Allan Pinkerton

Civil War in Washington DC: The Willard Hotel and President Lincoln’s Inauguration

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

By 1860, the Willard Hotel, located at 1401 Pennsylvania NW, was a center of activity in the bustling capital then known as Washington City.

The South began seceding after Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. He had to travel from Illinois to Washington City for his inauguration.

Allan Pinkerton, head of Pinkerton National Detective Agency, learned of assassination plots for president-elect Lincoln’s life in Baltimore. He feared that he would be killed. Though Lincoln was reluctant to believe his life was in danger, he agreed to Pinkerton’s alternate travel plans. It meant that his family would come later. Ward Hill Lamon was Lincoln’s bodyguard.

Unfortunately, secrecy was required to ensure Lincoln’s safety. That meant he arrived at dawn in Washington City without the fanfare that normally accompanies such an event.

The president-elect was ushered into the less-crowded ladies’ entrance to Willard Hotel on 14th Street where one of the Willard brothers met him on February 23, 1861.

Many people ridiculed Lincoln for sneaking into the city and he soon regretted his decision.

Mary and the boys arrived and the family stayed in a comfortable second-floor suite.

Henry Willard learned that Lincoln had forgotten to pack his bedroom slippers and talked to his wife. She offered him a colorful pair that she recently knitted for her grandfather. Lincoln borrowed them for the remainder of his stay.

Mary Todd Lincoln didn’t receive the same warm welcome from the Washington society ladies at the hotel. They seemed to dislike her from the beginning.

Abraham Lincoln stayed at Willard Hotel for ten days. Then his Inauguration Day arrived. On March 4, 1861, over 25,000 people gathered at the Capitol to witness the swearing in of the sixteenth president.

No one could have foreseen the turmoil of the next four years on that cloudy, blustery day.

The Willard Hotel is steeped in history. There is a scene at this hotel in my novel, Avenue of Betrayal, Book 1 of my “Spies of the Civil War” series, where the characters dine there. I was thrilled to use such an important location as part of the story.  

Sources

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington, Ballantine Books, 2004.

Selected by Dennett, Tyler. Lincoln and the Civil War In the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1939.

“The Willard Hotel,” White House History, 2020/06/11 https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-willard-hotel.

“The Willard Hotel in the 19th Century,” Streets of Washington, 2020/06/11 http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2012/07/the-willard-hotel-in-19th-century.html.

Waller, Douglas. Lincoln’s Spies, Simon & Schuster, 2019.

The Spy of the Rebellion by Allan Pinkerton

/ sandramervillehart

by Sandra Merville Hart

Being A True History of the Spy System of the United States Army During the Late Rebellion

Allan Pinkerton had established the Pinkerton National Detective Agency before the Civil War. General George McClellan hired Pinkerton, who used his detectives to spy on the Confederates.

This book reads like a fiction novel. The book was published in 1883, and Pinkerton’s formal ties to the United States Secret Service ended in 1862. Pinkerton also admits that most of his records were burned in the Great Chicago Fire and he wrote the book from memory. The passage of 21 years since the events as well as the loss of precious written records led to some inconsistencies.

I read this to research Pinkerton’s agency for a novel I’m writing. Subsequent research from nonfiction sources have referenced Pinkerton’s The Spy of the Rebellion as part fiction. I’ve learned from other sources which provide specific names and dates not to trust all the details in this book.

Either way, I must say that this is a fascinating story that I couldn’t put down. The author tells an enthralling story. It’s true to the language, customs, and beliefs of the period and is well worth the read.