Part 56

When the door was opened by the colored doorkeeper, Payne stepped in, holding a little package in his hand, saying that he had some medicine for Secretary Seward, sent by Dr. Verdi, which he was directed to deliver in person and give instructions how it was to be taken.

The doorkeeper informed him that he could not see Mr. Seward, but he repeated the words, saying he must see him. He talked very roughly for several minutes against the protest of the doorkeeper, who said he had positive orders to admit no one to the sick-chamber.

The doorkeeper finally weakened, thinking perhaps he was sent by Dr. Verdi, and let him ascend the stairs. When at the top, he met Mr. Frederick Seward, a son of the Secretary's to whom he told the object of his visit, but Mr. Seward told him that he could not see his father; that he was asleep, but to give him the medicine and he would take it to him. That would not do; he must see Mr. Seward; and then Mr. Seward said: "I am the proprietor here, and his son; if you cannot leave your message with me, you cannot leave it at all."

Payne started downstairs, and after taking a few steps, suddenly turned around and struck Mr. Frederick Seward, felling him to the floor. Sergeant George F. Robinson, acting as attendant nurse to Mr. Seward, was in an adjoining room, and on hearing the noise in the hall opened the door, where he found Payne close up to it. As soon as the door was opened, he struck Robinson in the forehead with a knife, knocking him partially down, and pressed past him to the bed of Mr. Seward, where he leaned over it and struck him three times in the neck with his dagger.

Mr. Seward had been out riding shortly before the fatal day, and had been thrown from his carriage with great violence, breaking an arm and fracturing his jaw. The physician had fixed up a steel mask or frame to hold the broken bones in place while setting. The assassin's dagger cut his face from the right cheek down to the neck, and but for this steel bandage, which deflected two of the stabs, the assassin might have accomplished his purpose.

The carriage disaster was after this night almost considered a blessing in disguise. Frederick Seward suffered intensely from a fracture of the cranium. The nurse attempted to haul Payne off the bed, when he turned and attacked him the second time. During this scuffle Major Augustus H. Seward, son of Secretary Seward, entered the room and clinched Payne, and between the two they succeeded in getting him to the door, when he broke away and ran downstairs and outdoors.

The colored doorkeeper ran after the police or guards when Frederick Seward was knocked down, and returned and reported that he saw the man riding a horse and followed him to I Street, where he was lost sight of.

In some way Payne's horse got away from him, for a little after one o'clock on the morning of the 15th Lieutenant John F. Toffey, on going to the Lincoln Hospital, East Capitol and Fifteenth Streets, where he was on duty, found a dark bay horse, with saddle and bridle on, standing at Lincoln Branch Barracks. The horse no doubt came in on a sort of byroad that led to Camp Barry, which turned north from the Branch Barracks towards the Bladensburg road. The sweat pouring from the animal had made a regular puddle on the ground. A sentinel at the hospital had stopped the horse. Lieutenant Toffey and Captain Lansing, of the 13th New York Cavalry, took the horse to the headquarters of the picket at the Old Capitol Prison, and from there to General E. O. C. Ord's headquarters. After reaching there, they discovered that the horse was blind of one eye, which identified it as the one Booth purchased in November, 1864, from Squire George Gardiner."

Immediately upon the identification of Paine I arrested the Bransons and all the occupants of their fashionable boarding house, No. 16 North Eutaw Street. Following is a list of the persons arrested:

Mrs. M. A. Branson, Miss M. A. Branson, Miss Maggie Branson, Mrs. Early, Mrs. Croyean, Miss Croyean, Mrs. Thomas Hall, Miss Josephine Hall, Mr. Joseph Branson, Jr., Mr. C. H. Morgan, Mr. C. S. Shriver, Mr. Chas. Ewart, Mr. C. E. Barnett, Mr. J. C. Hall, Mr. W. H. Ward, Mr. E. A. Willer, Mr. C. H. Croyean, Mr. Aug. Thomas, Mr. Winchester, Mr. Thos. Hall, Mr. S. T. Morgan, Mr. H. D. Shriver.

I began my examination of the individuals in the house, seeking to find who, if any, were intimate with Paine, and might, therefore, have had some knowledge of the crime "before the fact."

