadelphia arrived at the Calvert Street Station in Baltimore, the President-elect and his party would have to get out and go across town to the Camden Street Station in order to board a Baltimore & Ohio train bound for Washington.  According to the operatives, just as Lincoln emerged from the narrow vestibule of the Calvert Street Station, Cypriano Ferrandini, a Baltimore barber, and a few associates would assassinate him.  An independent investigation led by New York City Police Commissioner John A. Kennedy also discovered the plot, which was scheduled for February 23^rd. 

On February 21, Pinkerton met with Lincoln at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia to report his findings and urge the president-elect to take a night train and travel straight through to Washington D.C.  Lincoln, who was scheduled to raise the flag over Independence Hall the next day, was upset and refused to accept Pinkerton’s advice.  “I could not believe there was a plot to murder me,” Lincoln later stated.  Despite the urgings of Pinkerton, Lincoln was committed to his engagement at Independence Hall and an address to the Pennsylvania legislature at Harrisburg later in the day.  Lincoln was clear on the point and vowed to meet his commitments, “under any and all circumstances, even if he met with death doing so.”

On the 22^nd, Lincoln performed his duties in Harrisburg and was met by Frederick Seward.  Seward, son of Senator William Seward, was sent by General Winfield Scott to warn of the plot discovered by Kennedy.  Lincoln was finally convinced that an assassination attempt was imminent.  He and his most trusted advisors met to discuss the danger.  Pinkerton proposed that Lincoln should travel alone so as to avoid suspicion, taking a special train from Harrisburg before boarding the 11:00 P.M. train to Baltimore.  There he would pass unrecognized through the city at about 3:30 A.M. before arriving unannounced in Washington two and half hours later.

That evening the President-elect quietly slipped out his hotel in Harrisburg.  He was unrecognized, as he had traded his stovepipe hat for a soft felt one and to conceal his tall figure he wore his long overcoat thrown loosely over his shoulders without his arms in his sleeves.  Lincoln then took the special train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia.  To prevent word of his early departure from reaching the assassins, Pinkerton arranged with E.S. Sanford, general superintendent of the American Telegraph Company, to cut all the lines leading out of the city.  Pinkerton and Ward Hill Lamon, a personal friend and former law partner accompanied Lincoln.  These two men would serve as his bodyguards.  Lamon was especially well-armed as he carried two pistols, two derringers, and two large bowie knives.  Pinkerton had his men stationed along the railroad line with lanterns to signal him that all was well.   He watched for them from the rear platform and  Lincoln and his party passed through Baltimore without incident, arriving in Washington D.C. at 6 a.m. on February 23.

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[i] Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish immigrant to the United States who started his career as a cooper before becoming Chicago’s first detective.  In 1850, he partnered with Edward Rucker to form the private North-western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.  Pinkerton coined the company’s famous motto – “We never sleep.”  Pinkerton solved a number of train robberies during the 1850s which made his agency famous and brought him into contact with the future-president Lincoln.  Pinkerton developed several investigative techniques that are still used today. Among them are "shadowing" (surveillance of a suspect) and "assuming a role" (undercover work).