The Great Escape: Colonel Rose's Tunnel Out of Libby Prison

Colonel Thomas E. Rose had already spent months locked away when he arrived at Libby Prison in Richmond in October 1863, captured during the Battle of Chickamauga. The 77th Pennsylvania Infantry officer found himself confined in one of the Confederacy's most notorious military prisons—a converted warehouse near the James River designed to hold 1,200 men and notorious for being considered "escape-proof."

Conditions inside were brutal. The prison was grotesquely overcrowded, damp, drafty, and infested with rats. Desperation was the only abundant resource. Yet rather than surrender to despair, Rose began plotting.

Working with Major Andrew G. Hamilton, a Kentucky cavalry officer, Rose devised an audacious plan: dig a tunnel. In the basement area known as "Rat Hell," the men found their starting point—a hole in the kitchen fireplace and stove that led downward. From there, they would need to dig roughly 50 to 60 feet through earth and stone, emerging in a tobacco shed in the warehouse yard on Canal Street.

The engineering challenges were staggering. The tunnel was so cramped that sections measured just 16 inches wide—barely room for a man to squeeze through on his belly. The diggers worked with improvised tools, removing earth bit by bit while maintaining absolute secrecy. Guards patrolled constantly. Discovery meant execution or indefinite solitary confinement.

For 17 grueling days, teams of prisoners took turns digging, hauling earth, and shoring up the fragile passage. The work was backbreaking and dangerous. Tunnel collapses were a constant threat. Ventilation was minimal. Yet they pressed on.