Lewis Powell
Lewis Powell was a prominent figure in the aftermath of the American Civil War, known primarily for his involvement in the assassination conspiracy against President Abraham Lincoln. Born into a large family in Georgia, Powell had a challenging childhood marked by a significant injury at age twelve that left a lasting mark on his jaw, which later aided in his identification. After volunteering for the Confederate Army at seventeen, he served as a soldier and later became involved in espionage activities.
Powell gained notoriety for his brutal attack on Secretary of State William Seward on the night of Lincoln's assassination, where he attempted to kill Seward using a revolver and a knife. His escape following the attack was short-lived, as he was apprehended shortly thereafter due to recognition by witnesses and remaining evidence on his clothing. Tried by a military commission, Powell was found guilty and executed alongside other conspirators in 1865.
Despite his violent actions and the historical significance of his involvement, Powell's legacy is complicated by perceptions of his mental state, with some contemporaries speculating about his psychological health. His story reflects the turbulent emotions and divisions in post-war America, particularly among those who were aligned with the Confederate cause.
Subject Terms
Lewis Powell
Confederate conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination
- Born: April 22, 1844
- Birthplace: Randolph County, Alabama
- Died: July 7, 1865
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Major offenses: Attempted murder of Secretary of State William Seward; accomplice in assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
Date: April 14, 1865
Locale: Mainly Washington, D.C., and surrounding area
Sentence: Death by hanging
Early Life
Lewis Powell (POW-uhl), the son of a Baptist preacher and gentleman farmer, was the youngest of nine children. He was probably educated by his parents at home. At the age of twelve, he was kicked by a mule while playing at home. The accident resulted in a broken jaw and a missing molar, causing the left side of his jaw to be more prominent than the right—a fact that later was important for his identification.
When Powell was fifteen, the family moved from their Georgia home to a small plantation near Live Oak, Florida, where he supervised the plantation for the following two years. In 1861, almost as soon as he learned of the outbreak of the Civil War, he volunteered to fight for the Confederacy. Accepted as a private in the infantry on May 30, 1861, the tall and handsome seventeen-year-old adolescent would never again see any of his family members.
Espionage Career
In 1863, Powell was wounded and taken prisoner in the Battle of Gettysburg. Transferred to the U.S. Army hospital at Baltimore, he escaped with the help of an admiring volunteer nurse, Margaret Branson. He then served with distinction in John Mosby’s Rangers, which was an elite unit of the Virginia cavalry. In January, 1865, Powell left the Rangers to work with the Confederate Secret Service. When signing an oath of allegiance to the Union, he used the alias Lewis Paine. Moving to Baltimore, Powell lived at Branson’s boardinghouse, which was home to several persons working in Confederate espionage. While there, he gained the reputation of having a violent temper, especially after he assaulted an African American maid for not promptly cleaning his room.
John Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer in Maryland, introduced Powell to actorJohn Wilkes Booth, who recruited him to participate in a plot to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln. Booth apparently thought that Powell’s physical strength and ability to use firearms would help in the venture. On March 17, 1865, Booth and his followers were prepared to capture Lincoln as the president was en route to visit a nearby hospital. The plan failed because of Lincoln’s last-minute decision to cancel the visit.
Soon thereafter, Booth decided that a better scheme was to assassinate the president and other Union officials in order to produce chaos in the government. On April 14, after Booth learned that Lincoln would be attending Ford’s Theatre, the conspirators held their last meeting. Powell agreed to kill Secretary of State William Seward at about the same time that Booth would kill the president. Fellow conspirator David Herold agreed to accompany Powell on the mission. Soon after 10:00 p.m., the two men arrived at the Seward home. Powell, armed with a revolver and a bowie knife, gained entrance by claiming that he was delivering medicine from the doctor. In the house, Powell brutally struck Seward’s son and then rushed into Seward’s room, where he slashed and stabbed the secretary numerous times before being restrained by another son and a bodyguard. Thinking that Seward was dead, Powell ran out of the house. Herold had already fled, and Powell escaped alone on his horse.
Legal Action and Outcome
Having made no plans for an escape, Powell hid in a wooded area for three days. Cold and hungry, he sought refuge in Mary Surratt’s boarding home. Unfortunately for him, military policemen at that moment were investigating the home, and a resident identified Powell as one of Booth’s associates. The officers noticed the blood still on Powell’s clothing. Soon thereafter, eyewitnesses from the Seward home identified Powell as the attacker. He neither acknowledged nor denied his guilt.
Because President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton viewed Lincoln’s assassination as an act of war, they decided to try the conspirators by a military commission. Powell’s lawyer, William Doster, unsuccessfully attempted to mitigate his client’s guilt by arguing that war experiences had resulted in partial insanity. Found guilty after a seven-week trial, Powell and three other codefendants were hanged on July 7, 1865. The remaining four defendants received prison sentences. Powell’s body would be disinterred and buried several times, and his skull mysteriously appeared at the Smithsonian Museum in 2002.
Impact
At the end of the Civil War, many who had been allied with or fought for the South saw the Union victory, and the Lincoln administration at its head, as enemies of their way of life. Lewis Powell and Booth were among the more radical of these Confederate sympathizers. Powell’s impact on history would have been much greater if Seward had not survived. During his trial and execution, Powell attracted considerable attention because of his handsome appearance and his stoic, detached demeanor. Some observers at the time thought that he was either mentally deficient or suffering from a psychiatric disorder. Those writers who believed in an undiscovered political conspiracy focused much of their attention on Powell, in large part because he often appeared to act irrationally. Most historians, however, have concluded that evidence of his guilt is beyond any reasonable doubt.
Bibliography
Hanchett, William. The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. A good historical summary followed by excellent analyses of the many books and theories about the assassination.
Ownsbey, Betty. Alias “Paine”: Lewis Thorton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993. A scholarly and sympathetic attempt to understand Powell’s personality and motivation.
Shelton, Vaughan. Mask for Treason: The Lincoln Murder Trial. Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1965. Although the book contains many interesting facts, Shelton’s speculations are usually not based on good evidence or sound logic, especially his theory that Paine and Powell were two different men.
Steers, Edward, Jr. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Steers’s work is considered the finest account of the assassination written to date.
Swanson, James, and Daniel Weinberg. Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution. Santa Fe, N.Mex.: Arena, 2001. A concise account that is very interesting and readable, with many excellent photographs and other illustrations.