Lewis Powell: The conspirator who was "different."

[michiganmoon]

Good points, good discussion :-)

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  He was acting as he told Dr. Abram Gillette, as a Confederate soldier under orders.

Is there any concrete evidence that he was acting under orders from the confederate military/government? It seems like this is more of an excuse he was making than reality.

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Have I read Swanson? No. I am not a fan of Mr. Swanson. He writes good history, but I prefer Mike Kauffman's research. Have you read American Brutus? It's a far more in depth study. Manhunt, I think, is more for the lay person.

Fair enough, no I have not read that book.

If you are a MS/HS teacher, you should consider assigning a chapter out of the Swanson book - it makes history come alive for the students. I have students who ask to read more. It may be more for the lay person, as you say, but it is good reading and full of facts (and I am sure opinions in how to portray the historical figures).

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  What I have discovered regarding the maid, Annie is that she more or less knew of Mary Branson's midnight visits to Powell's room. She wasn't just going up to tuck him in as it were....like Roger said, you can use your imagination as to why a 35 year old spinster was haunting the bedroom of a 20 year old boy. I smell cougar. Apparently the maid saw or knew what was going on and threatened to squeal to Branson's parents. She may have threatened to rat on Powell's dealings with the Confederacy. Mr. Branson was also in on the kidnap plot. Their house was a "notorious Confederate safe house" according to Lt. H. B. Smith (Between the Lines.) At any rate, Powell was arrested as a "spy" - no where was it listed as "Assault and Battery."

My understanding is that he was in fact arrested for savagely beating the woman, but the witnesses refused to come in and give statements, at which point he was held for 2 days under the suspicion of being a spy.

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Powell was totally wrong to explode as he did and beat the maid. I'm no proponent of violence either - but it happened. He did have an explosive temper, according to his family and apparently he just lost it. Unfortunately, in the 19th Century, servants were not treated with the same rights and considerations as "ladies" were treated. This was universal - it was simply a different world than ours today.

Even if maids were treated poorly back then, that seems to be a pretty abnormal and violent attack for the time period.

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Yes, Powell panicked at Seward's house. As a Mosby Ranger, he was used to fighting outside; not in close quarters. There were also women present. This also threw him off. And yes, he seriously injured five people in the house that night. It is my opinion that he simply panicked. I also wonder what affect his being in the army from age 17 on had to do with this. Could he have had PTS Syndrome which could account for some of the violence? We don't know. A lot of researchers today are now thinking that PTS may have had a lot to do with the actions and reactions of a lot of young Civil War Soldiers. Many of them committed suicide after the war or turned to a life of crime. Take Jesse James for instance - same scenario. Went into the Confederate Army at the age of about 16. Look how he turned out.

Did Lewis Powell panic at the Seward home, because women were present?

He was calm enough to deceive his way into the home. He made the poor decision to use his pistol as a club before he saw a woman. With Fannie screaming in the room he intensely, but 'calmly' told Sgt. Robinson that he was mad and made the calculated decision not to kill Robinson when he easily could have. When he left the house he didn't gallop away, but trotted away.

I think as a soldier he was able to control his nerves enough to not panic.

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  According to those who knew Powell, he was no dummy, but rather cultured and intelligent. He was not slavishly devoted to Booth. This is an old canard which has been handed down through the years and was embellished by Powell's attorney Doster. Powell saw Booth as a superior officer, yes - and supposedly JWB did have a Captain's commission. This, unfortunately, can't be confirmed. But this is what Powell told Gillette.

(08-14-2014 06:34 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Powell more or less wasn't lost. He was heading to Baltimore when he was thrown from his horse as the animal stumbled and fell attempting to jump a ditch (see Steer's The Evidence .) Powell was knocked out, possibly suffering a mild concussion (see Elliott and Cauchon's Between the Walls, Vol. II) and when he came to, found his horse gone. He therefore decided to hide out until he could think of what to do. Yes, he did stumble back to Mary Surratt's house a few days later, but it was the only place in DC besides the Herndon House where he thought he could find clean clothing and a meal before hitting the road, again probably to Baltimore.

He did supposedly take a wrong turn and then not find his way out.

When he did go to Surratt's house he wasn't at his sharpest.

#1 He failed to notice soldiers outside the home. He should have been more observant knowing that there would be a manhunt.

#2 He quickly told the soldiers inside the home that he must have the wrong house, then quickly admitted it was the right house when they said it was the Surratt house instead of trying to leave for the 'right' house.

#3 Then he came up with a completely unbelievable cover story for why he was at the Surratt house. Claiming to be a rarely employed, poor day laborer, while wearing fine too-expensive clothes and showing up in the darkness of night with a pick axe to confirm what time to dig tomorrow.

If he was very smart, hiding out for a few days had to have seriously rattled him beyond clear thought at the time of this arrest.