Lewis Powell was born in Alabama in 1884. His father was a Baptist minister. He was the youngest of eight children. The family m
oved to Georgia when Lewis was just three years old. In Georgia all eight children were educated by their father, who then became the school master. When Lewis was a teenager the family moved to Florida. During the Civil War, Lewis enlisted and served in the Confederate Army. In 1862 he was hospitalized for an unknown sickness. He continued to fight many battles unharmed prior to being injured in the wrist at the Battle of Gettysburg. In July of 1863 he was captured and sent to a Prisoner of War (POW) hospital. He escaped the hospital, and eventually traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, where he became involved with the Confederate Secret Service, the Confederacy's spy agency.
In April of 1865, Lewis met with John Wilkes Booth to conspire and plot the assassination of Lincoln and other Union leaders. Lewis was charged with the assassination of Secretary of State William H. Seward. Another friend of Lewis's was to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Booth was responsible for assassinating President Lincoln himself.
Lewis attempted, but ultimately failed to assassinate Seward. He was tried, convicted, and executed for the assassination of President Lincoln as a conspirator, a person who helps in the planning and execution of a crime.
According to the passage, what was Lewis Powell’s role in the assassination of President Lincoln?
He was a conspirator responsible for assassinating the president.
He was a conspirator to the assassination and was directed to murder the secretary of State.
He was a conspirator to the assassination and was directed to murder the vice president.
He knew about the plot but was not responsible for participating in the actual assassinations.
