Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-11-30

The Hero of Libby Prison.
Thomas Blwood Rose, who died re
Gently In Washington at the age of III
was not only faithful and distln
guished soldier, but was also notable
as the man who planned and led the
famous tunnel escape" from Libby
prison on the night of Feb. Q, 1864.
Born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania
on March II. 1880, Rose enlisted In the
Twelfth Pennsylvania infantry ON the
Presidents first call for troops in 1861
The following October he was appoint
ed captain in the Seventy seventh Penn
sylvania infantry, served with that reg
iment at Shiloh and other noted bat.
ties, became its colonel In February
1863. was captured at Ohickamauga, es-
capped and was retaken, and finally
reached Libby prison on Oct. /, 1863.
The prison was an old warehouse
into whose nine rooms were sometimes
crowded as many as 1900 men. Quar-
ters We're SO cramped that inmates had
10 sleep spoon fashion" and turn over
by squads, thus illustrating the tactics
which they termed "Hardee on the
horizontal Only the most fortunate
possessed such luxuries as blankets
tin cups, tin plates or knives.
From the first day Colonel Rose
planned TO escape. He found an eiii.
Client helper In Major A. g. Hamilton
OF the Twelfth Kentucky cavalry. AZ
one time as many as 400 of the prison.
ers were in the secret, but II was never
discovered by the guards. The actual
work was done by fifteen men led by
Rose and Hamilton. After various at,
tempts to make use OF sewers, Rose de
cided that the feasible plan was TO tun
mel eastward about seventy feet from
the cellar TO shed behind fence
As preliminary a secret passage
was dug from the kitchen fireplace or
the floor above to the cellar, whence
the tunnel was to start. The tools
We're a broken shovel, two table knives
wooden box which had been used as
a cuspidor, and rope which had come
into the prison around bale of cloth
Ing and which Rose managed 10 secrete
The air in the tunnel, which averaged
two feet in diameter, was so foul that
the digger could live only by having ali
famed in to him with rubber blan
ket. AS all the prisoners were count
ed twice each day the absence OF the
five men on the working shift at tn,
time of the count was covered by theil
comrades by various repeating STRAIT
agems
The whole plot was almost upset hy
Hamilton's eagerness to get the tunnc
finished. He dug up too soon. ant
found to his dismay that the hole b,
broke in the surface was outside tn,
shed In plain view Of the guards. Yet
they did not see it-as plain case OF
special providence" as the average
man would care for.
On the night of Monday, Feb. s, the
work was finally completed by Rose
who was almost at his last gasp with
suifocation when he finally broke
through the hard earth la the shelter
of the shed.
As the hour was then too !atc depart
ure was deferred until the next night.
Ii was agreed that each OF the fifteen
diggers might take one other man with
him, but the chance could not be 80
and 100 men went out or these
fiftynine reached the Union lines, tive
were drowned, and forty-eIght were
recaptured, among them Colonel Rose
himself.
Later he was exchanged, fejoIned his
regiment, served to the end of the war
and afterward in the regular army on
the western frontier, retiring for age
in 1894 with the rank OF lieutenant
colonel and the breyet Of brigadier gen.
eral.
For thirty three years Thomas III.
wood Rose served his country In arms
with credit ana distinction, but his
name will be longest remembered as
that Of the man who dug the tunnel out
VI Libby prison.--Chlcago Inter Ocean.