Albert D. Richardson

Albert Deane Richardson (October 6, 1833 - December 2, 1869) was a well-known American journalist, Union spy, and author.

Timeline

• Born in Franklin, Massachusetts, October 6, 1833
• Obtained first job with newspaper, Pittsburgh Journal, 1851.
• Married Mary Louise Pease, April 1855.
• Correspondent for the Boston Journal, 1857.
• Edited The Western Mountaineer of Golden City, Colorado, 1860.
• Journalist for the New York Daily Tribune.
• Captured by the Confederates at Vicksburg, May 3, 1863.
• Wife and daughter died.
• Escaped Salisbury, NC, prison, December 18, 1864.
• Shot by Daniel McFarland, March 14, 1867.
• Wrote Through to the Pacific for the New York Tribune, May–June, 1869.
• Shot again by Daniel McFarland, November 25, 1869.
• Married Abby Sage McFarland, November, 1869; marriage performed by Henry Ward Beecher.
• Died December 2, 1869 (McFarland acquitted in a sensational trial).

A Tragic Affair

Richardson was one of the best known reporters of his age, due to his abilities as a writer and his services (during the American Civil War) as a Union spy. Unfortunately his reputation is recalled as the victim of a homicide that gained considerable notoriety in the Gilded Age. Richardson's wife and daughter had died during the war, and he subsequently met Abby Sage McFarland, an actress married to one Daniel McFarland. McFarland claimed to be a major businessman and politician, but basically he was a violent husband and alcoholic with connections with Tammany Hall. Richardson and...
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