Lewis Powell (conspirator)

Lewis Powell
Powell aboard USS Saugus, 1865. Photograph by Alexander Gardner
Born	Lewis Thornton Powell (1844-04-22)April 22, 1844 Randolph, Alabama, U.S.
Died	July 7, 1865(1865-07-07) (aged 21) Arsenal Penitentiary, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Resting place	Geneva Cemetery, Florida
Other names	Lewis Paine; Lewis Payne
Known for	Lincoln assassination plot
Conviction(s)	Conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln
Criminal penalty	Death
Partner(s)	John Wilkes Booth George Andrew Atzerodt David Edgar Herold John Harrison Surratt Jr. Mary Elizabeth Surratt
Details
Date	April 14, 1865, 10:15 p.m.
Location(s)	Washington, D.C.
Target(s)	William Henry Seward
Injured	5
Military career
Branch	Confederate Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Unit	2nd Florida Infantry Mosby's Rangers
Campaigns	Peninsula campaign Gettysburg campaign

Lewis Thornton Powell (April 22, 1844 – July 7, 1865) was an American Confederate soldier who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward as part of the Lincoln assassination plot. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he later served in Mosby's Rangers before working with the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland. John Wilkes Booth recruited him into a plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn the president over to the Confederacy, but then decided to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson instead, and assigned Powell the task to kill Seward.

Co-conspirator David Herold was to guide Powell to Seward's home, then help him escape, but fled before Powell was able to exit the Seward home. He arrived at the boarding house run by Mary Surratt, mother of co-conspirator John Surratt, three days later while the police were there conducting a search, and was arrested. Powell, Mary Surratt, Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by a military tribunal, and executed at the Washington Arsenal.