Dave Taylor / Davey Herold Question

[MaddieM]

(02-17-2014 08:59 PM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  

(02-17-2014 07:00 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Question for Linda: Is there any indication as to how much light was in Seward's bedroom? I know Fanny had been reading to her father, but had the gas been turned down so that he could go to sleep? Light, or the lack thereof, could make a significant difference also; and the head and neck areas would be easier to distinguish in low light, I would think.

Fanny wrote in her diary that she had been reading to her father when "I saw that Father seemed inclined to sleep-so turned down the gas..."

Seward was lying on the edge of the bed in a semi-reclining position. Maybe his head was tilted back with his throat exposed but in the dim light Powell couldn't see the wire and mesh brace.

Here is an account of the assassination attempt from Politics and pen pictures at home and abroad by Henry W. Hilliard.

"I found Miss Seward when I entered, and she continued to sit with us for some time after tea was served. The surroundings were familiar; Mr. Seward occupied the house where I had my apartments when in Congress,- a handsome building near the White House...There was not a word uttered during the evening which expressed an unfriendly feeling towards the South. He gave me an account of the assault made upon him by Payne [Powell] on the night of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. He had some days before been injured by a fall from his carriage and was in bed; his son and one or two friends were seated in the room. Visitors were strictly excluded, and when Payne entered the resistance to him by his son disturbed him, but he did not change his position; the bed was a very wide one and he was on the side farthest from the door. As Payne, raising his arm over him, laid the blade of his weapon over the side of his face, he saw that the sleeve of his coat was of Confederate gray; the blade seemed cold, and then it rained, the blood from the wound producing that sensation. He was saved from assassination by the width of the bed and the exertions of those who held Payne, and who finally forced him out of the door. I was deeply interested in this vivid account of the escape of the great statesman from the murderous assault of an armed athlete."

I'm intrigued to know the layout of the bedroom. Was the bed sideways on to the door? It would have to be if Seward is described as being farthest away from it. So Powell had to have attacked him sideways on rather than say, face on, facing up to the bedhead? It's probably safe to assume Powell was right handed, but which side of the room was the bed on, as this might determine how he wielded the knife. Dependant on this, might explain a little the clumsiness of his attempts to slaughter Seward.