Libby Prison escape
Led by Colonel Thomas E. Rose of the 77th Pennsylvania Infantry, the prisoners started tunnelling in a rat-infested zone which the Confederate guards were reluctant to enter.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Luther Libby was running a ship supply shop from the corner of a large warehouse in Richmond, Virginia.
In need of a new prison for captured Union officers, Confederate soldiers gave Libby 48 hours to evacuate his property.
By removing a stove on the first floor and chipping their way into the adjoining chimney, the officers constructed a cramped but effective passage for access to the eastern basement.
Lt. Charles H. Moran, a recaptured officer from Libby, wrote, "No tongue can tell...how the poor fellow[s] passed among the squealing rats,—enduring the sickening air, the deathly chill, the horrible interminable darkness.
"[7] Colonel Thomas E. Rose, the leader of the escape, addressed the double-edged lack of light in Rat Hell: "The profound darkness caused some...to become bewildered when they attempted to move about.
'This was, however, so uninviting a place, that the Confederates made this visit as brief as nominal compliance with their orders permitted...'"[9] The tunnelers organized into three relief teams with five members each.
After 17 days of digging, they succeeded in breaking through to a 50-foot vacant lot on the eastern side of the prison, resurfacing beneath a tobacco shed inside the grounds of the nearby Kerr's Warehouse.
Union officers meandering through the streets of Richmond late at night might appear to be a leg of the plan doomed to failure, however, the guards simply did not expect that escape from Libby prison was possible.
Union Army Lieutenant Moran described how the sentries were not interested in stopping people outside the bounds of their jurisdiction, "provided, of course, that the retreating form...were not recognized as Yankees.
"[14] Despite the stampeding of prisoners, strong senior officers such as Colonel Harrison C. Hobart had the sense of mind to tie off the flow of escapees before dawn's light.
"The remaining prisoners replaced the bricks at the fireplace, and the guards began their morning routine, unaware that 109 escaped Union officers were making their way toward the Federal lines.
After the morning roll call came up over a hundred short, the Confederates counted frantically several more times to ensure that the Yankees weren't pulling a trick.
Such "tricks" had occurred on many occasions when men slipped in and out of the counting lines; this "repeating" was a mild prank often used to frustrate the Confederates at roll call, much to the glee of the Union prisoners.
Frenzy broke out among the Confederates: "Messengers and dispatches were soon flying in all directions, and all the horse, foot, and dragoons of Richmond were in pursuit of the fugitives before noon.
For those who would break out of Libby prison, the time spent studying maps and hoofing ground in Virginia familiarized them with the enemy terrain.
Animated by an unflinching earnestness of purpose, unwearying perseverance, and no ordinary engineering abilities, he organized ... working parties [which] he conducted every night [in] the cellars of the prison.
To judge the success of the Libby Prison escape solely by the number of men who crossed Federal lines would be a mistake.
"[23] A melodramatic Broadway play about the escape entitled A Fair Rebel,[24][25][26] by Harry P. Mawson, premiered in New York City in August 1891.
In 1914, a 3-reel silent film version was released starring Linda Arvidson, Charles Perley, and Dorothy Gish, and directed by Frank Powell.
Episode Number 25 of The Great Adventure (American TV series) (1964) presents a dramatisation of the Libby Prison escape.
