Lewis
Thornton Powell, the son of a Baptist preacher, was born in Randolph
County, Alabama, on 22nd April, 1844. The family moved to Florida
in 1859 and Powell worked supervising his father's plantation until
the outbreak of the American Civil War.
On 30th May, 1861, Powell joined the Second Florida Infantry. He was
a member of the Confederate Army that
fought at Gettysburg. He was wounded
during the battle and taken prisoner. After being transferred to an
hospital in Baltimore Powell escaped
and enlisted in the Virginia Cavalry in the autumn of 1863. However,
in January, 1865 he left the cavalry and took the Oath of Allegiance
to the Union. At this time he began using the name Powell
Powell had a reputation for having a violent temper. While in a Branson
boarding house he was reported to the military authorities for nearly
killing an African American maid. A witness claimed that he "threw
her on the ground and stamped on her body, struck her on the forehead,
and said he would kill her".
Powell knew John Surratt who introduced
him to John Wilkes Booth who recruited
him to take part in his plot to kidnap Abraham
Lincoln in Washington. The plan
was to take Lincoln to Richmond and
hold him until he could be exchanged for Confederate
Army prisoners of war. Others involved in the plot included George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlin and Samuel Arnold. Booth
decided to carry out the deed on 17th March, 1865 when Lincoln was
planning to attend a play at the Seventh Street Hospital that was
situated on the outskirts of Washington.
The kidnap attempt was abandoned when Lincoln decided at the last
moment to cancel his visit.
On 9th April, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant
at Appomattox. Two days later Booth attended a public meeting in Washington
where he heard Abraham Lincoln make a
speech where he explained his views that voting rights should be granted
to some African Americans. Booth was furious and decided to assassinate
the president before he could carry out these plans.
Booth persuaded most of the people, including Powell, who had been
involved in the kidnap plot to join him in his plan. Booth discovered
that on 14th April, Abraham Lincoln was
planning to attend the evening performance of Our American Cousin
at the Ford Theatre in Washington.
Booth decided he would assassinate Lincoln while George
Atzerodt would kill Vice President Andrew
Johnson and Powell agreed to murder William
Seward, the Secretary of State. All attacks would take place at
approximately 10.15 p.m. that night.
At 10.00 p.m. Powell and David Herold
arrived at the home of William Seward,
who was recovering from a serious carriage accident. When William
Bell, a servant opened the door, Powell told him he had medicine from
Dr. Tullio Verdi. When Bell refused to let him in, Powell pushed past
him and rushed up the stairs. Frederick Seward, the Secretary of State's
son, came out and asked him what he wanted. Powell hit Steward with
his revolver so hard he fracturing his skull in two places. Powell
was now confronted with George Robinson, Seward's bodyguard. Powell
slashed him with his bowie knife before leaping onto Seward's bed
and repeatedly stabbed him. Powell, thinking he had killed him, racing
out of the house where Herold was waiting with his horse.
Herold went to Mary Surratt's boarding house and together with John
Wilkes Booth, who had successfully killed Abraham
Lincoln, headed for the Deep South. Whereas Powell hid for three
days in a wood before visiting Sturratt's house. Unfortunately for
Powell, soon afterwards the police arrived and arrested him and Mary
Surratt.
On 1st May, 1865, President Andrew Johnson
ordered the formation of a nine-man military
commission to try the conspirators. It was argued by Edwin
M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, that the men should be tried
by a military court as Lincoln had been Commander in Chief of the
army. Several members of the cabinet, including Gideon
Welles (Secretary of the Navy), Edward
Bates (Attorney General), Orville
H. Browning (Secretary of the Interior), and Henry
McCulloch (Secretary of the Treasury), disapproved, preferring
a civil trial. However, James Speed,
the Attorney General, agreed with Stanton and therefore the defendants
did not enjoy the advantages of a jury trial.
The trial began on 10th May, 1865. The military commission included
leading generals such as David Hunter,
Lewis Wallace, Thomas
Harris and Alvin Howe and Joseph
Holt was the government's chief prosecutor. Powell, Mary
Surratt, George Atzerodt, David
Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold were all charged with
conspiring to murder Lincoln. During the trial Holt attempted to persuade
the military commission that Jefferson Davis
and the Confederate government had been involved in conspiracy.
Joseph Holt attempted to obscure the fact
that there were two plots: the first to kidnap and the second to assassinate.
