Sioux City register. [volume] (Sioux City, Iowa) 1858-1871, 1863-12-12

The manner in which this famous raider
escaped the Ohio teatiary, il furnish.
ID BY the Columbus core sponden, Of tho
Cincinnati Gazefte:-
1t seems that seven Of them, to.wit:-
Sol. Richard Morgan, Captains J. G. Han.
nett, s. B. Taylor, Ralph Sheldon, TIL.
Hines, l.. II. uookersmith and G. 8.
Magee. were on the loser ground range.
Underneath these cells, With shout six.
teen or eighteen inches of brick, mortar
and cement intervening, there is a cir
chamber, some six feet in length and
four fee. in width, ext ending the entire
length Of the range, for the purpose Of
keeping the cells in dry aud comforta'
bic condition. $780,. ~ >4r
They discovered this air chamber and
conceived the idea of escaping through it,
and to prevent discovery, they asked for
boards TO cover the brick aud cement
door under the pretense that the room
was damp. These boards were furnished
by the guard, aud thus the holes they
made in the floor were concealed.
On the 4th Of November they common.
ced digging through the a,or Of their
cells, using for that purpose two, perhaps
more, table knives. After establishing
communication with the air chamber they
excavated with small coal shovel tun.
mel from the east end Of the cha ber,
passing under the walls of the prison, to
the guard outside, to escape from which
there would be but little difficulty. The
men were engaged but three hours each
in each day tor several days in the work,
a. will be seen by the following note,
which they left behind them:
CASTLE MERTON, CELL No. 20
Commencement, Nov. 4.h, 1863.
Conclusion, Nov. Goth, 1863.
Number Of hours of labor per day, 3.
Tools, two table knives.
"La patience est arriere, mails son fruit
est doux.'
BY order Of my six honorable confed.
crates, I. HENRY HINES,
Capt. C. s. A.
On the night Of their escape Dick Nor
gan exchanged cells With John, VIII was
in the upper range. When the guard came
ronnd to Johns cell and asked if General
John Morgan was there, Dick replied BY
showing his foot. and the trick was sue
cessfal. After getting into the cir cham
Der they crawled to the heavy grating and
masonry at its mouth aud fond that they
could not escape by that route. They
however, made = hole upward, to heavy
pile Of coal, which rolled 10 on them to
such an extent that they were forced to
60 further back into the yard. They then
excsvated the soft earth clean under the
main wall Of the prison, and 40 correctly
was the distance calculated that hey came
out into the open roadway one foot from
the foundation. One Of the party, Capt.
Hines, was by trade brick mason, and
seems to have had the management Of the
whole affair.
To escape IRON the outside wall they
climbed up q gateway, and let ,hcms selves
down by q rope they had made from the
bedding Of their coils.
1t 10 supposed that they escaped soon
enough to take the Cincinnati train that
left At ? o'clock SATURDAY. morning and
passed directly over to Kentucky. It il
supposed they had outside aid.
As to the blame Of this escape it seems
to be attached TO the military that guard.
ed them. The prisoners were allowed to
keep their own rooms, and were left pretty
much free from intrusion. Being dressed
in citizens clothes, they had little diff :.
Guilty after getting into the open air..
Every effort possible is made for their
recovery, and $1,000 Is offered for John
Morgan. The chances Of his apprshen.