Escape from Libby Prison

On this night 150 years ago, Federal officers tunneled out of a Confederate prison in one of the most daring and sensational escapes of the Civil War.

Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia

The building that was Libby Prison had once been property of L. Libby & Son, a ship supply company in Richmond, Virginia. The Confederate government seized the building and used it to house captured Federal officers. Confederate officials considered the facility to be inescapable, and thus paid little attention to security.[1]

The four floors held 1,200 prisoners that were rarely allowed outdoors. Prisoners were subjected to drafts through broken windows, lack of fire in the stoves, and rampant vermin. Prison officials were detested, with one prisoner describing a guard as “the greatest scoundrel that ever went unhung.” Another inmate wrote, “We fumed and fretted, and our restraint grew more and more irksome. At last we settled down to the conviction that we were in for the war, unless we effected escape.”[2]

From the day he arrived at Libby, Colonel Thomas Rose plotted to escape. After surveying the compound, Rose devised a plan to dig a tunnel from the prison basement, beyond the 50-foot fence to an adjacent shed. However, the Confederates had closed off the basement due to rat infestation and flooding. Rose solved that problem by cutting a hole behind the fireplace on the main floor, enabling men to get into the wall, work their way to a chimney on the eastern part of the building, then drop 10 feet into the basement.[3]

The basement was completely dark, and its flooring was covered with straw. The darkness provided cover for the tunneling prisoners, and the straw enabled them to hide the dirt. But the straw also provided shelter for hundreds of rats. Lieutenant Charles H. Moran 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.” Major Andrew G. Hamilton stated, “The only difficulties experienced (were lack of proper tools) and the unpleasant feature of having to hear hundreds of rats squeal all the time, while they ran over the diggers almost without a sign of fear.”[4]

Colonel Harrison Hobart wrote that “two persons could work at the same time. One would enter the hole with his tools and a small tallow candle, dragging the spittoon after him attached to a string. The other would fan air into the passage with his hat, and with another string would draw out the novel dirt cart when loaded, concealing its contents beneath the straw and rubbish of the cellar.”[5]

When the tunnel was determined to be ready, Colonel Abel D. Streight, the senior Federal officer in the prison, insisted on going first. But when he tunneled out, he was still within the 50-foot fence. Before the guards could see him, Streight quickly plugged the hole with a shirt and the prisoners continued tunneling. On the night of February 9, some prisoners conducted a loud music show while the others began moving out.[6]

Rose and Hamilton went first. They emerged just where Rose figured—in the tobacco shed outside the 50-foot perimeter. The shed was on the fenced property of an abandoned warehouse. Others followed Rose and Hamilton in groups of two and three, and after they collected in the warehouse yard, they casually walked out the front gate undetected.[7]

The escapees quickly scattered into the dark Richmond streets. The prisoners conducting the music show saw the escape from their upper-floor window and rushed to join in. The guards hardly noticed the noise, with one telling another, “Halloa, Bill—there’s somebody’s coffeepot upset, sure!” Escapees included six colonels, six lieutenant colonels, seven majors, 32 captains, and 58 lieutenants.[8]

The Confederates suspected nothing until morning roll call. When the roll came up short, the guards counted several more times because the prisoners often pulled in and out of the line to confuse the count. A prisoner who stayed behind wrote, “When the rebel officers counted the men they found one hundred and nine too few. In a twinkling, church bells were ringing, cavalrymen were out with horns blaring, and all hounds obtainable were yelping.”[9]

Seventeen hours had passed before the escape was discovered. According to the Richmond Examiner, “It is feared that (the fugitives) have gotten rather too much the start of the pursuers to admit anything like the recapture of them all.” Nevertheless, 48 escapees were ultimately recaptured, including Rose. Two others drowned while trying to cross high streams. The remaining 59 made it back to Federal lines, making this the most successful escape of the war.[10]

Fearing that he would inspire another escape attempt, Rose spent several days in solitary confinement before he was quickly traded for a Confederate prisoner and paroled. Partly because of the Libby escape, concerned Confederate officials began creating prisons deeper within the Confederacy, away from Federal occupation forces. One of these prisons was opened in Georgia less than a month after the Libby escape. Initially named Camp Sumter, it became notorious for its horrible living conditions under the new name of Andersonville.[11]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape

[2] James I. Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life (Time-Life Books, Inc., 1984), p. 116, 119, 124

[3] Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 116, 119, 124

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape

[5] Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 124

[6] Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 125

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape; Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 125-28

[8] Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 125-28; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape; Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 128

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison_Escape; Robertson, Jr., Tenting Tonight: A Soldier’s Life, p. 128; Clifford L. Linedecker (ed.), Civil War A to Z (New York: Ballantine Books, 2002), p. 164