Lewis Thornton Powell - Assassination Conspirator - Abraham Lincoln on Waymarking.com

Using the pseudonym "Lewis Payne", Lewis Thornton Powell was the youngest and the most stoic of the Lincoln conspirators associated with John Wilkes Booth and the assassination attempts of April 14, 1865. A former member of John Mosby's Confederate rangers, Powell was given the task of assassinating Secretary of State William Seward, who was at his home near the White House recuperating from a recent carriage accident. Miraculously, Seward survived Powell's knife attack but was facially scarred for the rest of his life. Powell was arrested a few days later and confined in the Old Capitol Prison. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to hang with the three (3) other conspirators on July 7, 1865. Taken from this site.

Lewis Thornton Powell (April 22, 1844 – July 7, 1865), also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, and was one of four people hanged for the Lincoln assassination conspiracy.

On December 23, 1864, Lewis Powell was walking the streets of Washington with John Surratt, when they came around a corner and Surratt recognized his friend Samuel Mudd walking with a man. Mudd hailed his friend, and the two parties converged on the sidewalk. Mudd introduced John Wilkes Booth to Surratt, and Surratt introduced Powell to Booth and Mudd. Booth then offered that the men return to his hotel room for drinks and cigars. It was in his hotel room that he enlisted the men into his plot to kidnap the President, which they attempted to do on March 17, 1865, to no avail. After the failed attempt, Lewis lost contact with his friends, and drifted around Washington. Then in April, he was contacted by Booth again, this time to be enlisted in a plot to kill the President and his cabinet. On April 13, Booth, George Atzerodt and David Herold all met at Powell's room at a boarding house in Washington, where Booth assigned roles. Powell was to go to the home of Secretary of State William Seward and kill him, accompanied by Herold. Atzerodt would assassinate Vice President Johnson, and Booth; Abraham Lincoln.

After being escorted to the Seward residence by David Herold, Powell attempted to kill William Seward on April 14, 1865 (the same night that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) by breaking into his bedroom and stabbing him repeatedly. Earlier in the month, on April 5, 1865, Seward had been injured in a carriage accident, and suffered a concussion, a broken jaw, a broken right arm, and many serious bruises. A jaw splint worn by Seward helped to save his life by deflecting the knife away from his jugular vein. Four other people were injured in the attack. Another member of the conspiracy, George Atzerodt, failed to kill Vice-President Andrew Johnson, because he lost his nerve and got drunk. Taken from this site.