Daniel Stashower’s book “The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War” is about how Allan Pinkerton, America’s first private eye, saved Abraham Lincoln’s life in 1861 on his way to DC. His book details the plan cooked up by a barber named Capt. Cypriano Ferrandini, a Corsican immigrant, who was one of many secessionist sympathizers in Baltimore, who with a band of 20 planned to assassinate Lincoln changed trains in February 1861. The press reported Lincoln would change train stations in Baltimore on Feb. 23 on his way to DC. The book is about how Pinkerton discovered the assassination plot and got the President-elect
safely to DC.