The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-04-05
Digging the Tunnel at Libby Prison.

From an illustrated article in the
Century, by participant, we quote
the following: Work could only be
possible between the hours of 10 at
night, when the room was generally
| abandoned by the prisoners because
of its inundated condition, and 4
o'clock in the morning, when the
learliest risers were again astir. 1t
was necessary to do the work with an
old jack-knife and one of the chisels
formerly secured by Rose. 1t must be
done in darkness and without noise,
for vigilant sentinel paced on the
Carye street sidewalk just outside the
door and within ten feet of the fire.
place. A rubber blanket was procur-
ed, and the SCOT from the chimney
carefully swept into it. Hamilton,
with his old knife, cut the mortar be-
tween the bricks and pried a dozen of
them out, being careful to preserve
them whole.
1.-The rest of the incision was made
in accordance with the design describ-
ed, but no conception could have been
formed beforehand of the sickening
tediousness of cutting an tS' shaped
hole through heavy wall with feeble
old jack-knife, in stolen hours of dark
ness. Rose guarded his comrads
against the constant danger of inter-
ruption by alert enemies on one side
and by laundering friends on the other;
and, as frequently happens in human
affairs, their friends gave them more
trouble than their foes. Night after
night passed, and still the two men
got up after taps from their hard beds,
and descended to the dismal and reek-
ing kitchen to bore for liberty. When
the sentinefs call at Castle Thunder
and at Libby announced o'clock, the
dislodged bricks were carefully re-
placed, and the SCOT previously gath
cred in the gum blanket was flung in
handfuls against the restored wall,
filling the seams so entirely between
the bricks as to defy detection. At
last, after many weary nights, Hamil-
toms heroic patience and skill were re-
warded, and the way was open to the
coveted base of operations, Rat He'll.
"Now occurred circumstance that
nearly revealed the plot and nearly
ended in a tragedy. When the open
ing was finished, the long rope was
made fast to one of the kitchen sup
porting posts, and Rose proceeded to
descend and reconnoiter. He got
partly through with ease. but lost his
hold in such a manner that his body
slipped through so as to pinion his
arms and leave him wholly powerless
either to drop lower or return-the
bend of the hole being such as to
cramp his back and neck terribly and
prevent him from breathing. He
strove desperately, but each effort only
wedged him more firmly in the awful
vice. Hamilton sprang to his aid and
did his utmost to effect his release;
but, powerful as he was, he could not
bulge him. Rose was gasping for
breath and rapidly getting fainter,
but even in this fearful strait he re-
Trained from an outcry. that would
certainly alarm the guards just out
side the door. Hamilton saw that
without speedy relief his comrade
! must smother. He dashed through the
long. dark room up the stairway. over
the forms of several hundred men, and
disregarding consequences and savage
curses in the dark and crowded room,
be trampled upon arms, legs, faces,
and stomachs, leaving riot and BIAS
Ipheny in his track among the rudely
awakened and now furious dodgers of
the Chickamauga room. He sought
the sieeping-place of Major George H.
IFitZsimmons, but he Was missing. He
however found Lieutenant F. F. Ben
nett, of the 18th Regulars (since ma
jor in the 9th United States Cavalry,
to whom he told the trouble in few
hasty words. Both men fairly flew
across the room. dashed down the
stairs, and by their united efforts,
Rose, half-dead and quite speechless,
was drawn up from the fearful trap"