Robert P. Watson - Escape!: The Story of the Confederacys Infamous Libby Prison and the Civil Wars Largest Jail Break

Robert P. Watson, PhD, is an author, historian, and media commentator who has published more than forty books, several of which have won book awards and been featured on C-SPANs Book TV and at prominent literary festivals. His recent works include Americas First Crisis: The War of 1812 (2014), The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II (2016), The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn: An Untold Story of the Revolutionary War (2017), and George Washingtons Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City (2021). He lives in Boca Raton, Florida, where he is Distinguished Professor of American History, Avron Fogelman Research Professor, and director of Project Civitas at Lynn University.

In Libby Prison, New Years Eve, 186364

T is twelve oclock! Within my prison dreary,

My bed upon my hand, sitting so weary,

Scanning the future, musing upon the past,

Pondering the fate that here my lot has cast,

The hoarse cry of the sentry on his beat

Wakens the echoes of the silent street,

All s well!

Ah! is it so? My fellow-captive sleeping

Where the barred window strictest watch is keeping,

Dreaming of home and wife and prattling child,

Of the sequestered vale, the mountain wild,

Tell me, when cruel morn shall break again,

Wilt thou repeat the sentinels refrain,

All s well!

And thou, my county! Wounded, pale, and bleeding,

Thy children deaf to a fond mothers pleading,

Stabbing with cruel hate and nurturing breast

To which their infancy in love was prest,

Recount thy wrongs, thy many sorrows name,

Then to the nations, if thou canst, proclaim,

All s well!

But through the clouds the sun is slowly breaking;

Hope from her long, deep sleep is re-awaking:

Speed the time, Father! when the bow of peace,

Spanning the gulf, shall bid the tempest cease,

When foemen, clasping each other by the hand,

Shall shout once more, in a united land,

All s well!

Frederick A. Bartleson, Colonel,
One Hundredth Illinois Volunteers

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Burrows, J. L. Recollection of Libby Prison. Southern Historical Society Papers 11, nos. 2 and 3 (FebruaryMarch, 1883): 8392. Text online, https://civilwarrichmond.com/prisons/prison-depot/4421-1883-southern-historical-society-papers-11-1883-pp-83-92-burrows-j-l-recollections-of-libby-prison.

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Byers, S. H. M. Letters from Libby. National Tribune, December 29, 1891. Text online, https://civilwarrichmond.com/written-accounts/other-newspapers/3695-1891-12-29-national-tribune-excellent-set-of-letters-from-libby-prison-recounting-treatment-and-life-in-prison-mentions-purchasing-one-of-the-rees-images-from-the-prison-guards-and-sending-it-north.

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Chamberlain, J. W. Scenes in Libby Prison. In Sketches of War History, 18611865: Papers Read before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, edited by the Commandery, 34270. Volume 2, 18861888. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888.

Charleston Mercury. Particulars of the Escape of the Yankee Officers from the Libby Prison. February 16, 1864. Text online, https://civilwarrichmond.com/prisons/libby-prison/4382-1864-02-16-charleston-mercury-description-of-the-libby-prison-escape-includes-a-very-good-description-of-the-physicality-of-the-escape.

Christian Recorder. A Prisoners Letter. (Philadelphia) February 11, 1865. Archived online, https://archive.org/stream/christianrecorder_1865_v5_no1_to_13/christianrecorder_1865_v5_no1_to_13_djvu.txt.

Coffey, Walter. Lincolns Militia Proclamation (April 15, 1861). The Civil War Months, April 15, 2016. Archived online, https://web.archive.org/web/20200616132629/https://civilwarmonths.com/2016/04/15/lincolns-militia-proclamation/.

Coffin, Charles Carleton. The Boys of 61; or, Four Years of Fighting. Boston: Estes & Lauriat, 1884.

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Convention of the People of Alabama. An Ordinance to Dissolve the Union between the State of Alabama and the Other States United Under the Compact Styled The Constitution of the United States of America. Resolution submitted to the State of Alabamas Committee on Ordnance of Secession, Montgomery, Alabama, January 11, 1861. Text online, https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/Regimental/alabama/confederate/secession.

Cornwell, Robert Thompson. Libby Prison and Beyond: A Union Staff Officer in the East, 18621865. Edited by Thomas M. Boaz. Shippensburg, PA: Burd Street Press, 1999.

Crook, William Henry. Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook, Body-Guard to President Lincoln. Compiled and edited by Margarita Spalding Gerry. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1910.

Davis, Jefferson. Address to Congress, July 20, 1861. In The Papers of Jefferson Davis, vol. 7, 1861, edited by Lynda Lasswell Crist and Mary Seaton Dix. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992, 4851. Text online, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis%27_Message_to_the_Third_Session_of_the_Provisional_Confederate_Congress.