Something I've Wondered About....

[BettyO]

As we approach the 149th anniversary of the hanging, I have been thinking that of all (or at least) most of the guards who actually guarded the death cells of the Conspirators on the evening and morning of July 6-7, almost nothing has been written or recorded. According to Hartranft, at least two guards were positioned outside the various death cells - yet we have apparently never read/heard anything from these fellows as to the goings-on within the chambers themselves on that fateful day. I've always wondered about this - perhaps these documentations are yet to be found? Thanks to John E and Barry C, we DO know the names of the guards who escorted the condemned to the scaffold.

I did find this online - and have never heard of this either:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/opinion/opinion/122781

Anyone else ever heard of any recollections from the death cell guards themselves?
Just curious.....

[SSlater]

(06-28-2014 02:56 PM)BettyO Wrote:  As we approach the 149th anniversary of the hanging, I have been thinking that of all (or at least) most of the guards who actually guarded the death cells of the Conspirators on the evening and morning of July 6-7, almost nothing has been written or recorded. According to Hartranft, at least two guards were positioned outside the various death cells - yet we have apparently never read/heard anything from these fellows as to the goings-on within the chambers themselves on that fateful day. I've always wondered about this - perhaps these documentations are yet to be found? Thanks to John E and Barry C, we DO know the names of the guards who escorted the condemned to the scaffold.

I did find this online - and have never heard of this either:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/opinion/opinion/122781

Anyone else ever heard of any recollections from the death cell guards themselves?
Just curious.....

Betty O, this isn't exactly what you asked for, but Thomas N. Conrad was put in the cells near the conspirators, and he could hear conversation with them. I don't remember any more than that. He may have been put there on purpose, and to report what he heard, to Woods, the Warden. Woods later on said he paid Conrad for "information and services. " That is a small mystery that I have never cleared up. I "Hear" that the Secret Service records are stowed in the same area where they restore old airplanes. I think that is called "Silver Hill" Maryland. I'll work on this next week. I just got back from a "Sarah Slater" trip with MORE info. I want to record this before I start a new Look-See.

[BettyO]

More Sarah Slater, info? Wonderful, John! Do keep us informed....

Re: Conrad - are you referring to the Old Capitol Prison (Woods) or to the Old Arsenal on Greenleaf's Point? It was at the Old Arsenal where the conspirators were held. None, except Mrs. Surratt, Weichmann, the Bransons, et. al. were ever held in the Old Capitol.

[LincolnToddFan]

(06-28-2014 02:56 PM)BettyO Wrote:  As we approach the 149th anniversary of the hanging, I have been thinking that of all (or at least) most of the guards who actually guarded the death cells of the Conspirators on the evening and morning of July 6-7, almost nothing has been written or recorded. According to Hartranft, at least two guards were positioned outside the various death cells - yet we have apparently never read/heard anything from these fellows as to the goings-on within the chambers themselves on that fateful day. I've always wondered about this - perhaps these documentations are yet to be found? Thanks to John E and Barry C, we DO know the names of the guards who escorted the condemned to the scaffold.

I did find this online - and have never heard of this either:

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/opinion/opinion/122781

Anyone else ever heard of any recollections from the death cell guards themselves?
Just curious.....

BettyO, all I remember reading(from NY Times articles) is that Mrs. Surratt did not sleep the night before, nor did she eat, and that she spent the hours preceding the execution prostrate in her cell. Her confessor with her, and her distraught sobbing daughter.

Davy Herold's sisters spent the morning with him and they were likewise crying and inconsolable.

Lewis Powell is said to have been the only prisoner who appeared outwardly calm on the eve. He slept through the night and consumed a hearty breakfast the next morning.

I don't remember much about Atzerodt.

All of them were attended by clergy.

(Most of these recollections are from James Swanson's "Lincolns Assassins: Their Trial and Execution)

[BettyO]

Toia,

According to Dr. Gillette, Powell slept "for about 3 hours" the night before the execution which he spent mostly praying and weeping, and did not eat or drink a thing the morning of the hanging. I tend to believe Gillette.

[LincolnToddFan]

Oh, wow...thanks Betty. Yes I believe Gillette too. He had no motivation to make things up.

[BettyO]

Hey, Toia!

Yes, Gillette actually, in an article written regarding a sermon he preached at Powell's request on the Sunday following the executions, spoke of all that had happened in the death cell, including Powell's basic "confession", etc., stated that the papers were wrong and that Powell didn't eat or drink a thing on the morning of the hanging. In 1892, Gilllette's son, Daniel wrote another, more in depth article regarding his father's sermon and recollections of spending the last night with young Powell.

I, too here believe Gillette - not the newspapers this time.

[LincolnToddFan]

Where in the world did the idea that Powell slept like a baby and scarfed his breakfast get started? I have that in more than one account, not just the NY Times and James Swanson.

Maybe that is how so many apparently incorrect legends around the young man persist to this day...that he was Booth's efficient, ruthless, bloodless killing machine, and that unlike the others he went to the gallows unrepentant. I even remember reading somewhere that he might have had brain damage.

