The Hour of Peril

[Thomas Thorne]

I just "The Hour of Peril." It is very well done and very easy reading.

The author makes the point that not only did Pinkerton and his operatives come to believe that there WAS a Baltimore plot to kill Lincoln but Gen. Scott also determined independently of Pinkerton that there was a much wider conspiracy than Pinkerton alleged. Initially Dorothea Dix informed a railroad president of plans to seize Washington and destroy rail lines to prevent Union troop movements. Pinkerton was asked to investigate these matters and only later discovered the assassination conspiracy.

I did not know that some of the very same people accused by Pinkerton of complicity in the murder conspiracy had earlier been compelled to testify before a congressional committee about plans to seize Washington. I also did not know that almost 24 hours prior to Lincoln's scheduled public arrival in Baltimore,a train with sleeper berths arrived in Baltimore. A group of toughs searched the whole train evidently searching for someone-Lincoln?- and checked every car and sleeping berth. They did not realize that two of the occupants of one the sleeping berths they accosted were a bewildered Vice President elect Hamlin and his wife.
Tom