"Alias Paine"

[MaddieM]

(01-28-2013 12:25 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:  

(01-27-2013 09:00 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Fanny Seward's diary is on line at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=638

Linda Anderson of this symposium informed me about this and is very knowledgeable about the Seward family.

Thank you, Gene.

The only in-depth biography of Fanny is a dissertation written by Patricia Carley Johnson: Sensitivity and Civil War: The Selected Diaries and Papers, 1858-1866, of Frances Adeline (Fanny) Seward. The first chapter is called "The Setting: Fanny Seward and Her Times." The rest of the dissertation contains excerpts from her diary and other writings. Unfortunately, the dissertation has not been published and is available at only a few libraries around the country.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/sensitivit...ef_results

Johnson also wrote an article called "'I Could Not be Well or Happy at Home. . .When Called to the Councils of My Country': Politics and the Seward Family" which is available here:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=1018

Another article on Fanny is "Growing up with Books; Fanny Seward's book collecting, reading and writing in mid-nineteenth-century New York State," by Deirdre C. Stam. Libraries & Culture 41.2 (2006).

Fanny Seward was a "shy, gentle, affectionate young woman" whose life centered around her family. Her mother, who suffered from ill health, stayed in the family home in Auburn, NY while her father lived in Washington. Fanny spent time with both her parents. Seward bought an insurance policy when Fanny was born so that she would never have to marry if she chose not to. Her diary expresses her desire to live a productive life as a single woman and she thought of Dorothea Dix and Charlotte Cushman as role models.

The events of April 14 traumatized Fanny. She had suffered from "weak lungs" throughout her life and after Powell's attack and her mother's subsequent death nine weeks later, Fanny became ill, suffering from "fevers, chills, headaches, and severe, recurring chest pains." Her thoughts turned to God and she was baptized in the Episcopal church.

What amazes me is that I have seen nothing in her diary to indicate she harbored hatred or bitterness towards Powell. In the back of her last diary of 1866, she wrote a list of "Things to be desired," including "A soul, trustful, faithful and humble," and "A spirit, patient, preserving and hopeful."

Perhaps she forgave him.

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(01-27-2013 04:43 PM)william l. richter Wrote:  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.

I think he might have become a victim to his own sense of honour and bravery, if that makes any sense. Sometimes, these virtues can dominate common sense. I think he just lost his way.