A Savvy Sleuth!

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Seventeenth Installment) about Sarah and Angelina Grimké, I promised I’d feature another woman of Civil War times who was “A Savvy Sleuth!” Let me now present to you:

Kate Warne (1833 – 1868)

What of Kate’s accomplishments made her a savvy sleuth?

In 1856, at the age of twenty-three, she became the very first female detective for the Pinkerton Agency and for the United States when, in July 1861, Allan Pinkerton took her along to help command Union General George B. McClellan’s newly created military intelligence unit.

Besides other high-profile cases which Kate successfully foiled before, during, and after the Civil War, she is most notable for:

Unearthing the particulars of a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on his way to his first inaugural as president of the United States. Then, Kate thwarted the traitorous deed by disguising Lincoln as her invalid brother and personally escorting him safely to Washington City (as Washington, D.C., was then called). Thus. . .

Kate became the first female presidential guard in the United States and a prototype for the future Secret Service!

First Side Bar: Kate stayed awake all night on the train ride, keeping a vigilant eye over Abraham Lincoln, and it is said that this gave Allan Pinkerton (pictured below) the impetus to use the all-seeing eye and motto “We Never Sleep” on his detective-agency’s badge.

Allen Pinkerton (1819 – 1884)

Afterward, Allan Pinkerton created a branch of his agency, which he called the Female Detective Bureau, and he rewarded Kate’s efforts by promoting her to “Supervisor of Women Detectives.” In fact, Allan Pinkerton would give the following speech to the new female recruits:

“In my service you will serve your country better than on the field. I have several female operatives. If you agree to come aboard you will go in training with the head of my female detectives, Kate Warne. She has never let me down.”

And, later, Allan Pinkerton called Kate one of his five, all-time, best detectives—male or female.

As much as Kate worked hard to unravel mysteries, her life prior to her work as a detective is a mystery. Besides her widowhood, we seem to only know that she was born in south-central New York State (Chemung County), and she coveted a career in acting. She certainly got the chance to do the latter with the many disguises she donned as an undercover agent.

Second Side Bar: My fictional primary character in my Glory: A Civil War Series was born and raised in Chemung County too! Additionally, in Train to Glory (Book 2 of Glory: A Civil War Series), Kate “Kitty” Warne helps Jana hunt down her kidnappers before they assassinate Jana.

Anyway, back to Kate Warne. . .

What in Kate’s background motivated her to seek work as a detective?

Her sole motivation was out of her desperation to make a living after the death of her husband.

She was actually lured to Pinkerton headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, by a Want Ad. There are conflicting reports as to whether this newspaper advertisement was for a detective or a clerical position that was filled by the time Kate arrived at the agency to stake a claim for it.

Either way, Allan Pinkerton was taken aback when she asked him for a job as a detective, and he said to her:

“It is not the custom to employ women detectives.”

But. . .he succumbed to her convincing argument that women make better spies than men because they are apt to goad things out of male braggarts and cozy up to their wives and sweethearts, out of whom they can worm more secrets. And maybe Allan Pinkerton recognized in her honest face an invaluable resource for Kate’s making friends with felons.

Legend has it that Kate and Allan Pinkerton were lovers. A good case for it could be made in Allan Pinkerton’s having buried her amongst his family’s plots at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago, Illinois) and beside where he would eventually lay in eternal peace (pictured below).

Kate Warne Cemetery Plot

NOTE: I had difficulty finding a better picture to show the inscriptions on the headstones. On Kate’s, her surname is misspelled “Warn.” Although, in disguise, she sometimes used this spelling.

Sadly, Kate died of pneumonia (congestion of the lungs, as it states on her headstone) at the youthful age of thirty-four or thirty-five (her birth month is unknown). But she left behind an eminent legacy:

She was a law enforcement agent well ahead of her time since women of the United States would have to wait until 1891 to be accepted on any police force and until 1910 to become officers.

I’ll end here with the hopes that you’ve enjoyed this post and that I’ve whet your appetite to learn more about Kate Warne at the following places:

Video on My Complimentary Civil War Women Website

Article Online at Wikipedia:
Kate Warne

Book on Amazon:
Pinkerton’s Belle – America’s First Female Detective by Eve Stephenson

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment of Pioneering Women of Civil War America, Which Promises to Feature. . .

. . .A Financial Wizard!