.gif)
Lewis Powell (assassin)
Encyclopedia
Lewis Thornton Powell also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State
William H. Seward
, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.
on April 22, 1844 to a Baptist minister, George Cader, and his young wife Patience Caroline Powell. The youngest of nine children, he spent the first three years of his life in Randolph County before his father was ordained and the family moved to Stewart County, Georgia
. Powell and his siblings were all educated by their father who was the local schoolmaster. In his early years, Lewis was described as quiet and introverted, and well liked among others. He enjoyed fishing, reading, and studying. An animal lover who took the liberty to nurse and care for sick and stray animals, he earned the nickname "Doc" from his sisters for his hospitality. When Lewis was 13, he was violently kicked in the face by the family's donkey, breaking his jaw. The break healed in a manner making his jaw more prominent on the left side of his face. After some years in Stewart County, the family moved to Worth County, then finally moving to Live Oak
, Florida
in 1859, when Lewis was 15.
. Sometime in November, 1862, he was hospitalized for "sickness" at General Hospital #11 in Richmond, Virginia
. He went on to fight at numerous battles unscathed before being wounded in the wrist on the second day of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg
, July 2, 1863, from where he was captured and sent to a POW hospital at Pennsylvania College
. Powell stayed at Pennsylvania College until September, when he was transferred to West Buildings Hospital in Baltimore
, Maryland. It was at West Buildings where Powell met and developed a relationship with a volunteer nurse named Margaret "Maggie" Branson. It was believed that it was with the help of Branson that Lewis was able to escape from the hospital within a week of his arrival, fleeing to Alexandria, Virginia
.
Back in Virginia, he located Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his cavalry in late fall 1863 and rode with the 43rd Battalion, Company B. After leaving the company, he returned to Baltimore on January 13, 1865, crossing the lines at Alexandria. Powell returned to the boarding house of Maggie Branson. During his time with the Rangers, in 1864, Powell became involved in the Confederate Secret Service
. It was in Baltimore that he was arrested for severely beating a black servant at the Branson house. He was arrested and held in jail 2 days on charges of being a "spy". Required to sign an Oath of Allegiance, he did so, under the name Lewis Paine. It was also in Baltimore that he met fellow CSS operative John Surratt
through a man named David Preston Parr, also with the CSS.
On April 13, Booth, George Atzerodt
and David Herold
all met at Powell's room at a boarding house in Washington, where Booth assigned roles. On April 14, Powell was to go to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward
and kill him, accompanied by Herold. Atzerodt was to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson
; he would fail because he lost his nerve and got drunk. Booth was to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, a task he completed
.
On April 14, 1865, Powell was escorted to the Seward residence by David Herold. Powell gained entry into the house by claiming that he had medicine for Seward from Dr. Verdi. (Earlier in the month, on April 5, 1865, Seward had been injured in a carriage accident, and suffered a concussion, a broken jaw, a broken right arm, and many serious bruises. He was at home convalescing.) Powell then attempted to kill William Seward by breaking into his bedroom and stabbing him repeatedly. A jaw splint worn by Seward helped to save his life by deflecting the knife away from his jugular vein. Powell also injured Seward's two eldest sons (Augustus and Frederick
), his assigned military nurse, Sergeant George F. Robinson, and messenger Emerick Hansell, who arrived right as Powell was escaping.
After the attempt on Seward's life, Powell threw his bloody knife up into the gutter of the Seward house and fled on horseback. He discarded his light-colored coat in a Washington suburb cemetery where he hid. At some point, the horse, purchased by John Wilkes Booth in December 1864, that Powell was riding either threw him or he fell off. The horse was later found near the Lincoln Branch Barracks, close to the Capitol. After hiding out in a tree for three days, Powell went to Mary Surratt
's boardinghouse only to arrive at the same time that she was being arrested for her part in the assassination. Although it was night time, when asked why he was there, carrying a pickaxe, Powell claimed that he had been hired to dig a gutter. Surratt denied knowing who he was, despite his having visited and stayed at the boardinghouse on several occasions. Powell was arrested and taken to the Navy Yard, where he was housed aboard the monitor USS Saugus
.
. He was represented by William E. Doster, a Yale
and Harvard
graduate the former District of Columbia provost marshal. Thirty two witnesses were called to testify concerning Powell, including Seward's son, Augustus, and William Bell, who worked for the Seward household as a servant and doorman, and who admitted Powell the night of the assassination attempt.
The evidence was overwhelming against Powell; it included a performance at Ford Theatre attended by Powell, John Wilkes Booth, and two boarders from Mary Surratt's boardinghouse, Honora Fitzpatrick and Apollonia Dean. Doster tried to argue that Powell was insane at the time of the assassination attempt, an argument refuted by physicians called on behalf of the prosecution. He then argued that Powell was acting as a soldier, attempting to complete his duty as he had been ordered. The commission rejected this defense as well and Powell was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and treason.
