The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-04-29
A Thrilling Chapter of the
Wars History.
SOME MEMORABLE ESCAPES.
Walking by the Guards - The
Great Tunnel Epi-
sode.

L
tail and the writer was so entirely igno-
rant of the subject he pretended to treat
that the survivors of LIBBY, as rule,
treated it with deserved contempt.
My old friend, General franklin B.
Fisher, chief signal officer of the Army of
the Potomac, who was in Libby at the
time, and is now prominent lawyer in
his native Philadelphia. was moved to in
dignation and wrote vigorous denial of
the canard.
Just here, and before going any further
with my subject. permit me to say that L
have always entertained an intense ad-
mration for the aforesaid Fisher. During
that terrible winter of '64, when We
were cold, hungry. filthy and crowded.
General, then Captain Fisher, succeeded
in smuggling in some way some lawbOOks
into the prison. Amid surroundings that
would have disheartened or deferred less
resolute man Fisher forgot his hunger and
his wretehed environment In studying his
Black stone or Kent. Such man ought
to succeed, and it delights his many
friends to know that he has succeeded.
One of the most accurate and best writ
ten accounts | have yet seen of the great
tunnel out of Libby was written by Cap
tain Frank Z. Moran Of Philadelphia. ana
appeared among the Century war papers
some eight or nine years ago. 1t Is not my
purpose to improve on his. but rather to
supplement il with matters that esca ped
Cap ain Moran's notice. Or rather which
the limited space prevented his giving.
The captain is under the impression that
while the tunnel was being built the fact
was known TO but few men in the prison
outside of the working party. l reached
Libby early in November, and had not
been in prison two DAYS before l learned
that tunnel was either contemplated or
being operated, and although / was not in
the con fdence Of Rose or Hamilton at the
inception of the enterprise. [ entered the
tunnel a short time after the attempt to
reach the sewer had proved failure.
During the winter of 1S63-64 there were
between tweivs aud fourteen hundred off
GERS confined in Libby. and excepting the
thirty or forty in the hospital al all times,
the others, and particularly at night, were
confined to the upper two stories of the
building. so that when they lay down upon
the floor they literally covered il, the space
for each man being about two feet by six.
Even in The daytime, when the men were
on their feet and moving around to keep
warm, for as the prison faced north aid
south the freezing wind blew bitterly
through the barred and classics windows,
they formed great throngs like funeral
professions. The weStroOm, on the ground
floor, was oceupied by Major Turner and
the prison officials; the room immedi-
ately above this was known as Milroy's,
because of the number of men Of that Off
GERS command who occupied it, and the
upper west room. known as 'Straight's" or
Greenland" because of its cold. was oc-
cupied principally by officers captured near
Rome, Ga, by Forrest the preceding Nav :;
tile lower middle room, below which was
the kitchen, opening on Carey street, was
81 ar IL A.
o-e above it the Upper Chiekamauga."
because most of those occupying them
were captured in that disastrous and san
culinary battle. The two east rooms, i'm
mediaielv above The hospital. were known
as the Upper and Lower Potomac" and
were occupied by officers of that army.
many of whom belonged to the first and
third corps and were captured at Gettys-
burg.
Around the prison and stationed about
thirty feet apart there was constantly
kept a Gordon of guards. who, from 9
O'Clock at night until the next morning.
announced their numbers and their + osis
every half hour. Sleeping on the cold.
damp floor. which. for some reason I'M
known to US. the Confederates kept con-
stantly wet, we would be frequently
aroused at night by loud, stentorious cries.
something like this:
"Half-past L. Post No. / E! ALPS well. ="
"Half-Dast /! Post No. % ALPS well, Z"
and so on until the last post about the
prison was called. Frequently the guard
would vary the monotony Of "AlPs well'
by substituting colds help
The mode of rolcall when | reached
Libby was to assemble the men by fours
in the Lower ,Chickamauga room and count
them, but a S toe counts were never twice
alike this led to endless confusion and de-
lay, the fault of mischievous prisoners.
Afterward it was improved on by crowd
ing the prisoners in the Upper Potomac
room and counting them out one at time.
When it is understood that The Union
officers, excepting when they had access 20
the two slaves in the sG-called kitchen,
were confined to the upper stories of this
building some idea of the difficulties of eS-
cape may be had.
Yet the men were continually talking
about il and dreaming about II. Taken as
q whole, do not think ever met so many
manly. brave and intelligent men "a were
assembled in Libby at that time. 1t was
p place and an occasion to test character
and to draw out all that was best and
worst in a man, but to their credit be it
said, they bore their sufferings without
complaint. never uttered word against
the Government that might have ex-
changed them. and were more than eager,
IL their liberty could be gained. to go TO
the front once more.
The prisoners did not whine and mope.
but made the best of situation that did
not seem to have one redeeming feature in
1t. Before l reached Libby, 1t seems, meat
ratiODs had been occa sionalIy Issued. They
must have consisted principally of bone,
Judging from the large quantity of nsssous
matter that remained, and on my first in
speciion Of The prison it seemed to me that
every other man was cutting away at
piece of bone, trying TO form IL into a
napkin-ring, paper-cuttev with the name
of some loved one on 1t, or a most sac
egious-looking eruciix. The men who
put in their time in this way were
said by their comrades to have "bone
on the BRAIN" One of these carvers,
Lienteuant-Colonel Henry of the Fifteenth
Kentucky cavalry carried some bone arti-
cles that were really exquisite and which
sold for very high prices, In Confederate
money. to the art connoisseurs of Rich
mond. Colonel Henry had the advantage.
however, of having been a sculptor before
the war. calling which hes subsequently
practiced with success. Before my COM
ing, boxes from friends in the North had
been received by prisoners, under flag of
truce. and as these contained not only food
and raiment but many books, there was
not dearth of reading matter In Libby,
but it was so cold that, unless man were
the owner of an overcoat and couple OF
baD keis. which few were, it was impossi-
Bile TO sit down and read for any length of