A Different Viewpoint of Lew Powell's Character

[Linda Anderson]

Fanny Seward went with her brother Augustus to identify Powell on the Saugus the day after Powell was arrested at Mrs. Surratt's boarding house.

Dr. Verdi accompanied her. This is his account from the article "The Assassination of the Sewards," The Republic, Vol I, from March to December 1873. p. 289. Google Books.

"The scene was a solemn one-too solemn for man to utter a sound; a silence, broken only by the hissing wind and the surging waves, pervaded the whole ship. It was almost a weird transformation from a mysterious power.

"Miss Fanny was hanging on my arm. Did I feel a quiver? Probably I did, for I gently drew her from the painful scene. Conscientious even at this trying moment, she could not identify the man; her identification, she thought, might be his death. She had only seen him by a dim light as if a frightful vision. That is all she said."

Fanny wrote in her diary that she spoke to Powell just before he burst into the room.

"I did not stop to see if Father wakened thoroughly, but hastened to the door, opened it a very little, and found Fred standing close by
it, facing me. On his right hand, also close by the door, stood a very tall young man, in a light hat & long overcoat. I said 'Fred, Father is awake now.'
Something in Fred’s manner led me at once to think that he did not wish me to say so, and that I had better not have opened the door...The man seemed impatient, & addressing me in a tone that struck me at once as much more harsh & full of determination than such a simple question justified, asked 'Is the Secretary asleep.' I paused to look at my father, & replied 'Almost.' Then Fred drew the door shut very quickly."

She went on:

"The thought that such cruel & inhuman beings, as the man who had attacked my father & brothers, existed, made me wish myself dead, & out of such a world, anywhere seemed better."

I wonder what Fanny felt about Powell's execution. On July 7 Fanny was in Auburn. She had just buried her mother who had never recovered from Powell's attack and Fanny herself was weak and feverish. I've read her diary which she started up again in January 1866 until just before her death in October of that year but she never mentions Powell.