The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-14
Digging the Tunnel at
Libby Prison.

FROM an Illustrated arllcle IN the
March Century, by participant, we
quote the following: Work could
only be possible between the hours of
ten at night, when the room was gen.
orally abandoned by the prisoners be-
cause of its inundated condition, and
four O'Clock in the morning, when the
earliest risers were again astir. 1t was
necessary to do the work with an old
jack-knife and one of the chisels pre-
viously secured by Rose. 1t must be
done in darkness and without noise,
for vigilant sentinel paced on the
Carey street sidewalk Just outside the
door and within ten feet of the fire.
place. A rubber blanket was procured
and the SCOT from the chimney care
fully swept into it. Hamilton, with
his old knife, cut the mortar between
the bricks and pried a dozen of them
out, being careful to preserve them
whole. The rest of the incision was
made in accordance with the design
described, but no conception could
have been formed beforehand of the
sickening tediousness of cutting an
8 S shaped hole through a heavy wall
with a feeble old jack-knife in stolen
hours of darkness. Rose guarded his
comrade against the constant danger of
interruption 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
reeking kitchen to bore for liberty.
When the sentinel's call at Castle
Thunder and at Libby announced four
O'Clock the dislodged bricks were care
fully replaced and the SCOT previously
gathered 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, Hamilton's he
roic patience and skill were rewarded
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 tragedy.
When the opening was finished the
long rope was made fast to one of the
kitchen supporting posts, and Rose pro-
ceeded to descend and reconnoiter.
He got partly through with ease, but
lost his hold in such manner that his
body slipped through so as to pinion
his arms and leave him wholly power
less 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 des-
perately, but each effort only wedged
him more firmly in the awful wise.
Hamilton sprang to his aid and did his
utmost to effect his release; but, power
full as he was, he could not bulge him.
Rose was gasping for breath and rapidly
getting fainter, but even in this fearful
strait he refrained from an cutlery, which
would certainly alarm the guards just
outside the door. Hamilton saw that
soon 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,
he trampled upon arms, legs, faces and
stomachs, leaving riot and blasphemy
in his track among the rudely-awakened
and now furious dodgers of the Chicka-
manga room. He sought the sleeping
place of Major George H. Fitzsimmons,
hut he was missing. He, however, found
Lieutenant F. +. Bennett of the
Eighteenth Regulars (since major in
the Ninth 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 speeches., was drawn up
from the fearful trap"