The Reason Lincoln Had to Die

[Linda Anderson]

Wow, that is a different take on Powell's attack on Seward.

Thank you for the compliment, Betty, but I am still learning about what happened in the Seward house that night.

I don't know if the author consulted Fanny Seward's diary but she was an eyewitness to Powell's attack on her father, William. She said Payne (or Powell) rushed past her into the room with the gun in one hand and the knife in the other. After the attack, Robinson looked for Powell's pistol before it could do "mischief" and he picked it up in Seward's room. The next morning Fanny said she picked up the "iron [blank in Ms.] which I found lying on the floor at the foot of the second landing." I assume that is part of the gun.

Margaret Coleman is a mystery to me. According to her death certificate, she died at the age of 86 in 1902 which would have made her 49 in 1865. Her gravestone has 1818 as her birthdate. Either way, she deducted over fifteen years off her age in the census!

Azterodt states that he heard Booth say he met a Seward chambermaid (where, I wonder) and that she was pretty. Margaret Coleman may have been the housekeeper at that point and a younger maid the chambermaid. There is a young woman servant and an older woman servant in the photograph taken of the family and servants on the piazza of the DC house. Perhaps Booth was referring to the younger servant. I am trying to track down who she is.

Margaret gave a number of interviews throughout the years which are very interesting because in her version she is injured by Powell and she becomes "Seward's Savior." What is odd is that an article appeared in the October 13, 1876 New York Sun stating that Margaret lost her job in the Treasury because of "Grantism." The article, which was reprinted in the October 17,1876 Augusta Chronicle, says that Margaret, "...was the nurse at the bedside of Secretary Seward when Paine attempted to assassinate him. She, with the soldier attendant, endeavored to protect the Secretary and Paine struck her a violent blow, dislocating her shoulder and fracturing her arm. She has never fully recovered." Robinson refuted that article in a letter sent to the New York Times in which he says that not only did Margaret not lose her job, but that she was not even "about the house" at the time of Powell's assault. I don't know if Robinson was getting irritated at this point with Margaret or there was something else going on. Someone is lying.

To make things more interesting, Margaret Coleman also worked for Jefferson Davis. The Davises wanted her to go south with them and she chose to stay in Washington.