Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/3

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Allan Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a U.S. detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton Agency, the first detective agency. Pinkerton was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to William Pinkerton and his wife Isabell, in 1819. Prior to his service with the Union Army, he developed several investigative techniques that are still used today. Among them are "shadowing" (surveillance of a suspect) and "assuming a role" (undercover work). Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Pinkerton served as head of the Union Intelligence Service in 1861–62 and foiled an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland, while guarding Abraham Lincoln on his way to his inauguration. His agents often worked undercover as Confederate soldiers and sympathizers, in an effort to gather military intelligence. Pinkerton served several undercover missions under the alias of Major E.J. Allen.

Following Pinkerton's service with the Union Army, he continued his pursuit of train robbers and also sought to stem the infiltration of secret terrorist labor organizations. Pinkerton died in Chicago, Illinois on July 1, 1884 as a result of infection after biting his tongue when he slipped on a sidewalk. At the time of his death, he was working on a system that would centralize all criminal identification records, a database now maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Buried in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, Pinkerton is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.