Allan Pinkerton
by Krysta CardinaleAllan Pinkerton was born August 25, 1819 and died July 1, 1884. Pinkerton was both a successful U.S. detective and a spy for the Union army during the Civil War. He was born in Scotland in a town called Glasgow. Allan Pinkerton immigrated to the United States in 1842. He was named Chicago’s first detective in 1849 and created the Pinkerton Agency. In the 1950’s, with the expanding railroad, Pinkerton and his partners solved a series of train robberies. Due to his success, Allan Pinkerton became acquainted with George McClellan and Abraham Lincoln.
At the start of the Civil War, Allan Pinkerton was the owner of a successful detective agency, but became the Chief of Intelligence for the Army of the Potomac. Pinkerton was in charge of gathering intelligence on the Confederate army, and for counterintelligence activity against enemy agents. The information he gathered came from comprehensive interviews he conducted with various sources. These informants included Confederate army deserters, businessmen (with ties to both factions), prisoners of war, civilians who looked for refuge from the fighting, and former slaves. Of all these sources, Allan Pinkerton discovered that the former slaves had the most information on the occurrences in the Confederacy. In addition, they were also the most willing to divulge the details of what they knew regarding fortifications, camps and supply points.
With this in mind, Pinkerton focused his efforts on the former slaves. He instructed his operatives to seek out slaves who appeared to have some schooling, or who were adept at gathering and retaining military specifics and jargon. Of the many who were interviewed, Pinkerton whittled it down to a small group that he worked with to gather intelligence on the enemy. One of Allan Pinkerton's most trusted black informants was John Scobell. Scobell was a former slave from Mississippi who had been educated by his former owner and subsequently freed. In addition to his use of former slaves, Pinkerton’s white agents often worked “undercover” as Confederate soldiers or sympathizers. Allan Pinkerton himself even made several mission undercover as “Major E.J. Allen.”
After the Civil War
In 1862, Allan Pinkerton was replaced by Lafayette Baker as Chief of Intelligence. After serving the Union, Pinkerton went back to solving train robberies. He invented methods that detectives still use today including “shadowing” (surveillance), and “assuming a role” (undercover work).
On July 1, 1884 Allan Pinkerton died due to an infection. He was working on a centralized database for criminal identification that the FBI still uses today. For his work in the Civil War and his career as a detective, Pinkerton was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
