Colonel Rose's 1864 tunnel escape førom Libby Prison
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Libby Prison, Feb. 1864: Colonel Rose's great mass escape
A bitterly cold February night in 1864 became pivotal when over 100 starving and frostbitten Union officers [Internal Link Placeholder] through a narrow tunnel beneath the walls of Libby Prison. This daring escape, led by the intrepid Colonel Thomas E. Rose, has gone down in history as one of the most remarkable operations of the American [Internal Link Placeholder]. Behind this seemingly impossible feat lay months of secret planning, indescribable hardships, and a tale of human endurance that surpasses most fictional thrillers.
Inside Libby Prison: Tobacco warehouse to Richmond nightmare
Libby Prison in Richmond, [Internal Link Placeholder], [Internal Link Placeholder], originally a tobacco warehouse, had been converted during the [Internal Link Placeholder] into a notorious prison camp for Union officers. The building's three floors, with open iron-barred windows, offered no protection from the elements, and the conditions for the many prisoners of war were horrific. Up to 1,200 [Internal Link Placeholder] personnel were crammed together on the floor of this overcrowded prison, and the [Internal Link Placeholder] rations were so meager that inmates resorted to eating rats. Diseases like dysentery and typhus ravaged the prison, and death was a daily reality – a brutal reality of wartime [Internal Link Placeholder], with conditions later described by many as [Internal Link Placeholder].
Meeting in 'Rat Hell': Rose and Hamilton plan their escape
It was under these inhumane conditions that Colonel Thomas E. Rose, a 33-year-old veteran of the Battle of Chickamauga, arrived at Libby Prison in October 1863. From the very first moment, his sole objective was to [Internal Link Placeholder] his [Internal Link Placeholder]. During an inspection of the prison's notorious cellar area, known as 'Rat Hell,' Rose met Major A.G. Hamilton, a [Internal Link Placeholder] cavalryman with the same fervent desire to escape. The two [Internal Link Placeholder] officers quickly became the driving forces behind the daring plan.
Tunnel plan: Secret digging begins from 'Rat Hell'
Their [Internal Link Placeholder] plan was as simple as it was ingenious: to dig a tunnel from the cellar of Libby Prison, 'Rat Hell,' under the prison kitchen, and out to a vacant lot next to a warehouse. Using primitive tools – a wooden spittoon, spoons, and a pocket lamp – the secret digging began on December 10, 1863. Four men worked at a time in shifts, 18 hours a day, while the excavated earth was carefully smuggled out in pockets and scattered among the straw on the cellar floor to avoid detection.
Fight concrete, oxygen: Hamilton's life-saving tunnel vents
The challenges during the tunnel excavation were immense. They encountered a concrete wall from the building's past as a tobacco warehouse, which had to be painstakingly chipped through with a rusty file. The air in the 60-meter-long tunnel became so thin that the diggers fainted. An ingenious oxygen ventilation system, constructed by Major A.G. Hamilton using a drainpipe and a leather bellows, became crucial for continuing and saved lives.
Fatal discovery (Feb. 9, 1864): Rose's bravery at tunnel exit
February 9, 1864, was a moonless night – ideal for the planned [Internal Link Placeholder]. At 7:30 PM, the first 15 prisoners of war gathered in the cellar, ready to crawl naked through the tunnel to avoid getting stuck. But when the first men reached the exit, they discovered a fatal flaw: the tunnel mouth opened onto a lit street. Colonel Thomas E. Rose faced an impossible choice. Freedom was within reach, but instead of escaping himself, he heroically [Internal Link Placeholder] to lengthen the tunnel and secure the others' chance.
Final escape: 7 hours of digging and fake dance lesson
After another seven hours of desperate digging, they finally reached a dark dirt road behind a warehouse. At 10:00 PM, the actual [Internal Link Placeholder] from Libby Prison began. To drown out the sounds from the tunnel and the escaping prisoners, the remaining inmates staged a fabricated dance lesson on the top floor, stamping their feet and singing. One by one, the men crawled through the narrow tunnel; some lost consciousness due to cold and exhaustion during the perilous journey to freedom.
