 |
Chapter 10. |
|
|
Chapter 10. |
alias LEWIS PAYNE, alias PAINE, alias the Rev. WOOD Accused No. 6: Former Confederate soldier, was the son of a Florida Baptist preacher, who at the time of the trial had had a mother and father, six sisters, two brothers had been killed by the Rebel army; LEWIS POWELL/PAINE enlisted in the Confederate Army and was wounded. He deserted and was picked up on the street by JOHN WILKES BOOTH. During his imprisonment alienist pronounced him mentally deranged. LEWIS POWELL/PAINE, on the same evening of Friday, April 14, 1865, was across town, at the same time making an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Secretary of State WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. He forced his way into Secretary SEWARD'S sickroom, slashed him with a knife, and then fled. Was captured Monday evening, April 17, 1865. At about 11:30 P.M. out front of Mrs. MARY E. (JENKINS) SURRATT' s Boarding House. He had come to Mrs. SURRATT's house because he was desperately hungry by then, and tired - he had spent most of the hours since his attack on the 5 people in SEWARD's house hiding up in a ceder tree in a woods 4 miles Northeast of Washington D.C. After interrogation at General AUGUR's headquarters POWELL/PAINE was ferried out directly to the ironclad Saugus [REF: #5 pg189 Brought to Trial: POWELL/PAINE had no members of his family nor any friend visited him in his cell. A Minister was assigned to pray with him and POWELL/PAINE did pray a lot, saying he believed in God and considered that killing by any method at all -- in battle or in a man's home by stealth -- was justifiable in time of War. He also said he was guilty as charged though he had done no wrong, and wished they would "hang him quick", and get it over with -- he had no desire to live. He laughed just once, when the court made him stand up and try on the hat he had left behind on the floor of Wm. H. SEWARD'S bedroom the night he attacked the Secretary. Instead of looking frightened when the hat fitted him, he had actually laughed (showing for the first time the two incongruously charming dimples in his cheeks) He never wept, never trembled, was always in control of himself -- dignified, mysterious, and ever keeping his own counsel. After the day that he propelled himself headlong against the iron wall of the Saugus trying to batter his brains out, the soldiers chained him into almost complete immobility. And he was the despair of the prison doctors who wanted to keep him alive for the hanging. His lower bodily functions had just seemed to stop working, in spite of repeated cathartics, as though POWELL/PAINE had willed his body to stop living. The only pleasure of this world he still craved was a chew of tobacco, and THOMAS T. ECKERT of the War Department who had been sent by Secretary STANTON to POWELL/PAINE's cell to get him talking and implicating the others with himself and BOOTH, did stick a piece of tobacco through the mouth of the opening in POWELL/PAINE's padded hood. POWELL/PAINE was grateful, saying it was the first kindness he had received. POWELL/PAINE in the courtroom was a giant of a young man, fiercest erect, beautifully developed muscularly and always wearing a dark knit pull-on shirt that exposed his bull strong neck. He would lean his head back against the wall and look dreamily out the barred windows to the stirring trees outside. He was relaxed and seemed to be completely at ease every day -- as though beyond mere man's reach -- just as he alone of the prisoners slept soundly each night. He had a thick shock of uncombed hair which hung forward over his low forehead, a fresh, beardless skin, large blue-gray eyes that met the gaze in turn of everyone in the courtroom. Some said he stared impudently -- some said he scowled fiercely like a caged tiger -- some said that he glared at everyone, showing the whites of his eyes frighteningly as he switched his gaze right and left. He always came to court in his stocking feet for his feet had swelled so much that he could not get into his shoes. Onlookers marveled at POWELL/PAIN's control of himself, even during reviling that would rouse a lesser man to some sort of intense feeling -- either remorse or frighting madness. The only sign of feeling showing that ever ruffled POWELL/PAIN's composure was a slight pink tinge that came in his handsome complexion -- and a rare times he held his breath for a long while, then let it go audibly, in a great sigh. Trial Sentence: The Military Commission met secretly on the June 28 & 29 and voted the "Death by Hanging" penalty for ""Conspiring to Murder""; Was not read the sentence until July 6, was hanged the next day at 1:00 o'clock p.m., July 7, 1865; Buried in the yard of the Old Penitentiary, Washington D.C. End of Chapter 10.
E-Mail:
Paul R. Sarrett, Jr., Auburn CA.