It was important for the prosecution not to reveal the existence of
a diary taken from the body of John Wilkes
Booth. The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated
from 14th April. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's
diary to be produced in court.
During his trial Powell was identified by all the people in Seward's
house as the man who had attempted to kill the Secretary of State.
Powell's lawyer, W. E. Doster, claimed in court that his client was
insane. He argued that this had been caused by his experiences in
the Confederate Army. Throughout the
trial Powell insisted that Mary Surratt
had not been part of the conspiracy.
On 29th June, 1865, Powell, Mary Surratt,
George Atzerodt, David
Herold, Samuel Mudd, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold were found guilty of being
involved in the conspiracy to murder Abraham
Lincoln. Powell, Surratt, Atzerodt and Herold were hanged at Washington
Penitentiary on 7th July, 1865.
Just before
he was executed Lewis Powell
was photographed by Alexander Gardner.
Forum Debates
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
(1)
William Bell, testimony before the Military Tribunal investigating
the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
(19th May, 1865)
I live at the house of Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and attend
to the door. That man (pointing to Lewis Powell) came to the house
of Mr. Seward on the night of the 14th April. The bell rang and I
went to the door, and that man came in. He had a little package in
his hand; he said it was medicine for Mr. Seward from Dr. Verdi, and
that he was sent by Dr. Verdi to direct Mr. Seward how to take it.
He said he must go up; then repeating the words over, and was a good
while talking with me in the hall.
He then walked up to the hall towards the steps. He met Mr. Frederick
Seward on the steps this side of his father's room. He told Mr. Frederick
that he wanted to see Mr. Seward. Mr. Frederick went into the room
and came out, and told him that he could not see him; that his father
was asleep, and to give him the medicine, and he would take it to
him. That would not do; he must see Mr. Seward. He must see him; he
said it in just that way. He then struck Mr. Frederick. Then I ran
down stairs and out of the front door, hallooing "murder".
(2)
George Robinson, testimony before the Military Tribunal investigating
the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
(19th May, 1865)
On the 14th April I was at the residence of Mr. Seward, Secretary
of State, acting as attendant nurse to Mr. Seward, who was confined
to his bed by injuries received from having been thrown from his carriage.
One of his arms was broken and his jaw fractured.
I heard a disturbance in the hall, and opened the door to see what
the trouble was; and as I opened the door this man (Lewis Powell)
struck me with a knife in the forehead, knocked me partially down,
and pressed by me to the bed of Mr. Seward, and struck him, wounding
him. As soon as I could get on my feet, I endeavored to haul him off
his bed, and then he turned upon me. In the scuffle Major Seward came
into the room and clinched him. Between the two of us we got him to
the door, and he, unclinching his hands from around my neck, struck
me again, this time with his fist, knocking me down, and then broke
away from Major Seward and ran down stairs.
I saw him strike Mr. Seward with the same knife with which he cut
my forehead. It was a large knife, and he held it with the blade down
below his hand. I saw him cut Mr. Seward twice that I am sure of;
the first time he struck him on the right cheek, and then he seemed
to be cutting around his neck.
(3)
Major Augustus Seward, testimony before the Military Tribunal
investigating the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln (26th May, 1865)
I am the son of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and was at
his home on the night of 14th April, 1865. I retired to bed at half-past
seven. I very shortly fell asleep, and so remained until I was awakened
by the screams of my sister, when I jumped out of bed and ran into
my father's room. The gas in the room was turned down rather low,
and I saw what appeared to be two men, one trying to hold the other
at the foot of my father's bed. I seized by the clothes on his breast
and shoved the person of whom I had hold to the door, with the intention
of getting him out of the room. While I was pushing him, he struck
me five or six times on the forehead and top of the head, and once
on the left hand, with what I supposed to be a bottle or decanter
that he had seized from the table. During this time he repeated, in
an intense but not strong voice, the words "I'm mad, I'm mad!"
On reaching the hall he gave a sudden turn, and sprang away from me,
and disappeared down the stairs.
