Excerpts-
In mid-January 1861, Allan Pinkerton, who owned a small, little-known detective agency in Chicago, was hired by S. M. Felton, president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, to do some detective work for him. Felton had learned that Southern sympathizers were planning to sabotage his train at Baltimore soon in an effort to cut off traffic to the South. Pinkerton took the case and began investigating by going to Baltimore with two operatives. What he learned was that the railroad was not the target. Rather it was President-elect Lincoln.
On February 11, 1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois by train with his wife and three sons. The journey would take him through seven states and would end in Washington, DC on February 22. Several stops were planned on the way for him to make speeches and public appearances. Pinkerton had confirmed there was an assassination plot by February 20. The next evening, Lincoln, while on a stop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was advised of the plot and the danger he was in if he went ahead with the festivities in Baltimore the next day. Lincoln had been a long-time friend of Pinkerton and trusted him. Pinkerton had made arrangements for a special train to meet Lincoln in Harrisburg that evening. Mrs. Lincoln, her sons, and the rest of the party would continue on the original train and schedule.
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Since Lincoln was so tall, 6 foot 4, it was advised that he would need a disguise, as his height would make him stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. Pinkerton requested that, when getting off the cab and boarding the special train, Abe not wear his trademark stovepipe hat, slump over so as to not appear as tall, walk with a cane, AND disguise himself as a fail woman, complete with a scotch-plaid shawl. Lincoln agreed and left his family behind and boarded the 10:10 PM special at Harrisburg that night....
...poignant irony centered on Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America. When the war was officially over, a warrant was issued for his arrest for treason. Davis, no longer President of the now non-existent Confederacy, had to sneak out of Richmond and was on the run. On May 10, 1865 Davis was captured in Georgia. In an attempt to disguise him, he was dressed as a fail woman, complete with shawl!
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