Lewis Thornton Powell (22 April 1844-7 July 1865) was an American Confederate soldier who, on 14 April 1865, attempted to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H. Seward in Washington DC on the same night as President Abraham Lincoln's killing.
Biography[]
Lewis Thornton Powell was born in Randolph, Alabama in 1844, and he was raised in Stewart County, Georgia. The son of a Baptist minister, he was devoutly religious as a young man. He and his family moved to Apopka, Florida in 1859, and they later moved to Live Oak Station. Powell enlisted in the 2nd Florida Infantry Regiment at the start of the American Civil War before serving in the Peninsula Campaign, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was wounded. He was taken prisoner and held in Baltimore, where he had an affair with a nurse before escaping with her help and joining John S. Mosby's Confederate rangers. Powell fought at the Battle of Loudoun Heights, the Second Battle of Dranesville, and several other actions, and he deserted on 1 January 1865. He took an oath of allegiance to the United States in Alexandria, Virginia on 13 January 1865, using the alias "Lewis Payne." Powell became a contact of Confederate Secret Service agent David Preston Parr before joining John Wilkes Booth's circle of Confederate sympathizers in February 1865 after a chance meeting in Baltimore. After an initial plot to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln fell through in March 1865, Powell was entrusted with the killing of Secretary of State William H. Seward, with David Herold being tasked with leading Powell to Seward's home and helping him escape. At 10:10 PM, Powell forced his way past Seward's servant William H. Bell, insisting that he was delivering medicine to the sickly Seward. When Frederick W. Seward attempted to turn Powell back, Powell pistol-whipped Frederick, burst into Seward's room, slashed George F. Robinson and frightened Fanny Seward, and stabbed William Seward in the face and throat several times. Believing Seward to be dead, Powell fled, only to find that Herold had been terrified into deserting him. Powell yelled, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" before discarding his knife and fleeing on his horse. Powell was arrested at the Surratt Boarding House on 17 April; he claimed to be a menial laborer hired by Mary Surratt, but Mary denied knowing him. Powell was identified as Seward's assailant by Bell, and he was imprisoned on a US Navy monitor in the Anacostia River before being tried and sentenced to death. He, Mary Surratt, Herold, and George Atzerodt were hanged on 7 July 1865.