05/18/2026
On February 11, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln left his hometown of Springfield, Illinois, on the journey that would take him to Washington D.C. for his inauguration. Along the way he stopped and made speeches at over a dozen cities, where he was warmly greeted. But as he was preparing to leave Philadelphia, where over 100,000 people had come out to see him, Lincoln was given some alarming news.
Allen Pinkerton, whose detective agency had been hired by the railroad to handle security for the journey, advised Lincoln that he had discovered a plot to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore. Pinkerton would later write in his memoir that after one of his agents learned of a plot being orchestrated by Cipriano Ferrandini, an ardently pro-Confederate Sicilian immigrant, he personally attended a meeting of conspirators in which Ferrandini declared, “He (Lincoln) must die, and die he shall. And if necessary, we will all die together.”
Whether Pinkerton actually heard Ferrandini make the threat is debatable (Ferrandini would later deny it) but the possibility that Lincoln might be attacked while passing through the strongly pro-secession city of Baltimore (where a change of trains was required) was certainly plausible. Warning Lincoln that a mob would be waiting to murder him when he changed trains in Baltimore, Pinkerton insisted that Lincoln skip the remaining scheduled events in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, and instead travel directly to Washington that night. Unpersuaded, Lincoln declined.
Meanwhile General Winfield Scott had also received intelligence of a “Baltimore plot.” He conveyed his concerns to William Seward, who sent his son Frederick to Philadelphia to warn Lincoln. Ten minutes after Lincoln left the meeting with Pinkerton, Frederick Seward arrived at his hotel, delivering a letter from his father warning Lincoln of an assassination threat in Baltimore.
The dual warnings from Pinkerton and Seward caused Lincoln, reluctantly, to agree to a change in plans. He went ahead with his planned speeches in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, but on the night of February 22, wearing a disguise and accompanied by his heavily armed bodyguard, Lincoln went to the Philadelphia train station, where Pinkerton and his agent Kate Warne (subject of a previous Dose) were waiting. They escorted him onto a nearly empty sleeper train to Baltimore and at about 3:30 a.m. the train arrived in Baltimore. Lincoln and his security detail made their way to the other station without incident, and they arrived in the capital at 6 a.m. on February 23.
When news of Lincoln’s covert travel through Baltimore broke, his critics howled, ridiculing him, accusing him of weakness and cowardice, and claiming that he traveled through the city dressed as a woman. In fact, Lincoln’s disguise was only to substitute a felt cap for this trademark stovepipe hat, to drape an overcoat over his shoulder, and to walk with a stoop to conceal his height. And the decision to slip through Baltimore that way was based entirely on what seemed to be credible and dangerous threats, and in reliance on the firm advice of Pinkerton and Seward. Lincoln would later confide to a friend that he never believed that he would be assassinated in Baltimore and only went along with the plan because Pinkerton and Seward insisted on it. Nevertheless, the accusations of cowardice would hound him for the rest of his life.
Abraham Lincoln left Philadelphia on his secret trip through Baltimore on February 22, 1861, one hundred sixty-five years ago today.
The 1863 illustration, by Baltimore artist Adalbert Volck, depicts Lincoln, in disguise, sneaking through Baltimore hiding in a cattle car.
