The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-05-30
o find themselves frustrated, now BY

to find themselves frustrated, now BY
water from the canal, now by some i'm
passable obstacle. They tried to avail
themselves Of old sewers, but one was
too small and one debouched in too
public spot. Finally they adopted the
plan Of digging eastward to the shelter
Of the other building.
Rose picked out thirteen faithful fol-
lowers In addition to himself and Ham
iltOn. Most Of the others had been dis
couraged by the slime, the foul air and
the i'll success of previous attempts.
Rose and his little band went on in
defatigably, scarcely eating, scarcely
sleeping, engrossed in the one feverish
thought Of liberty. At best it would be
slender chance. The streets of Rich
mond were patrolled by southern pick
cts, and friends were few for escaped
Yankees wearing prison stained blue
uniforms. But hope, springing persist
emily, drove them on.
BY great good fortune Rose had
come into possession Of rope nearly
hundred feet long, an inch thick and
new. By an agreement between the
commissioners Of exchange several
bales Of clothing had been sent by the
Federal government to the suffering
soldiers at Belle Isle. A committee Of
Union officers from Libby prison had
been assigned to supervise the distri-
button, and one Of them by a bit Of
clever legerdemain managed to secrete
the rope which bound one Of the bales.
Rose and Hamilton fashioned it into a
ladder.
They concluded that the safest
means of getting into Rats hell with
out detection would be to dig secret
passage from the kitchen, which was
on the floor above, but not directly
over Rats hell. Carefully digging
out the mortar with a jackknife
they removed the bricks one by one
from the back of the large open fire
place. When morning came they re-
placed the bricks and filled the crevices
with SCOT which they had taken the
precaution to collect beforehand on a
blanket. After several nights work
they had an S shaped passage down
which they could descend to Rats hell
by means of their rope ladder.
The wall of that east cellar had to
be broken in three places before a
place was found where the earth
would support a tunnel. Rose dug as
siduously, while Hamilton famed air
In to him and dragged the excavated
material out as fast as it was ready.
Without the artificial ventilation the
tallow dip by which Rose worked
would go out and Rose would suffo-
cate. A wooden box which had been
used as a spittoon served very well to
draw the earth out Of the passage
way, part of the precious rope having
been attached to it to enable the out
side worker to pull it out and in turn
the digger to pull it in. AS fast as
the earth was taken out it was hid
den under deep layer of filthy hay
which covered the floor of the damp
cellar.
The average diameter of the tunnel
was about two feet. AS the work
progressed it was pushed with greater
haste. Usually one man would dig
and fill the spittoon with earth, at a
given signal second would draw the
spittoon out, third man would keeL
the air moving by tanning it with
rubber blanket, fourth would act as
relief, while a fifth would keep
guard. AS there were fifteen in the
plot, they were able to work in three
relays. The work was fearfully mo-
notonous, however. Absolute silence
was necessary, and when the men be-
came separated they had to find each
other by cropping around in the dark
ness.
The rules of the prison required that
the prisoners should be counted twice
a day. To account for the absence of
the five men who were at work each
day their comrades resorted to various
repeating devices and managed to be
counted twice in sufficient numbers to
make up the deficiency
The whole plot was nearly upset by
Hamilton's eagerness to see it brought
to successful end Being certain that
the tunnel was sufficiently long, he dug
upward, contrary to Roses counsel,
and found, to his dismay, that the hole
he had broken was outside the shed in
plain view Of the sentinels if they
chose to notice it. Rose then pushed
an old shoe through the hole and the
next day by looking out an upper win
dow saw where the old shoe lay and
made rehabilitation.
On Saturday, Feb. 6, 1864, it seemed
almost certain that the Confederates
had discovered the plot Rose decided
to push the work to an immediate con-
clusion. On Sunday Rats hell was
usually neglected by the Confederates,
and Rose entered the tunnel and work
ed all day without food or rest accom-
plishing twice the distance that any
digger had done up to that time. The
earth was composed Of dense, hard
sand. The only implement was broad
bladed cold chisel.
On Monday morning Rose again de-
scended to the work. It was the seven
teenth day of that tunnel, and Rose
resolved that it should be the last.
Until an hour after midnight his
work went on. Rose was nearly i
physical wreck. The perspiration soak
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