The Spy of the Rebellion

Allan Pinkerton was the founder of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency. In early 1861, while employed by the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, Pinkerton discovered and thwarted a plot (the "Baltimore Plot") to assassinate President-elect Lincoln. Working for General McClellan, Pinkerton organized a secret service for the Department of the Ohio and the Army of Potomac. Pinkerton's successes came primarily in the counterintelligence field, and his exploits in the realm of posit...