REMINISCENCES OF AN EX-CONFEDERATE PRISONER ON THE ISLAND In the Louisville Age some years after the war, the following very interesting reminiscent article, written  by an ex-Confederate prisoner, was published.  After describing the island and barracks, which embraced twenty acres of streets and buildings, he had the following to say: "The outbuildings were about forty feet from the plank fence or parapet on which walked the sentinels stationed about fifteen feet apart.  Between the parapet and a certain limit significantly known as the dead line, was a ditch varying in depth according to the amount of soil on the uniform rock foundation of the island, and the fact that it was a rock island made attempts to dig out of it very uncertain, although the activity displayed in the way of sapping and mining by the involuntary inhabitants of the place was astonishing.  It was not an uncommn thing for a government wagon in making its rounds to drop through the molelike channels dug by the prisoners.  A few escapes were made by tunneling out but in no proportion to the amount of dirt dug or the sleepless nights of the toilers spent in these human rat-holes.  In fact, with all the methods of escape devised perhaps fewer prisoners gained their freedom surreptitiously from the Rock island prison than from any prison, north or south, during the war.  Yet much daring was exercised.  All manner of schemes were devised for escape-rope ladders, a sudden dash on the guards; climbing the wall unseen; crossing the dead line and ditch and digging out beneath the parapet and sentinel; a combined uprising bribing the sergeants and guards, etc.  In dark night amid thunder, rain and storms, there were frequent epidemics of individual attempts.  There were shots heard from the wall, and the quieter captives would murmur to each other their sympathy for some poor soul-some poor fellow killed in an insane attempt at climbing the parapet or digging out.  These attempts became so  frequent that the distance between the guards was decreased and headlights were placed at shorter intervals along the wall.  A youth from Florida who messed with the writer quietly communicated to me one evening that he did not propose to die of disease which was then prevalent in prison, and that he intended to get out or die.  He seized a large, sharp case knife immediately after roll was called, crept along the shadow of the barracks, crossed the dead line (it was death to be seen after roll call even in the rear of the outer barracks), slid down into the ditch and was lost to sight.  He had attached to himself a communicating string with the agreement to make certain signals in case he succeeded in getting an outlet under the plank wall.  But the communication by way of the string was lost and nothing was heard from him again that night.  The next morning we could see where he had dug his way to open air and free daylight.  A few Federals looked gloomily at the impudent hole, which was at once filled up again and a closer watch ordered.  Such attempts were generally unsuccessful.  It was not uncommon, after a very dark night, to see the bodies of three or four unfortunates, some of them half way through the hole, shot either from above, having attracted the attention of the guard by scraping against him in passing through, or being discovered on the outside by a passing sentinel.  The largest batch of prisoners escaped during the building of the large government tunnel, the opening of which was protected by an iron gateway.  Ten or twelve escaped by that road in one night. Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L