A Spooked Horse and a Holey Hat
President Lincoln was the subject of numerous assassination attempts. In 1864, 9 months before he was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth, he was riding to the Old Soldier’s Home outside of Washington DC, alone. A gun shot rang out, and his horse spooked. President Lincoln arrived, without his hat, at the old Soldier’s Home. The following day, two soldiers went looking for the hat, and discovered it on the path, with a musketball hole through the side.
President Lincoln, for his part, dismissed the incident as a likely hunting accident. He told the soldiers that rumors of an assassination plot would be more dangerous to the Union’s cause than silence. Later, he shared the story as s Sleepy Hollow-esque anecdote among friends.
“I can’t bring myself to believe that any one has shot at me or will deliberately shoot at me with the deliberate purpose of killing me.” – Abraham Lincoln
The Baltimore Plot
1861 Crowd waiting for Lincoln. Photo via wikipedia.
What later became known as the Baltimore plot and the Pinkerton plot was actually prevented largely as a result of the efforts of railroad magnate Samuel Morse Felton. In the North, President Lincoln was popular, but the South was already nervous before his inauguration. As Lincoln and his wife Mary planned their journey to Washington, D.C. by rail and without a military escort, Felton heard rumors of an assassination plan that would include the capture of railroads leading to Washington, D.C. and the seizure of the Capitol.
Felton called in professional help – the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. Allan Pinkerton was shocked by what Felton told him, but took the plot seriously and set about preventing it.
Pinkerton hired Harry Davies, a young man who had grown up in New Orleans and had the uncanny ability to adapt himself to any situation, pick up new languages quickly, and blend in almost anywhere. The pair began their investigation in Baltimore, at that point, a slaveholding city with a strong secessionist political atmosphere.
Portrait of Private Eye Allan Pinkerton. Photo via wikipedia.
Meanwhile, Lincoln planned an open arrival to D.C., with frequent stops along the route where he would meet the public. He also continued to receive death threats ranging from the expected (knife, gunshot, physical assault) to the highly unusual (spider-filled dumpling, poisoned ink) variety.
By February 17, 1861, both Pinkerton and Davies had encountered members of a plot to kill Lincoln. They had originally assumed that the danger was to the rail line, but now it became clear – the real threat was to the President-elect. The man behind the plot was the barber at Burnam’s hotel in Baltimore, a Sicilian immigrant by the name of Ferrandini.
Cipriano Ferrandini, accused but never indicted, of plotting to assassinate Lincoln. Photo via wikipedia.
Pinkerton sent word to one Sen. Judd, a member of Lincoln’s traveling “suite” and an associate of Pinkerton’s. Sen. Judd believed that Lincoln would not agree to a change in travel plans, and he was largely correct. Eventually, the pair was able to convince the President-elect to disguise himself and skip the Baltimore leg of the trip – a feat which required the help of a Governor, a female detective, a private train, Lincoln’s personal guard, and Pinkerton himself. On the morning of February 23, 1861, Lincoln’s train arrived as scheduled without Lincoln or his wife on it. They had passed through in the middle of the night. According to Pinkerton, a mob was to attack the President-elect with knives.
“Plums delivered nuts safely.” – Pinkerton’s telegraph that the President was safe.
Lincoln in disguise by Harper’s Weekly, 1861.
---Got this out of an article. I hope it helps! (:
