George Foster Robinson
"The Attempted Assassination of Secretary Seward" from the Assassination and History of the Conspiracy.
George Foster Robinson was raised on a farm in Phillips, Maine, by his father and stepmother alongside his brother Elisha and two half-siblings, Deborah and Charles. By 1860, the family had moved north to a farm in Township 4, Aroostook County.
As the Civil War raged, Robinson enlisted in August 1863 at age 31 as a Private in Company B, 8th Maine Infantry Regiment. He was wounded in May 1864 at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church, and during his recovery served as an attendant to Secretary of State William H. Seward.
It was in this role that Robinson found himself at the center of history. On the night of April 14, 1865 — the same night President Lincoln was assassinated — John Wilkes Booth's co-conspirator Lewis Powell forced his way into the Seward household, intent on murder. Posing as a deliveryman with medicine for the recovering Secretary, Powell attacked members of the household when he couldn't reach Seward's room. Robinson and Seward's son Augustus fought to drive Powell off, both suffering stab wounds in the struggle. Though Powell escaped, Robinson and Seward's daughter Fanny managed to stop the bleeding from Seward's multiple stab wounds to the face and neck, saving his life.
For his bravery that night, Robinson was later awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
He was honorably discharged in May 1865 at the war's end and returned to Maine, marrying Roxinda Aurora Clark that July; the couple had two sons. Robinson returned to military service in 1879, living with his family in San Antonio, Texas, and retired in 1896 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before settling in Pomona, California.
