I was watching the Ken Burns "Civil War" documentary series earlier this month and it simply astounds me how little care seemed to be taken for Lincoln's personal security. This was despite many, many seemingly obvious red flags including:

Confederate agents, only a few months prior, had set a series of fires in New York with the intent to cause widespread destruction and civil disorder. Though the fires were contained only one of the agents were ever captured.

Lincoln was well aware that the Confederacy had spies in the north, several having been caught in previous years, such as Belle Boyd.

Lincoln himself, since before the beginning of the war, had been very personally vilified and hated by southerners and, as some may have seen in the news, even continues to be to this day.

So knowing that the Confederacy had covert agents in the north, knowing that they were capable of planning large scale operations like the New York fires and putting them into motion, and knowing that he was personally hated by the south, it boggles the mind why he seemed to have such little personal protection.

If anyone could give context to this I would be extremely interested in hearing about it!

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