Powell was executed with three other conspirators on July 7, 1865. He went to the gallows calmly and quietly, though at some point he was believed to have pleaded for the life of Mary Surratt
shortly before he was hanged. His spiritual advisor, Rev. Gillette, thanked the guards for their good treatment of him while he was in prison, on his behalf. He insisted to his death that Mrs. Surratt was innocent.
While hangman Christian Rath was placing the noose over young Powell's head he remarked, "I hope you die quick." He had been impressed by Powell's courage and determination in the face of death. To this Powell replied, "You know best, captain." However Powell did not die quickly as hoped by Rath. After the drop he struggled for life more than five minutes. His body swinging wildly, twice he "Moved his legs up into the sitting position" and was the last to die. Mary Surratt
died instantly with a broken neck. David Herold
gave a brief shudder. George Atzerodt
, whose neck did not break upon impact, also shuddered for several minutes before dying.
, next to the grave of his mother.
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.
Early life
Lewis Powell was born in Randolph County, AlabamaRandolph County, Alabama
Randolph County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama.Its name is in honor of John Randolph, a member of the United States Senate from Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 22,913. Its county seat is Wedowee...
on April 22, 1844 to a Baptist minister, George Cader, and his young wife Patience Caroline Powell. The youngest of nine children, he spent the first three years of his life in Randolph County before his father was ordained and the family moved to Stewart County, Georgia
Stewart County, Georgia
Stewart County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 23, 1830. The 2010 Census reflected a population of 6,058. The 2009 Census Estimate shows a population of 4,558. The county seat is Lumpkin.-History:...
. Powell and his siblings were all educated by their father who was the local schoolmaster. In his early years, Lewis was described as quiet and introverted, and well liked among others. He enjoyed fishing, reading, and studying. An animal lover who took the liberty to nurse and care for sick and stray animals, he earned the nickname "Doc" from his sisters for his hospitality. When Lewis was 13, he was violently kicked in the face by the family's donkey, breaking his jaw. The break healed in a manner making his jaw more prominent on the left side of his face. After some years in Stewart County, the family moved to Worth County, then finally moving to Live Oak
Live Oak, Florida
Live Oak is a city in Suwannee County, Florida. The city is the county seat of Suwannee County and is located east of Tallahassee, Florida. The population was 6,480 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,828 ....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in 1859, when Lewis was 15.
Civil War service
On May 30, 1861 at age 17, Lewis left home and enlisted in the 2nd Florida Infantry, Company I in Jasper, FloridaJasper, Florida
Jasper is a city in Hamilton County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,780 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 1,848 . It is the county seat of Hamilton County. The United Methodist Church in Jasper, Florida is on the National Register...
. Sometime in November, 1862, he was hospitalized for "sickness" at General Hospital #11 in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. He went on to fight at numerous battles unscathed before being wounded in the wrist on the second day of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
, July 2, 1863, from where he was captured and sent to a POW hospital at Pennsylvania College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
. Powell stayed at Pennsylvania College until September, when he was transferred to West Buildings Hospital in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland. It was at West Buildings where Powell met and developed a relationship with a volunteer nurse named Margaret "Maggie" Branson. It was believed that it was with the help of Branson that Lewis was able to escape from the hospital within a week of his arrival, fleeing to Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
.
Back in Virginia, he located Colonel John Singleton Mosby and his cavalry in late fall 1863 and rode with the 43rd Battalion, Company B. After leaving the company, he returned to Baltimore on January 13, 1865, crossing the lines at Alexandria. Powell returned to the boarding house of Maggie Branson. During his time with the Rangers, in 1864, Powell became involved in the Confederate Secret Service
Confederate Secret Service
Confederate Secret Service is an umbrella term for a number of official and semi-official secret service operations conducted by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.-Overview:...
. It was in Baltimore that he was arrested for severely beating a black servant at the Branson house. He was arrested and held in jail 2 days on charges of being a "spy". Required to sign an Oath of Allegiance, he did so, under the name Lewis Paine. It was also in Baltimore that he met fellow CSS operative John Surratt
John Surratt
John Harrison Surratt, Jr. was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy and hanged by the United States Federal Government...
through a man named David Preston Parr, also with the CSS.
