"Alias Paine"

[Bill Richter]

I have a problem with Gilmor being described as CO of the First and Second Md Cav. He was a company commander in the First but raised the Second Md as Gilmor's Partisan Raiders, a separate unit. These men were distinct from the First Md, a more regular volunteer cavalry unit that served the war, at first as part of the First Va Cav. Late in the war, about the time of Gettysburg, Gilmor received permission to leave the First Md and raise his own independent btn of partisan raiders, which eventually became the Second Md Cav Btn. Gilmor's men were very informal in their command and discipline and this is how Powell found them, disorderly and, well, raiders.

Powell was a regular army man and used to the discipline of an infantry unit of the line, the 2 Fla Inf. Mosby suited Powell fine because he and his men of the 43 Va Btn were closer to the regular concept of discipline that Powell was used to in the Army of NVA. This had to be so or Gen RE Lee would not endorse their operations behind the US lines, and Lee told Mosby and CSA Sec'y of War Seddon this.

The point of all this is that Powell was no ordinary murderer but a soldier on detached duty during the attempt to kidnap Lincoln on Seventh Street and his attempt to assassinate USA Sec'y of State Seward during the night of April 14. He was picked because of his adhering to Mosby's discipline and his valuable service with him in 1864. He thus was a far cry from the dunce the Yankee prosecutors thought. He was a clever as a fox and played dumb to keep information from the enemy. He went to his death as a soldier, not a ruffian.