Lewis Powell carried out the only other attack of the night Lincoln was shot, and nearly killed the Secretary of State.
Lewis Powell, also called Lewis Paine or Payne, was born in Alabama in 1844 and served as a soldier of the Confederacy, the Southern states that broke away from the United States in the Civil War, including with Mosby's Rangers (a Confederate cavalry unit in Virginia), until he deserted in January 1865; John Wilkes Booth, the actor who shot President Abraham Lincoln, brought him into the plot as 'muscle' [1].
On 14 April 1865 Booth gave him the job of killing Secretary of State William Seward. A military court (a panel of officers of the Union Army, the army of the United States side in the Civil War, acting as judge and jury) found him guilty of conspiracy to murder, and he was hanged on 7 July 1865.
Guided by fellow plotter David Herold, Powell got into Seward's house by claiming to bring medicine, then stabbed at Seward, who was in bed after a carriage accident, cutting his face and neck. Everyone hurt in the house survived. Three days later he turned up at the Washington boarding house of Mary Surratt, where Booth and his fellow plotters stayed and met, while police were there, claiming to be a worker she had hired; she said she had never seen him, and both were arrested. His lawyer, William Doster, said he was a soldier following orders.
He was the one attacker besides Booth who actually struck. A later story that he confessed to Thomas Eckert, an officer in the War Department telegraph office, is treated as untrustworthy by historian George Bryan (1940). A court reporter at the trial, Edward Murphy, thought Powell and George Atzerodt, the plotter sent to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, were the only two who would have been sentenced to death by an ordinary court.
[Report #200] WHO. 'Lewis Thornton Powell (also known as Lewis Paine or Payne) was born on 22 April 1844 in Randolph County, Alabama, the youngest son of eight.' (
history.army.mil) 'In May 1861, Powell enlisted in the 2d Florida Infantry of the Confederate army.' (
history.army.mil) He 'continued to serve in the Confederate military with Col. John S. Mosby’s 43d Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (known as Mosby’s Rangers), from October 1863 to January 1865, when he deserted.' (
history.army.mil) The last recruit, he 'was apparently recruited as “muscle.”' (
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14 APRIL 1865. 'He then chose Atzerodt to kill Vice President Johnson; Powell, aided by Herold, was to kill Secretary of State Seward.' (
history.army.mil) 'Powell got past Seward’s butler, William H. Bell, by pretending that he was there to deliver medicine to Seward, who was in bed recovering from a carriage accident.' (
history.army.mil) 'He then tried to stab Seward four or five times, missing several times before finally lacerating him in the neck and face area.' (
history.army.mil) 'Despite Powell’s lengthy list of victims, all those who were injured at the Seward home recovered from their wounds, including Secretary of State Seward.' (
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ARREST. 'On 17 April, Mary Surratt and Lewis Powell were arrested at Surratt’s boarding house when their stories suspiciously did not line up.' (
history.army.mil) Bryan: 'Mrs. Surratt had sent for him, he said, to dig a gutter, and he had come to inquire when he should start work in the morning.' (
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THE TRIAL. 'In the end, only eight individuals would stand trial as apprehended conspirators, accused of conspiracy to murder Lincoln, Johnson, Seward, and Grant.' (
history.army.mil) 'The trial began 10 May 1865, three weeks after Lincoln’s assassination, and ended on 30 June.' (
history.army.mil) Under its rules 'only a majority vote was needed to gain a conviction, although a two-thirds vote was necessary to give the death penalty' (
history.army.mil). Brig. Gen. William E. Doster was 'Lewis Powell’s attorney, whom he portrayed as a soldier just following orders in his attack on Secretary of State Seward.' (
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VERDICT AND SENTENCE. 'The commission found Atzerodt, Herold, Powell, and Surratt guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced them to hang until dead.' (
history.army.mil) 'the four conspirators—Atzerodt, Herold, Powell, and Surratt—were hanged at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary.' (
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DISPUTED. On a so-called confession to Maj. Thomas Eckert reported by David H. Bates, Bryan writes: 'If Bates' account is faithful, Paine told Eckert much that was untrustworthy.' (
archive.org) Edward V. Murphy of the reporting staff of the commission believed 'Atzerodt and Paine the only defendants likely to have been sen-tenced to death in a civil court' (
archive.org).
AFTER 1865. 'in 1991, a researcher identified Powell’s skull in the Smithsonian Institute’s Native American collection.' (
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HELD. 'Uncertainties remain over the veracity of the evidence, the witness statements, and the degree of guilt of those who were tried by the commission.' (
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