The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-06-16
SOLDIERS BUDGET,
Digging the Tunnel at Libby Prison,


From an illustrated article in the
March century by participant, we
quote the following: Work could only
be possible between the hours of ten al
night, when the room was generally
abandoned by the prisoners because of
It's 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 iackknife and
one Of the chistls previously secured bv
Rose. 1t must be done in the darkness
and without noise, for vigiant senti-
mel paced on the Carey street sidewalk
just outside the door and within ten
feet OF the fireplace. A rubber blanket
was procured, and the scot from the
chimney carefully swept into it. Ham,
ilt?n, with his old knife, cut the mortar
between the bricks and pried dozen
OF them out, being careful to preserve
the m who le.
"The rest of The incision was made
IN accordance with the design de-
scrib6d, but no conception could have
been formed before hand of the sicken-
ing tediousness of cutting an 'S' shaped
hole through heavy wall with fe eble
old jackknife in stolen hours of dark
ness. Rose guarded his comrade
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 reekipg
kitchen to bore for liberty. When the
sentinePs call at Castle Thunder and at
Libby announced four o'clock, the dis
lodged bricks were carefully replaced
and the SCOT previously gathered in the
gum blanket was flung in handfuls
against the restored wall, filing the
seams so entirely between the bricks as
to defy detection. AT last, after many
weary nights, Hamilton's heroic pa
tience 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 open
ing was finished, the long rope was
made fast to one of the Kitchen cup
POipb5 POo'c, anu loOot pIOCtGutu 10
descend and reconnoitre. He got
partly through with ease, but lost his
hold in such manner that his body
slipped through so as 10 pinion his arms
and leave him powelless 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
wac, he could not bulge him. Rose
was gasping for breath and rapidly get
ting fainter but even in his desperate
strait he refrained from an cutlery, that
would certainly alarm the guards Just
outside the door. Hamilton saw that
without speedy relief his comrade
would soon smother. He dashed
through the long, dark room up the
stairway, over the forms of several
hundred men, and disregardipg conse-
quences and savage curses in the dark
and crowded room, he trampled upon
arms, legs, faces and stomachs, leav-
ting riot and blasphemy in his track
among the rudely awakened and now
furious dodgers of the Chickamauga
room. He sought the sleeping place
of Major George H. Fizsimmons, but
he was missing, He, however, found
Lieut.. F. 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
effort Rose, half-dead and quite speech
less, was drawn up from the fearful
trap"