Escape found: 109 officers missing, Rose caught near goal
By dawn the next morning, 109 [Internal Link Placeholder] officers had [Internal Link Placeholder] from Libby Prison. The guards only discovered the [Internal Link Placeholder] at 10:00 AM when a headcount revealed the large number of missing prisoners. The furious prison commandant [Internal Link Placeholder] offered a $5,000 reward for Thomas E. Rose's head. The escaped officers scattered in small groups. Rose himself chose to continue alone. He hid, among other places, in a pigsty while Confederate soldiers hunted him with [Internal Link Placeholder]. After three days of exhausting trekking through [Internal Link Placeholder] swampy areas, he reached a river but was tragically captured just 100 meters from Union lines.
Escapee fates: Hamilton's disguise, Ford's whipping
Other participants in the [Internal Link Placeholder] were more fortunate. Major A.G. Hamilton reached safety by donning a forged Confederate uniform and traveling by [Internal Link Placeholder]. One lieutenant [Internal Link Placeholder] by eating raw potatoes and hiding in a slave cabin. One of the most incredible fates was that of Robert Ford, an African American spy, who reportedly received 500 lashes for his role in the Libby Prison escape but [Internal Link Placeholder] and later escaped to [Internal Link Placeholder]. Of the 109 [Internal Link Placeholder] officers who participated in this daring mass escape, 59 reached Union lines, 48 were recaptured, and two drowned in the James River along the way.
Aftermath: Rose exchanged, Confederacy humiliated, closure
Thomas E. Rose himself was brought back to Libby Prison, where he was thrown into solitary confinement. However, his reputation as an '[Internal Link Placeholder] king' was so feared that the Confederacy exchanged him for a Confederate colonel just two months later. The escape itself had profound consequences. It humiliated the Confederacy and gave the Union Army a morale boost in the midst of the American [Internal Link Placeholder]. For the remaining prisoners of war in Libby Prison, however, life became even harsher; after the escape, the prison guards removed all straw and halved the [Internal Link Placeholder] rations. This notorious prison was closed the following year, in 1865, and the building was later moved to Chicago to serve as a war [Internal Link Placeholder].
Behind hero stories: Disease, hearing loss, Ford's sacrifice
Behind the heroic accounts of the Libby Prison [Internal Link Placeholder] lie personal tragedies that testify to the high price of freedom and the extreme human endurance displayed. Thomas E. Rose suffered from chronic lung diseases for the rest of his life as a result of working in the tunnel. A.G. Hamilton lost his hearing, presumably due to small explosions used during the digging. The unofficial leader of the escape was plagued by nightmares for the rest of his life. Particularly moving is the story of Robert Ford, the African American teamster whose efforts were crucial to the tunnel's success and who allegedly took the blame under [Internal Link Placeholder]. Although the U.S. Congress awarded him compensation in 1868, he died from his injuries the following year. His last words were reportedly: 'Tell them I did it for freedom.'
Libby escape legacy: Richmond memorial, Rose's last words
Today, only a memorial plaque marks the site in Richmond, [Internal Link Placeholder], where Libby Prison once stood. But the [Internal Link Placeholder] account of the Libby [Internal Link Placeholder] lives on as a powerful testament to humanity's indomitable desire for freedom. Historians emphasize that this daring escape was not only a physical masterpiece but also a psychological knockout blow to the Confederacy's myth of invincibility during the American [Internal Link Placeholder]. For the surviving prisoners of war, the escape became a life-defining moment. When Thomas E. Rose died in 1907, his last words, according to his wife, were: 'I can still smell the damp earth of the tunnel... and the taste of freedom.' A taste for which 109 brave [Internal Link Placeholder] men risked everything on a bitterly cold February night in 1864.
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