Lewis Powell (conspirator)

Lewis Powell
Powell aboard USS Saugus, 1865. Photograph by Alexander Gardner
Born
Lewis Thornton Powell

(1844-04-22)April 22, 1844
DiedJuly 7, 1865(1865-07-07) (aged 21)
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Resting placeGeneva Cemetery, Florida
Other namesLewis Paine; Lewis Payne
Known forLincoln assassination plot
Conviction(s)Conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln
Criminal penaltyDeath
Partner(s)
Details
DateApril 14, 1865, 10:15 p.m.
Location(s)Washington, D.C.
Target(s)William Henry Seward
Injured5
Military career
Branch Confederate Army
Years of service1861–1865
Unit
Campaigns

Lewis Thornton Powell (April 22, 1844 – July 7, 1865) was an American Confederate soldier who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward as part of the Lincoln assassination plot. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he later served in Mosby's Rangers before working with the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland. John Wilkes Booth recruited him into a plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn the president over to the Confederacy, but then decided to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson instead, and assigned Powell the task to kill Seward.

Co-conspirator David Herold was to guide Powell to Seward's home, then help him escape, but fled before Powell was able to exit the Seward home. Powell arrived at the boarding house run by Mary Surratt, mother of co-conspirator John Surratt, three days later while the police were there conducting a search, and was arrested. Powell, Mary Surratt, Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by a military tribunal, and executed at the Washington Arsenal.