Powell's revolver

[Linda Anderson]

(06-16-2013 02:38 PM)Wesley Harris Wrote:  I don't know if Powell attempted to shoot Frederick Seward or not. The record is rather vague. Frederick's statement that the gun must have misfired came many years after the attack and seems to be a presumption on his part. So I don't know if Powell used the pistol as a club simply because they were in close quarters or because he had attempted to fire it and it didn't work. A misfire can be due to wet powder, a defective percussion cap, and other problems.

Powell's gun did break but it was at the loading ram underneath the barrel. This occurred when he hit Seward over the head. I don't know how many times he hit Frederick Seward but enough to break his skull into several pieces. It was a nearly fatal attack. When the loading ram broke, the whole loading assembly fell off. That's what holds the cylinder in place. The gun literally fell to pieces on the floor.

Thanks for all the information on Powell's gun, Wesley. William and Fred Seward gave an interview to the London Spectator, "The Sensation of Being Murdered," in November 1865 in which Fred recalls that the trigger "snapped."

"Mr. Frederick Seward said that, on stepping from his bed-room into the passage, and seeing the assassin, he merely wondered what he was doing there, and called him to account. On his resisting the fellow's endeavour to press into Mr. Seward's room, he (the assassin) drew a revolver, which he presented at Mr. Frederick Seward's head. What followed, it must be remembered, took place in a few seconds. Mr. Frederick Seward's first thought was, 'that's a navy revolver.' The man pulled the trigger, but it only snapped, and his intended victim thought, 'that cap missed fire.'"

http://beck.library.emory.edu/iln/browse...7.1344.005

Also, Fred testified in the 1867 trial of John Surratt that Powell put the gun to his (Fred's) head. "The next instant I heard the click of the lock, and then remember to have thought, 'Well, the pistol has missed fire.'"

Fanny wrote in her first account of assassination night, written three weeks after the event, that she had found part of Powell's revolver near the stairs.

"Next where I found the [Powell's] hat the pistol was picked up. I found Robinson looking for the priming on the floor - he said it was missing, and if stepped on might do mischief. He soon found it.

"The next morning, on my way up stairs, I picked up the iron [blank in Ms.] which I found lying on the floor at the foot of the second landing."

From Sensitivity and Civil War by Patricia Carley Johnson.