Dreaming, Part lll

Today's story continues from the last 2 blogs about Allan Pinkerton, his Canadian connection,  his detective agency and it's work for different US railways.

This work soon saw him being appointed  as the personal bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln. As such, while conducting railway investigations Pinkerton heard of a very serious plot to assassinate the President Elect before his Washington DC inauguration took place.

It was to take place along the route from Springfield Ill. to DC.

This is the route Lincoln would take from his home to the nation's capital. (Ironically it would be the same route he would take, in reverse, after he was  assassinated by John Wilkes Booth several years later.)

The would-be assassins had a plan to be initiated in the  Baltimore area. But Pinkerton changed the route from the normal line through Baltimore to another that had arrival much earlier and the actual disconnecting of a sleeping car in Baltimore and hauled a mile across town by carriages, the hook-up with another line, and then on to DC, which proved a success.

To hide Lincoln's identity,  Pinkerton trained him to shuffle along,  bent over with use of a cane, the wearing of a wig and woman's hat and being accompanied by a female aid. (one of his female detectives.)
 
The  press later had great fun with the guise...that actually worked.  Here is an example....

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Arriving in DC at about 6 am they went directly to one of the best hotel's in town...Willard's, just a block away from the White House. There they quickly fled into the plush hotel through its Pennsylvania Avenue women's entrance on 14th Street and  were quickly given a room.

The hotel location is indicated by the blue dot. But at the time, the entrance to the hotel, much smaller than today, was,  I believe a block south of that indicated above. Below is an image of the hotel in the 1860's.

And somewhat improved, here is an image of the hotel currently...

President Elect Abraham Lincoln would stay at Willard's until his being sworn in and moving into the White House on 4 March 1861.

Soon after arrival in DC, Pinkerton would send a telegram to his employers that..."Plums delivered Nuts Safely".  He apparently was... "Plums."

Willard's hotel is about 7 blocks away from the Canadian  Embassy. Had I known about the hotel whist in DC several years ago, I would have visited it. But like probably a thousand and more that walk to or past the hotel daily, I suspect that they do not see two very important plaques on the wall to the right of the main entrance into Willard's.

Here they are....

At the very time Abraham Lincoln was staying at Willard's the above noted secret conference was on going. More than just dreaming... it  was an attempt to  resolve the issues between all the states and to try to end the move toward war that would ultimately start with the Fort Sumter bombings on 12 April 1862. (In a few months it will be 160 yrs ago that tragic war started. 

Latest estimates indicate that some 750,000 deaths occurred during the 4 year war. Two out of every 3 were by disease rather  than in battle.

Next week I will bring the final blog on this subject.

Hope you will join me then, and like always, I enjoy getting your comments.

Cheers
Bart