Title: Pinkerton agents looking at bridges Description: A photograph of Pinkerton agents looking at the condition of bridges over which Union supplies went to the battle areas during the American Civil War (1861-1865); some bridges were damaged or destroyed in each Union Army advance or retreat, and engineers had to rebuild them; Pinkerton men were kept busy doing surveillance of bridges throughout the war; they were employed by Allan Pinkerton (August 25, 1819-July 1, 1884), a Scottish-born American detective and spy who created the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first detective agency of the United States; Pinkerton served as head of the Union Intelligence Service in 1861-1862, and foiled a reported assassination plot while guarding Lincoln in Baltimore, Maryland, on the president-elect's way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C.; the Union Intelligence Service was the forerunner of the U.S. Secret Service. Study Application Notes: Abraham Lincoln ("Honest Abe," "The Rail Splitter," "The Great Emancipator"), born February 25, 1809 in a log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, died April 15, 1865 in Washington, D.C.; sixteenth President of the U.S. (1861-1865); Lincoln was self-taught, moving at age twenty-two to Illinois in 1831, working on a flatboat, then later as a rail-splitter and store clerk, until moving to Springfield, Illinois to work as a lawyer in 1837; he served four terms as a state representative from Sangamon County, Illinois as a Whig; he married Mary Todd (Mary Anne Todd; December 13, 1818-July 16, 1882) in 1842, a union that produced four sons: Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843-July 26, 1926); Edward "Eddie" Baker Lincoln (March 10, 1846-February 1, 1850); William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln (December 21, 1850-February 20, 1862); and Thomas "Tad" Lincoln (April 4, 1853-July 16, 1871); Background Information: Lincoln was narrowly elected the sixteenth President of the U.S. in 1860 as a Republican. He worked hard to preserve the Union, though eleven southern States had seceded and a Civil War ensued; his Emancipation Proclamation, announced on September 22, 1862 and put into effect on January 1, 1863, essentially freed the slaves and, with his Gettysburg Address, are some of the greatest documents ever produced by an American President; Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. shot by American stage actor John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838-April 26, 1865) and died the next day; Lincoln is buried in the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois; several films profile Lincoln, the most notable being Abraham Lincoln (1930), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940); Category: Political Figures Topic: U.S. Presidents Subject: Abraham Lincoln Keywords: Abraham Lincoln Collection, American Civil War (1861-1865), assassinations, bridges, detectives, inauguration, Pinkertons, spies, U.S. presidents, Union Intelligence Service, U.S. Secret Service. Orientation: Portrait Dimensions: 2700 x 3307 (8.93 MPixels) (1.22) Print Size: 22.9 x 28.0 cm; 9.0 x 11.0 inches File Size: 25.58 MB (26,818,614 Bytes) Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi Color Depth: 16.7 million (24 BitsPerPixel) Compression: None Image Number: 0000530178 Source: Jay Robert Nash Collection
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