Either way, the perception has always been that Powell wasn't quite normal.

[L Verge]

Just like today, the press can make or break your reputation - or keep quiet when told to?

[Linda Anderson]

(06-28-2014 06:19 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  Where in the world did the idea that Powell slept like a baby and scarfed his breakfast get started? I have that in more than one account, not just the NY Times and James Swanson.

Maybe that is how so many apparently incorrect legends around the young man persist to this day...that he was Booth's efficient, ruthless, bloodless killing machine, and that unlike the others he went to the gallows unrepentant. I even remember reading somewhere that he might have had brain damage.

Either way, the perception has always been that Powell wasn't quite normal.

Powell's attorney, Colonel Doster, tried an insanity defense which fell apart when the doctors decided Powell wasn't insane. There wasn't much else Doster could use in Powell's defense since Powell was identified as Seward's assailant.

[Gene C]

(06-28-2014 06:13 PM)BettyO Wrote:  Hey, Toia!

Yes, Gillette actually, in an article written regarding a sermon he preached at Powell's request on the Sunday following the executions, spoke of all that had happened in the death cell, including Powell's basic "confession", etc., stated that the papers were wrong and that Powell didn't eat or drink a thing on the morning of the hanging. In 1892, Gilllette's son, Daniel wrote another, more in depth article regarding his father's sermon and recollections of spending the last night with young Powell.

I, too here believe Gillette - not the newspapers this time.

Do you know where I could find a copy of the articles or a summary of them?

[BettyO]

Quote:Where in the world did the idea that Powell slept like a baby and scarfed his breakfast get started? I have that in more than one account, not just the NY Times and James Swanson.

Maybe that is how so many apparently incorrect legends around the young man persist to this day...that he was Booth's efficient, ruthless, bloodless killing machine, and that unlike the others he went to the gallows unrepentant. I even remember reading somewhere that he might have had brain damage.

Either way, the perception has always been that Powell wasn't quite normal.

I agree 100% Laurie!

Toia, thanks a lot!

The press needed a scape goat and apparently Powell was it. These stories/myths have been handed down for years upon years. I've just discovered a "different" young man than the one previously portrayed, that's all. Nothing to disparage Swanson or any other researcher.

In an apparent sole interview with journalist, William Wilkins Glenn, Reverend Augustus Stryker, who was in the death cell with Powell as well, and pastor to his girlfriends, the Branson sisters, stated that Powell was a decent young man who "attended St. Barnabas [Episcopal Church] quite regularly morning and evening. After some weeks he spoke to him one day after church and asked him if he had been in the Confederate army. Powell told him that he had. Afterwards, they became more intimate and Powell came frequently to see him. Mr. Stryker found him gentlemanly, intelligent and earnest...." To quote Glenn, "I am glad to hear this of Powell. It is quite evident that no promise of gain influenced him. He was induced to join with Booth in the assassination of men whom he considered most wicked with the conviction that he was benefiting his cause and doing a deed for which his county would hereafter thank him...." (from Between North and South - a Maryland Journalist Views the Civil War by William Wilkins Glenn, Associated University Presses, 1976, (pp. 242-243)

This is the same story that Powell told Gillette the night before he died; that he had been told by men high up in the Confederate hierarchy that he would be a "hero" and was performing a deed for which his "country" would forever thank him. I also believe, like Laurie and Messrs. Hall, Tidwell and Gaddy, that his orders were dispatched from Richmond and Canada.

This sounds like a somewhat naive and unsophisticated young man to me - not a psychopath. When he could have hung out in saloons, brothels, pool halls and the like, strangely this young man was attending church services!

I'll probably get eaten alive for saying this, but I'm not here to deify or apologize for Powell - just to set the record straight....and what one uncovers is, to me, utterly fascinating!

Now - let's see if we can find any recollections of the hanging from the guards who were there! More fascinating stuff!!

[LincolnToddFan]

Thank you very much, BettyO.

I find Powell mysterious and fascinating, along with Mary Surratt. Something about their roles in the tragedy haunts me, I can't figure out what it is. Two and two doesn't add up.

Ironically, the people who had every right to hold a grudge against Lewis-the Seward family-apparently never did.

During the attack, Secretary Seward is said to have felt strangely detached from the whole thing as if he was viewing it all from a dream. He said he mostly remembered looking up at Powell through a haze of blood and thinking how nice looking he was, and how fine his clothing was.

He was disfigured for life, his son almost died, and his wife did die a few weeks later but he never excoriated Lewis in print.

[BettyO]

Toia,

Powell is a very fascinating person - a true enigma. Surprisingly, Mr. Seward never had anything really bad to say about Powell -- and as for Fanny, sweet person that she was, she refused to identify him on board the monitor because she was fearful that her identification could have resulted in his death - and she didn't want that on her conscious!

[L Verge]

And there's mention of William Wilkins Glenn again, first mentioned on this forum by Jill Mitchell as a Baltimore contact for channeling people into the Confederacy.