Not all of these people were known to be disloyal. Messrs. C. H. Morgan, S. T. Morgan, C. S. Shriver and H. D. Shriver are marked on my list as "loyal," and there may have been others.

I have a lead pencil memorandum of the examination in the house (No. 16 North Eutaw Street) but it is so disjointed as to be unintelligible, and I will not put it in here. Finding that the most valuable source of information was the Bransons, I released all others, resuming the examination of Miss Maggie Branson in my office where I could be more deliberate.

Her statement is mixed and disjointed and there are repetitions. It took me much time to elicit the facts. She broke down and wanted me to destroy a great part of her statement and let her replace it with a truthful one, which I refused, requiring that all she had said should be put down.

Examination of Miss Maggie Branson.

"I was at the General Hospital at Gettysburg about six weeks in 1863. I was there in the capacity of nurse. I don't know any of the surgeons except Dr. Simley, of Philadelphia, who would remember me. I went there to assist all the wounded soldiers. While there I saw a man known as Lewis Payne; he went by the name of "Doctor" and "Powell," he wore a pair of blue pants, I think, and a slouch hat; I did not have much talk with him while there.

"I did not learn during the time I was there what he was. I don't remember of giving him my address. Sometime in the same year, after the above named occurrence, I saw him at our house; he called to see me. I can scarcely remember how he was dressed; but I think in a Federal uniform. I think he was stopping at Miller's Hotel.

"He said he wanted to cross the lines but did not say where to, nor in what direction; he did not tell me where his home was; I don't remember what I replied.

I did not ask him anything about his intentions as to crossing the lines. I don't know that he told me what his intentions were; it was in the afternoon when he called. He again called at our house about the middle of January, 1865; he was dressed in black clothes; he said he was from Fauquier County, Virginia; he said he had just come in on the cars, and he wanted to board, but we could not at that time accommodate him; there was no one else present; he said he was a refugee and had his papers; he wanted to show them to me.

He said at Gettysburg that his name was Powell; on his second visit at the house he said his name was Payne."

At this point in the examination Miss Branson broke down. She realized that I was drawing her into a net of contradictions, and she thereafter proposed to be more frank and truthful with me.

"He said his father was a Baptist clergyman; said he had two brothers that were killed in the army; it is my impression that they were in the Confederate Army.

"He said a great deal of Mosby, and I should judge by his talk that he belonged to Mosby's Command. I have some slight recollection of his saying that he assisted in capturing a wagon train and some amount of newspapers on one occasion.

"I have occasionally walked out with him. I called once or twice at Mrs. Heim, No. ---- Race Street, with him, we saw Charles and William Heim there; he did not see Mr. Heim, he (Heim) was in Richmond; I never saw any one else there when I went with Mr. Payne. He told me that his proper name was Powell; he said this when he came here this year.

"We also called on Mrs. Mantz, on Baltimore Street, near Green Street. I introduced him there as Mr. Payne. I might have called twice at this place. I often went to church with him. He was arrested at our house on March 12th, 1865, by Colonel Woolley's officers. I saw him after his release, on the day he was released; I have not seen him since. I heard from him only once, that was by a letter to my sister from New York.

"I have sent provisions, &c., to prisoners of war at Fort McHenry and Johnson's Island. I consider myself loyal. I have a great many friends in the South, and many relatives. I have never taken the oath of allegiance.

"Mr. E. W. Blair used to meet Mr. Payne at the house very often. On one occasion he went with him to the theatre. Mr. Chas. G. Heim used to call on us and would see Mr. Payne.

"If he had on a blue uniform when he came from Gettysburg, it was worn to aid him in getting South; it was not worn to act as a spy. I am confident that he never was North before. My sister said she thought at Gettysburg that he was a Federal doctor. Some called him Powell; I think he was introduced to me as Powell when he first came to our house. I think his correct name is Powell; he said his father was a Baptist minister, that he had lost two brothers in the war and that he did not know but that a third. His name may be Lewis Payne Powell. When he came to our house to board this year it was about the last days of January. Before coming there he boarded at Miller's Hotel about ten days. He called on us several times while he was boarding at Miller's Hotel. Sister or I entertained him when he came; his talk was principally of the ladies; he complained of his education.