The Reason Lincoln Had to Die

[Linda Anderson]

(07-24-2013 04:06 PM)IFWesley Wrote:  None of the eyewitnesses of Seward's assassination attempt (Sgt. Robinson, Augustus Seward, William Bell) reported seeing a pistol, and Bell referred to Powell as "the man with the knife" when talking to Augustus. Bell testified that it was investigators who told him Powell had a gun, and this gun did *not* match the description of the object Bell said was used to attack Frederick.

Furthermore, it was Augustus Seward's testimony that stated that the family didn't realize how severely injured Frederick was until the next day.

Ian Wesley, editor

Hi Ian, welcome to the forum.

Fanny wrote her first account of Powell's assault on her father three weeks after April 14. She most definitely was in Seward's room (corroborated by Robinson in newspaper interviews). She wrote she saw Powell enter her father's room with a gun in his left hand and a knife in his right hand.

"On Fred's right was the assassin - I do not remember how his face looked - his arms were both stretched out, and he seemed rushing forwards towards the bed. In the hand nearest me was a pistol. In the right hand a knife." She did not hide in her room but ran alongside Powell begging him to not kill her father. Seward gave an account the following year of seeing Fanny's terrified face looking down at him as he lay in bed.

The diary entry for April 14 that you can read online through the University of Rochester was written in May or June of 1865.

Also, Gus testified that he didn't know how bad Fred's wounds were. "I did not examine my brother's wounds; in fact, I went into his room but for a short time that night. I did not know how badly hurt he was." (Pittman)

Fred was unconscious with his brain exposed according to Dr. Verdi who was the first doctor on the scene that night. Fanny wrote that on the night of the assassination that her mother thought that Fred could not live. "By that time it had been ascertained that his injuries were very serious."