Honoring Our Legacy; Inspiring Our Future

Introduction

For several decades, stagecoaches were often used to transport mail, especially in areas without railway access. The minders of these stagecoaches faced a constant threat of being robbed, while contending with the hardships of a growing country—limited roads, rough terrain, and hostile attacks by Native Americans.

The Death of Agent C.M. Davis

One of the first special agents on record who died in the line of duty was Charles M. Davis. Davis’s role as a special agent was to protect the mail on stagecoaches on the Overland Trail—a stagecoach and wagon road that later became a vital train route linking rural towns throughout the American West.

On May 31, 1867, a Wells Fargo stagecoach transporting the mail departed Julesburg, Colorado Territory with nine passengers, two drivers, and Special Agent Davis. On the morning of June 2, 1867, a group of Native Americans attacked the stagecoach near Moore’s Ranch in Colorado. One of the stagecoach drivers, Andrew Holderly, was killed instantly, and Special Agent Davis was severely wounded.

Despite being wounded, Davis helped protect the other passengers and fought off the attackers. Davis was rushed to the nearest doctor in Fort Sedgwick, CO, but his wounds proved to be fatal. He died three days later, June 5, 1867.

When attacks like this occurred, they often delayed and, in many cases, destroyed the mail being carried. Special agents back then, just as postal inspectors do today, recovered mail from attacks and natural disasters and reported undeliverable pieces of mail.

Special Agent Allan Pinkerton

The Postal Inspection Service has a long history of employing and developing the country’s most skilled and dedicated investigators. Allan Pinkerton gained a notoriety and a reputation that led to his appointment as a special agent with the Post Office Department.

Pinkerton first made his mark as an investigator as a private citizen, when he helped to track and take down a band of counterfeiters on Fox Island, off the coast of Washington State. His success led him to be appointed as the sheriff in Kane County, IL, and he eventually became Chicago’s first police detective. He was then appointed as a special agent of the Post Office Department to specifically assist with train robberies and counterfeiting. After his relatively short tenure as a special agent, he retired from the Post Office Department and formed his own detective agency, the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The success of his agency—which included stopping an alleged assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln—brought him national recognition. Pinkerton was later given the responsibility of securing intelligence for Union Army Generals during the Civil War.

After the Civil War, Pinkerton gained further attention when he created his “Rogues’ Gallery—a collection of news clippings, case files, and mugshots to identify suspects and support research in criminal cases. A more advanced system would not be put into place until the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) created a criminal library in the 1900s. Pinkerton assisted with federal agency investigations, including those of the Post Office Department, until his retirement. The Pinkerton Agency still exists today as a private security group.

David B. Parker and Civil War Mail

The Civil War necessitated many changes for the Post Office Department, and new tasks for special agents. Communication was largely disrupted, especially to soldiers. Prior to becoming a special agent, David B. Parker created a system for the delivery of military mail. In 1862, the only successful military unit to receive and dispatch military mail was the 72nd New York Regiment, Parker’s assigned unit. Parker moved between the regiment and Washington, D.C., ensuring the delivery of all soldiers’ mail. Parker was quickly promoted to second lieutenant and placed in charge of all mail for the Army of the Potomac. In 1863, Lt. Parker noticed soldiers struggling to receive money from family and introduced the money order system within the Army. The money order system had already proven to be successful in large cities and was formally installed in the Army on February 2, 1865, with Parker in charge.

When Parker’s time in the military was over, General Ulysses S. Grant insisted on making him a special agent of the Post Office Department to continue his work in the military mail system, and to help re-establish postal systems in Virginia after the fall of the Confederate Army. In 1868, Parker left the Post Office until 1876, when then-President Grant requested Parker’s assistance in a mail crime of “swindling” tied to the president’s own brother-in-law, who was eventually exonerated, appointing Parker as chief special agent. Parker stayed in this position until 1884, during which time he strengthened the railway mail system, rural free delivery, and the money order system, while also investigating crimes perpetrated using the mail.(8)

Absalom Markland and Civil War Mail

While David B. Parker was the key to successful military mail delivery, Absalom Markland, another special agent of the Post Office, was responsible for the mobilization of all Union mail and the establishment of communication between President Abraham Lincoln and Union generals.

Markland was raised in Kentucky in a well-to-do family and was sent to the Maysville Academy in the Ohio Valley as a young boy. Here, he met his lifelong friend, Ulysses S. Grant, who would later help launch Markland’s successful career. Markland was appointed a special agent of the Post Office Department in 1861, and charged with investigating fraud, theft, and misconduct. It wasn’t long, however, before Markland’s responsibilities expanded to include establishing mail services to mobile Union troops without giving up the movement and location of soldiers to the Confederacy. Markland became a critical asset to Grant’s troops, attending meetings with President Lincoln and carrying that intelligence to the Union generals. His secrecy and bravery quickly earned him the honorary title of Colonel. No other special agent of the Post Office Department has had Markland’s breadth of civil and military authority during war.

After the war, Markland was promoted to assistant postmaster general, at a time when the Ku Klux Klan waged its reign of intimidation and terror. Grant and Markland agreed that hiring former enslaved people in the Post Office Department would help support their newfound freedom. Yet, violence on Black postal workers became a constant issue. After an attack on William Gibson, a black postal worker and Markland’s friend, Markland urged more constitutional protection. Markland’s efforts resulted in Congress passing the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. At the end of his life, Markland, although plagued with hearing loss, remained influential as an author, political insider, and an honorable member within veteran organizations.(9)

The Civil War was the first war in the United States in which soldiers earned pensions for their service. This led to a rise of schemes to scam veterans and their families out of their hard-earned money. In 1872, the U.S. Congress passed the Mail Fraud Statute to combat fraud against veterans, along with the growing number of illegal schemes conducted using the mail.

Anthony Comstock

Directly after the Mail Fraud Statute was enacted, one of the most controversial special agents in the agency’s history came on board. Anthony Comstock utilized his position to restrict from the mail what he described as “obscenity,” including communications about prostitution, gambling, birth control, and abortion. Based on Comstock’s campaigning, Congress passed the Comstock Act of 1873, which increased punishment for those caught mailing such materials. The Comstock Act also widened Post Office agents’ authority to investigate and arrest people using the mail for get-rich-quick schemes, lotteries, and medical quackery. Shortly after the passage of the Comstock Act, Anthony Comstock was appointed as a special agent and enthusiastically worked to enforce the act that bore his name.(10)

From Special Agent to Post Office Inspector

By 1880, special agents had earned a new title — “Post Office Inspector” — to differentiate themselves from other special agents.

The 1880s were a time of rapid growth of railroads. The Civil War proved the vitality of railroads for shipping and communication purposes, as well as providing faster transportation of citizens to the expanding West. The growth of railroads and the Railway Mail System led to an increase in targeted train robberies that would continue until the 1930s. While train robberies were nothing new to postal inspectors, their frequency and brutality drastically increased during this time, due in large part to the growing number of organized crime rings that developed.