(4)
Major H. W. Smith, testimony before the Military Tribunal (19th May,
1865)
I was in charge of the party that took possession of Mrs. Surratt’s
house, 541 High Street, on the night of the 17th of April, and arrested
Mrs. Surratt, Miss Surratt, Miss Fitzpatrick, and Miss Jenkins. When
I went up the steps, and rang the bell of the house, Mrs. Surratt
came to the window, and said "Is that you, Mr. Kirby?" The
reply was that it was not Mr. Kirby, and to open the door. She opened
the door, and I asked, "Are you Mrs. Surratt?" She said,
"I am the widow of John H. Surratt." And I added, "The
mother of John H. Surratt, jr.?" She replied, "I am."
I then said, "I come to arrest you and all in your house, and
take you for examination to General Augur’s headquarters."
No inquiry whatever was made as to the cause of the arrest. While
we were there, Powell came to the house. I questioned him in regard
to his occupation, and what business he had at the house that time
of night. He stated that was a laborer, and had come there to dig
a gutter at the request of Mrs. Surratt. I went to the parlor door,
and said, "Mrs. Surratt, will you step here a minute?" She
came out, and I asked her, "Do you know this man, and did you
hire him to come and dig a gutter for you?" She answered, raising
her right hand, "Before God, sir, I do not know this man, and
have never seen him, and I did not hire him to dig a gutter for me."
Powell said nothing. I then placed him under arrest, and told him
he was so suspicious a character that I should send him to Colonel
Wells, at General Augur’s headquarters, for further examination.
Powell was standing in full view of Mrs. Surratt, and within three
paces of her, when she denied knowing him.
(5)
Ben Pittman, The Assassination of
President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (1865)
Powell is very tall, with an athletic, gladiatorial frame. He
displayed a massive robustness of animal manhood in its most stalwart
type. He had unflinching dark grey eyes, low forehead, massive jaws,
compressed full lips, small nose with large nostrils, and stolid,
remorseless expression.
(6)
Captain Christian Rath, was placed in charge of the execution of Mary
Surratt, Lewis Powell, George
Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael
O'Laughlin, Edman Spangler and
Samuel Arnold. He was later interviewed
about his role in the event.
I was determined to get rope that would not break, for you
know when a rope breaks at a hanging there is a time-worn maxim that
the person intended to be hanged was innocent. The night before the
execution I took the rope to my room and there made the nooses. I
preserved the piece of rope intended for Mrs. Surratt for the last.
I had the graves for the four persons dug just beyond the scaffolding.
I found some difficulty in having the work done, as the arsenal attaches
were superstitious. I finally succeeded in getting soldiers to dig
the holes but they were only three feet deep.
The hanging gave me a lot of trouble. I had read somewhere that when
a person was hanged his tongue would protrude from his mouth. I did
not want to see four tongues sticking out before me, so I went to
the storehouse, got a new white shelter tent and made four hoods out
of it. I tore strips of the tent to bind the legs of the victims.
(7)
William Coxshall, a member of the Veteran Reserve Corps, was assigned
the task of dropping the trapdoor on the left side of the gallows.
The prison door opened and the condemned came in. Mrs. Surratt
was first, near fainting after a look at the gallows. She would have
fallen had they not supported her. Herold was next. The young man
was frightened to death. He trembled and shook and seemed on the verge
of fainting. Atzerodt shuffled along in carpet slippers, a long white
nightcap on his head. Under different circumstances, he would have
been ridiculous.
With the exception of Powell, all were on the verge of collapse. They
had to pass the open graves to reach the gallows steps and could gaze
down into the shallow holes and even touch the crude pine boxes that
were to receive them. Powell was as stolid as if he were a spectator
instead of a principal. Herold wore a black hat until he reached the
gallows. Powell was bareheaded, but he reached out and took a straw
hat off the head of an officer. He wore it until they put the black
bag on him. The condemned were led to the chairs and Captain Rath
seated them. Mrs. Surratt and Powell were on our drop, Herold and
Atzerodt on the other.
Umbrellas were raised above the woman and Hartranft, who read the
warrants and findings. Then the clergy took over talking what seemed
to me interminably. The strain was getting worse. I became nauseated,
what with the heat and the waiting, and taking hold of the supporting
post, I hung on and vomited. I felt a little better after that, but
not too good.
Powell stood forward at the very front of the droop. Mrs. Surratt
was barely past the break, as were the other two. Rath came down the
steps and gave the signal. Mrs. Surratt shot down and I believed died
instantly. Powell was a strong brute and died hard. It was enough
to see these two without looking at the others, but they told us both
died quickly.
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