Eckert and Powell

[Linda Anderson]

(07-10-2012 09:28 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Linda,

Just skimmed over Fanny's diary for April 14th...I wanted to stop reading, I wanted to keep reading, all at the same time.
Reading that made me feel like she was personally talking to me, recalling the terrible events of that night. I'll have to go back and read the whole thing from the beginning. Fanny's diary has got to be the most vivid account of the attack on Secretary Seward I have ever read.

Gene, there is so much to absorb in Fanny's account - Fred staring at her mutely as blood streams down his face - Powell rushing past her with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other - the terrible attack on her father -blood everywhere and hordes of people crowding into the house, that I always seem to find something new every time I read her account.

Anna, Fred's wife, was also present during Powell's attack as she had followed Fred inside Seward's bedroom. Fanny did not realize Anna was there. The only account I have found of Anna's experience is her testimony in the John Surratt trial in 1867 but it is very cut and dried.