Lincoln assassination plot
George Atzerodt
George Andreas Atzerodt was a conspirator, with John Wilkes Booth, in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Assigned to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson, he lost his nerve and did not make an attempt. He was executed along with three other conspirators by hanging.-Early life:Atzerodt...
and David Herold
David Herold
David Edgar Herold was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. After guiding fellow conspirator Lewis Powell to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward, whom Powell intended to kill, Herold fled and rendezvoused outside of Washington, D.C., with Booth...
all met at Powell's room at a boarding house in Washington, where Booth assigned roles. On April 14, Powell was to go to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
and kill him, accompanied by Herold. Atzerodt was to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
; he would fail because he lost his nerve and got drunk. Booth was to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, a task he completed
Abraham Lincoln assassination
The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, and his battered Army of...
.
Frederick W. Seward
Frederick William Seward was the Assistant Secretary of State during the American Civil War, serving in Abraham Lincoln's administration as well as under Andrew Johnson during Reconstruction and for over two years under Rutherford B...
), his assigned military nurse, Sergeant George F. Robinson, and messenger Emerick Hansell, who arrived right as Powell was escaping.
After the attempt on Seward's life, Powell threw his bloody knife up into the gutter of the Seward house and fled on horseback. He discarded his light-colored coat in a Washington suburb cemetery where he hid. At some point, the horse, purchased by John Wilkes Booth in December 1864, that Powell was riding either threw him or he fell off. The horse was later found near the Lincoln Branch Barracks, close to the Capitol. After hiding out in a tree for three days, Powell went to Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government. She was the mother of John H...
's boardinghouse only to arrive at the same time that she was being arrested for her part in the assassination. Although it was night time, when asked why he was there, carrying a pickaxe, Powell claimed that he had been hired to dig a gutter. Surratt denied knowing who he was, despite his having visited and stayed at the boardinghouse on several occasions. Powell was arrested and taken to the Navy Yard, where he was housed aboard the monitor USS Saugus
USS Saugus (1863)
USS Saugus was a monitor constructed for the Union Navy during the third year of the American Civil War. She saw most of her military action in the rivers of Virginia, including being there for the fall of Richmond, Virginia. Post-war, she was recommissioned for further service with the U.S...
.
Trial and execution
Powell was tried under the name of "Payne" by a military tribunalMilitary tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
. He was represented by William E. Doster, a Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
graduate the former District of Columbia provost marshal. Thirty two witnesses were called to testify concerning Powell, including Seward's son, Augustus, and William Bell, who worked for the Seward household as a servant and doorman, and who admitted Powell the night of the assassination attempt.
The evidence was overwhelming against Powell; it included a performance at Ford Theatre attended by Powell, John Wilkes Booth, and two boarders from Mary Surratt's boardinghouse, Honora Fitzpatrick and Apollonia Dean. Doster tried to argue that Powell was insane at the time of the assassination attempt, an argument refuted by physicians called on behalf of the prosecution. He then argued that Powell was acting as a soldier, attempting to complete his duty as he had been ordered. The commission rejected this defense as well and Powell was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and treason.
Powell was executed with three other conspirators on July 7, 1865. He went to the gallows calmly and quietly, though at some point he was believed to have pleaded for the life of Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government. She was the mother of John H...
shortly before he was hanged. His spiritual advisor, Rev. Gillette, thanked the guards for their good treatment of him while he was in prison, on his behalf. He insisted to his death that Mrs. Surratt was innocent.
While hangman Christian Rath was placing the noose over young Powell's head he remarked, "I hope you die quick." He had been impressed by Powell's courage and determination in the face of death. To this Powell replied, "You know best, captain." However Powell did not die quickly as hoped by Rath. After the drop he struggled for life more than five minutes. His body swinging wildly, twice he "Moved his legs up into the sitting position" and was the last to die. Mary Surratt
Mary Surratt
Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government. She was the mother of John H...
died instantly with a broken neck. David Herold
David Herold
David Edgar Herold was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. After guiding fellow conspirator Lewis Powell to the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward, whom Powell intended to kill, Herold fled and rendezvoused outside of Washington, D.C., with Booth...
gave a brief shudder. George Atzerodt
George Atzerodt
George Andreas Atzerodt was a conspirator, with John Wilkes Booth, in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Assigned to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson, he lost his nerve and did not make an attempt. He was executed along with three other conspirators by hanging.-Early life:Atzerodt...
, whose neck did not break upon impact, also shuddered for several minutes before dying.
Skull discovery
In January 1992, Powell's skull was discovered and stored at the Smithsonian Anthropology Department. Two years later the skull was re-interred with the rest of his remains at the Geneva Cemetery in Seminole County, FloridaSeminole County, Florida
Seminole County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. Located between Orlando to the south and Deland and Daytona Beach to the north, it is part of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. Its county seat and largest city is Sanford...
, next to the grave of his mother.
Further reading
- Ownsbey, Betty J. Alias "Paine:" Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of Lincoln Conspiracy. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, North Carolina, 1993.