Did you know that following President Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination, at least three Alabamans were taken into custody? Suspected of involvement in the murder that rocked the country 160 years ago, three men served time in prison. A native of Randolph County was put to death, while two others were freed.
These are their stories:
Clement Claiborne Clay
During the Civil War, Clement Claiborne Clay was a well-known Huntsville resident. Clay, the eldest son of Governor Clement Comer Clay of Alabama, served as a U.S. senator from 1853 to 1861 before becoming a Confederate States senator from 1862 to 1864.
Clay would be arrested in April 1865 on suspicion of taking part in one of the most horrible crimes in history: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Clay was suspected of participating in a number of unsuccessful attempts to weaken the Union while serving as the Confederate commissioner to Canada.
Government authorities were under pressure to track down and punish anyone connected to the assassination of the beloved president following Lincoln’s murder.
A proclamation by President Andrew Johnson offering rewards for the capture of traitors believed to be implicated in the killing was published by the New York Times and newspapers nationwide on May 4, 1865. He offered $25,000 for Clement Claiborne Clay and others, and $100,000 for the apprehension of Jefferson Davis. In part, the proclamation stated:
Whereas, according to evidence from the Bureau of Military Justice, Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Virginia, Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly Tucker, W. C. Cleary, and George N. Sanders, among others, incited, coordinated, and procured the horrific murder of the late President Abraham Lincoln and the attempted assassination of Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, in order to ensure that justice is served.
In this context, Clement Clay was detained and held for approximately a year in Virginia’s Fortress Monroe. He went to the fort with Virginia Clay-Clopton, his wife. After being released, the Clays moved back to Huntsville, where Clement worked as an attorney. Clay was never put on trial. Clement Clay is interred in Huntsville’s Maple Hill Cemetery after passing away in 1882.
George Washington Gayle
John and Nancy Whitehead Gayle welcomed George Washington Gayle into the world in 1807 in South Carolina. Margaret Kornegay, Gayle’s first wife, was the niece of William Rufus King of Selma, who was the US vice president for forty-five days before passing away in office in 1853.
In 1840, President Martin Van Buren appointed Gayle, a lawyer, as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. Gayle also chaired the House Ways and Means Committee while serving in the Alabama Legislature.
Gayle gained notoriety in 1864 when he paid to have an advertisement in The Selma Dispatch offering money in return for planning the death of three men—Lincoln, Vice President Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward—who were the targets of John Wilkes Booth’s assassination plot.
The December 1, 1864, ad stated:
A million dollars I wanted peace by March 1st, and if the Southern Confederate people could give me a million dollars in cash or solid securities, I would have Andrew Johnson, Wm. H. Seward, and Abraham Lincoln killed by March 1st of the next year. This will bring us peace and prove to the rest of the world that ruthless rulers cannot exist in a free country. No more than fifty thousand dollars in advance, which is supposedly required to get to and kill the three criminals, will be claimed if this is not done. I will personally contribute $1,000 to this patriotic endeavor. Contributions should be sent to Box X, Cahawba, Alabama.
Four months later, Lincoln was slain, and on May 25, 1865, Gayle was taken into custody in Alabama. Gayle asserted that no money was donated to the assassination fund and that the advertisement was intended as a joke. Gayle, however, was accused of plotting the president’s murder.
During the trial, Gayle’s advertisement was used to denounce the Lincoln conspirators who were associated with John Wilkes Booth. According to Protecting President Lincoln: The Security Effort, the Thwarted Plots, and the Disaster at Ford’s Theatre, the prosecution used it in the Lincoln murder trials to demonstrate animosity toward the Lincoln administration among a large portion of the South.
The Montgomery Ledger posted the following note on October 18, 1865, citing a genealogy of the Gayle family: Col. G. W. Gayle – We were happy to see Col. Gayle, of Dallas County, in our city yesterday after he was just freed from captivity at Fort Pulaski. He seems to be in poor condition and only a shadow of the person he used to be. After spending several months at Fortress Monroe, Gayle was released due to a lack of evidence and proudly and unrepentantly returned to Alabama.
Andrew Johnson granted Gayle a complete pardon on April 27, 1867. He is interred in Selma’s Liveoak Cemetery after his away in 1875.
Lewis Powell
A barely 21-year-old son of an Alabama preacher was placed in a small, windowless cell in June 1865, with nothing more than a mattress and a bucket for comfort. A padded canvas hood was placed over his eyes and ears, allowing only his mouth to be fed enough to sustain him till his execution.
As part of John Wilkes Booth’s scheme to overthrow Lincoln and his government, the stoic Lewis Powell—also known as Lewis Payne or Paine—was about to be released from his earthly prison when he was hanged for trying to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward.
George Cader Powell, a Baptist clergyman, and Patience Caroline Powell welcomed Lewis Thornton Powell into the world on April 22, 1844, in Randolph County. Later, the family relocated to Georgia and then Florida, where Lewis enlisted in the Confederacy at the age of 17.
In many battles, including as Fredericksburg, Chancellorville, Second Manasses, Antietam, and Gettysburg, he would fight valiantly. When Lewis joined the Confederate Secret Service in 1864, he met John Surratt, a fellow agent who would eventually play a part in the Lincoln assassination plot. Powell was then introduced to John Wilkes Booth by Surratt.
Powell was tasked with escorting co-conspirator David Herold to Seward’s residence in Washington, D.C., so that he could assist him in killing him. Booth was tasked with killing President Lincoln, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson.
The fact that Seward had suffered severe injuries in a carriage accident on April 5—a broken jaw, a broken arm, and a concussion—made Powell’s task easier. On the evening of April 14, Powell knocked on the Sewell residence’s door and announced that he was delivering medicine while he was recuperating there.
Before entering the room and repeatedly stabbing the Secretary of State with a silver-mounted Bowie knife, Lewis found Steward’s son, Frederick, on the stairs and pistol-whipped him. Seward suffered a cut to his cheek, but his life was spared because his jugular vein was shielded by a splint over his fractured jaw.
Lewis returned to his escape horse after throwing away the dagger. Before returning to Mary Surratt’s boarding house, where the men had been gathering, he spent three days hiding under a tree. Upon his arrival, he witnessed Mrs. Surratt being taken into custody on suspicion of plotting Lincoln’s murder. Lewis was also taken into custody.
By now, Lewis was aware that his effort to assassinate Seward had failed, Booth had succeeded in killing Lincoln, and George Atzerodt had lost his courage after drinking and had never attempted to kill Johnson.
Additionally, the conspirators would discover that they were demonized instead of celebrated as heroes of the Southern cause, as Booth had planned. Twelve days after killing Lincoln, Booth was shot dead by soldiers, and the others were put on trial.
Lewis, Atzerodt, Herold, and Mary Surratt were all found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and treason and were given hanging sentences.
Lewis prayed with the Rev. Dr. Abram D. Gillette of First Baptist Church in Washington on July 7, 1865, the day of his execution.
Lewis’s body swung wildly as the floor collapsed beneath the four conspirators. Herold passed away after a brief shudder, and Mary Surratt died instantly. Atzerodt and Lewis dangled for a few minutes before passing away, with Lewis taking the final breath. Neither of their necks cracked on impact.
