Lewis Powell | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Lewis_Payne_cwpb.04208_(cropped).jpg) Powell aboard USS Saugus, 1865. Photograph by Alexander Gardner | |
| Born | Lewis Thornton Powell April 22, 1844 Randolph, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | July 7, 1865 (aged 21) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Resting place | Geneva Cemetery, Florida |
| Other names | Lewis Paine; Lewis Payne |
| Known for | Lincoln assassination plot |
| Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Partner(s) | |
| Details | |
| Date | April 14, 1865, 10:15 p.m. |
| Location(s) | Washington, D.C. |
| Target(s) | William Henry Seward |
| Injured | 5 |
| Military career | |
| Branch |  Confederate Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| 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.