Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2011

The Libby Prison Escape

Under the cover of darkness in 1864, more than 100 Union soldiers broke out of Libby Prison in the heart of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. A group of northern soldiers inside the prison found a way to dig a tunnel from the prison basement that let out beyond its walls. The basement was so infested with vermin they called it "Rat hell." But after a couple of weeks of burrowing, they surfaced inside a tobacco shed. One hundred and nine Union soldiers eventually escaped. Though many were recaptured and a few died in their attempt to make it back north, it remains the largest prison escape of the Civil War.