Booth's Escape Route

[Bill Richter]

I really disagree with Powell being lost. True, Herold abandoned him but he could get out of DC with little effort. All he had to do was find the rails and follow them northeastward. On the edge of the city he could have navagated by the stars.

He found Mrs. Surratt's (AKA the Chinese restaurant nowadays) from the railroad station all on his own when he first arrived, following instructions from his Baltimore contacts like David Parr and the Bransons. He came back into DC after being dumped from his horse and suffering a concussion and found Mrs. Surratt's again.

My belief is that Powell has been badly treated by historians as a dumb Southern country boy, until Betty O came along and straightened it all out. He was the quintessential soldier on a military mission behind the lines--just like when he operated with Mosby Rangers.

Mosby found him to be a capable soldier with much cunning and skill, not a liability. That's how he got the assassination assignment in the first place, and that is how he acted the whole time, right down to keeping his mouth shut afterward. But he defended Mrs. Surratt until the end, as any Southern gentleman would.