1865 – Lewis Thornton Powell was hanged for his role in the conspiracy to kill President Abraham Lincoln on this date. Powell was not a native Floridian, but he had lived in Live Oak since 1859 with his family, and joined the 2nd Florida Infantry in Jasper in 1861 at the outbreak of war. He fought in a number of battles with the 2nd Florida, including Gettysburg before being injured and captured as a POW. He later escaped and worked with the Confederate Secret Service until the end of the war. His part in the assassination conspiracy was to kill U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, while John Wilkes Booth would assassinate the president, and George Atzerodt was to assassinate Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Booth was successful in his attempt, while Powell and Atzerodt were not. Powell was interred at the Geneva Cemetery in Seminole County, next to his father.