Alan Pinkerton, Civil War Spy
Scot Who Headed the First US Intelligence Agency
Alan Pinkerton was an unlikely detective and spymaster. He was a Scottish immigrant, no different than many of the thousands of immigrants who were pouring into America in the 1840s. He founded a detective agency that was going to have a profound impact on American history. Historians do debate, however, whether his influence was good or bad
Alan Pinkerton’s Early Years
Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland on August 25, 1819. He was a working man, a cooper, who made barrels for a living. Alan became interested in politics as a young man, and was soon involved in the chartist movement. The Chartists demanded political reform, including extending the right to vote, but Parliament was still controlled by conservative forces. Disillusioned, Pinkerton immigrated to America with his wife in 1842. The young couple made their home in Dundee, Illinois.
Start of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency
Pinkerton took up the coopering trade once again, but while cutting hoops for barrels on an island, he came across a counterfeiting operation. After getting help, he captured the entire gang. This as the start of his detective and policing career, and he moved to Chicago. When he began his own private detective agency, with the symbol of an eye, and the motto “we never sleep.” In time, all detectives would be nicknamed “private eyes.”
Pinkerton was quite successful, and pioneered innovative techniques like “shadowing,”(surveillance of a suspect) and “assuming a role ( going undercover). The Scotsman was also notable for hiring the first full-time professional woman detective, Kate Warne.
Pinkerton and the Civil War
When the war began in 1861, General George B. McClellan summoned Pinkerton to Washington. McClellan was a former Illinois railroad executive, and he was familiar with the Scotsman and his work. At McClellan’s request Pinkerton sent secret agents into the Confederacy. Pinkerton himself went south, some say as far as Mississippi. The information on Confederate troop strengths helped the Union cause in the early weeks of the conflict.
Pinkerton’s operation in Washington D.C. was the first organized intelligence gathering agency in U.S. history. The Pinkertons did an outstanding job, particularly in gathering vital information from prisoners, deserters, and runaway slaves. They also exposed and caught a number of Confederate spies.
The canny Scott was not without some flaws. While secrecy is important, Pinkerton became obsessed with it. Not even Edwin M Stanton, the formidable Secretary of War, could get Pinkerton to reveal the names of his agents in the field. Even pay vouchers when to “Operative D,” “Operative X,” and so on.
When General McClellan was relieved of command in 1862, Pinkerton resigned as head of the U.S. Intelligence for the Army of the Potomac. He went back to more mundane detective work, and ran his Pinkerton Agency as before.
Alan Pinkerton’s Later Years
The late nineteenth century was a time of great labor unrest. Strikes and violence were commonplace in the industrial areas of America. Unfortunately, all too often corporate bosses used the Pinkertons as armed guards and strike breakers. This is ironic, since Pinkerton himself began as a working man. Alan Pinkerton died in 1884, but his agency still survives today
Sources:
James Macay, Alan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye (NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1997)
James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford University Press, 1988)
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