Editing Libby Prison (section)

== Escape from Libby ==
[[File:Libby Prison, Richmond, 05-1865 - NARA - 533454.jpg|thumb|right|Libby Prison, 1865, from the collection of the [[National Archives and Records Administration]].]]
During the second week of February 1864, 109 Union officers took part in what was later dubbed by the press as the [[Libby Prison escape]]. Captain Morton Tower of Company B, [[13th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry|13th Mass. Infantry]], wrote in his published memoirs about his successful escape: "On the night of February 9th, as soon as it was sufficiently dark, the exodus from the prison commenced. Major Hamilton, Col. [[Thomas E. Rose]], and some of the projectors were the first to pass through. Col. Davis of the 4th Maine and myself had passed through the tunnel to the yard just as the clocks of Richmond were striking twelve. Near daybreak we reached a thicket of woods where we stopped to rest." Capt. Tower and Col. Davis eluded recapture and soon joined 57 other escapees who also made it to the Union lines.("Army Experience of Morton Tower- his escape from Libby Prison", "Memoirs of Capt. Morton Tower", June 1870)

The ''Charleston Mercury'' carried the story:

{{blockquote|At the base of the east wall, and about twenty feet from the Cary street front, was discovered a tunnel, the entrance to which was hidden by a large rock, which fitted the aperture exactly. This stone, rolled away from the mouth of the sepulcher, revealed an avenue, which it was at once conjectured led to the outer world beyond. A small negro boy was sent into the tunnel on a tour of exploration, and by the time Major Turner and Lieutenant LaTouche gained the outside of the building, a shout from the negro announced his arrival at the terminus of the subterranean route. Its passage lay directly beneath the tread of three sentinels, who walked the breadth of the east end of the prison, across a paved alley way, a distance of more than fifty feet, breaking up inside of the enclosure in the rear of Carr warehouse.

So nicely was the distance gauged, that the inside of the enclosure was struck precisely, which hints strongly of outside measurement and assistance. Through connection once opened, the prisoners were enabled to worm themselves through the tunnel, one by one, and emerging at least sixty feet distant from any sentinel post, to retake themselves off, singly, through an arched gateway, to some appointed rendezvous. To reach the entrance of the tunnel it was necessary for the prisoners to cut through the hospital room and the closed stairway leading into the basement. All the labor must have been performed at night, and all traces of the work accomplished at night was closed up or cleared away before the morning light. The tunnel itself is a work of several months, being about three feet in diameter and at least sixty feet in length, with curvatures worked around rock.}}

("Particulars of the Escape of the Yankee Officers from the Libby Prison", The ''Charleston Mercury'', February 16, 1864)

Three tunnels were built: the first ran into water and was abandoned. The second hit the building's log foundation. The third reached a small carriage shed 15&nbsp;m (50&nbsp;ft) away.<ref>{{cite book|last=Swanson|first=Diane|title=Tunnels!|series=True Stories from the Edge|year=2003|publisher=Annick Press|isbn=1-55037-780-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/tunnels00dian/page/76 76]|chapter=Escape from Libby|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/tunnels00dian/page/76}}</ref>  Escapes were regular occurrences at both Federal and Confederate prisons.