What Was The Role of David Herold

[MaddieM]

(04-16-2013 12:56 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  I am not a Mosby expert, but most of Mosby's activities (I believe) were not involved with battles and hand-to-hand combat like we associate with soldiers. They were partisan rangers who swooped in, grabbed what they needed, and skedaddled.

Even when Powell was in regular Confederate units, do we have any indication as to how much hand-to-hand combat he experienced?

It is my opinion that what he had to do at the Seward household, actually facing his "enemy" on a very personal level, was somewhat foreign to him. To me, there is a difference between being a trained soldier and a trained killer -- and I should add a political fanatic, which is what I view Booth as being. Booth hated Lincoln and Lincoln's politics. I doubt that Powell had rabid feelings that way about Seward.

And I think that's why he failed. I don't think he knew how to kill someone quickly and efficiently with a knife, nor really wanted to. Though one has to concede that, had his gun fired, he may well have shot Frederick Seward and killed him. Booth on the other hand, really wanted to kill Lincoln. So he did.

I wonder just how accurate a gun fired in panic might be? Is it possible that Powell knew the wrong calibre bullets might misfire? Had he gone for Seward with a gun, what would his chances of killing him with one clear shot have been? Probably not that high.

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(04-16-2013 05:10 PM)J. Beckert Wrote:  An eyewitness account that states Powell had a pistol in his boot? I'm not buying it. Those things weigh a whole 2 pounds! That's waaaaay too bulky to fit in a boot!

If this is correct, I'd say he kept one to make his escape. I wouldn't want to be unarmed after that. Makes perfect sense.

Sadly, there seem to be lots of eyewitness accounts that are totally contradictory. Everyone seems to have wanted to 'see' something... even if it probably wasn't there.

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(04-16-2013 03:25 PM)BettyO Wrote:  

Quote:Even when Powell was in regular Confederate units, do we have any indication as to how much hand-to-hand combat he experienced?

Laurie - we really don't have any indication that Powell ever participated in hand to hand. He could have; he also could not have. He wasn't as involved in the various battles as previously thought. He was sick in the hospital with the measles from May to September 1861 - and therefore missed First Manassas. He fought at Williamsburg (his baptism under fire) and Yorktown in Spring of 1861 and then started on the Gaines Mill/Mechanicsville Seven Pines Campaign in the Spring of 1862, but fell seriously ill (we don't know with what) in June of 1862 and right during the Gaines Mill campaign was transported by ambulance to the Florida Hospital in Richmond where he stayed until October 30, 1862. He missed Antietam, but was present at Fredericksburg where his unit was in reserve during the entire battle. He fought at Chancellorsville and then Gettysburg where he was captured.

For such a strapping boy, he was more or less quite ill a lot of the time!

All the above no doubt being the reason he survived the war with nothing more than a minor wound to his wrist. He probably spent most of the time on the battleground just shooting at random and being lucky not to be hit. That's not to say he didn't experience any emotional trauma's though. He must have seen, heard and smelt a lot!

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(04-16-2013 01:07 PM)wsanto Wrote:  He doesn't sound like the kind of soldier you would hand-pick for this kind of mission. If I was Mosby or another Confederate Officer looking for the man to help in the mission to assassinate Lincoln and Seward, I wouldn't pick the guy in my unit that is helping to save the lives of Union soldiers and not cleaning his gun. I would pick a killer, an assassin.

Is there any indication as to how he got messed up in this business in the first place?

I reckon he had a fair amount of courage and conviction and took orders bravely and with out question. Plus he was tall and strong and probably an excellent horseman. You'd need someone dependable...and he was certainly that.